homebrewandbeer.com

G/day again all,
Sorry about all these questions, i have noted all answers in relation to the things i have asked about before and taken on board all the good advice, however i suppose one of the most important things that i havent asked about is Temperature, my Brew is in my shed and it is hot in there temp by the gauge on the side of the fermenter runs between 22 and 24 at night 18 -20, so i would like to ask how do you keep your brew cold or at the desired temperature

Thanks

George

The best way to control the temperature of your brew is to use a fridge or a freezer, controlled with a TempMate or a Fridgemate, or similar.

If that's not possible, an old fridge, even if not working, can be used. Use a couple of soft drink PET bottles frozen with water to keep the temperature down inside the fridge. Change the bottles once a day to keep a relatively controlled temperature.

Otherwise, cover and wrap the fermenter in some old towels. Moisten the towels with water, and rely on the evaporative principle to keep your brew cool. That works even better with a fan blowing onto the fermenter to help the evaporation along. Keep the towels moist.

Some brewers stand the fermenter in a water bath, and add ice. Never done that, so can't comment on how well that works.

I use a TempMate, and it's one of the best investments I've made. http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=2592

Wazza has great advice there. I do a combination -


I have a small second hand fridge that works off a fridgemate which I can set to any brewing temperature I wish, but it only holds one fermenter so I use it for lagers that need to be held at a low temperature for a few weeks. Of course this is a bottleneck in the system, so for general ale fermentation I do something similar to what the previous poster said, but not with wet towels. Whenever I hear wet towels mentioned I start to go green, swell up and my shirt rips off me in tatters


You can do a clean dry reliable thing with a big beach towel and an old doonah - but only if you have spare freezer capacity. I freeze and rotate 5 litre min jerry cans (Bunnings, cheap) and wrap in towel then doonah, swap daily and do all my ales like that, even in the winter as it keeps the ale at steady temperature.





Ultimate aim is to get a second hand glass front double door fridge like they have in snack bars etc, heaps around for about a grand reconditioned (not bad, see what you can get for a grand at Good Guys etc, not much) . Have to persuade the minister of finance

I'm certain I've seen those pics before, Bribie

I used to use the water bucket and ice bottle method, did well but took up quite a bit of space as I'd sometimes have three brews going, each in their own 80L tub. I ended up picking up a 520L fridge off gumtree.com.au for $60 and it fits 4 fermenters easily. Add about $100 for the fridgemate (from memory) and I've got the best fermenting fridge that's ever been in my garage.

FYI - water and ice method is great but, if you don't do it already, make damned sure that you sanitise your fermenter's tap before even thinking about bottling, racking or kegging. All kinds of beasties love to grow and multiply in stagnant water and you want none of them in your beer.

here is another thread to look at
http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=10191

mick.