The current temp in my cellar is 71-72F.
So, for lagers I use a fermentation chest with a Ranco controller, but for my ales I have two swamp coolers that I use. My ground water is about 75F right now, so I have to add ice to each cooler to get the temp in the mid 60’s. Then I add frozen gel packs as necessary to keep the water less than 68F.
I monitor the water temp twice a day during fermentation.
Just for the sake of accuracy I would like to clarify some terms.
Swamp cooler or evaporative cooler - This is a method of cooling something below ambient temp via evaporation. This is the wet t-shirt method. You only need enough water to allow the t-shirt to continuously wick water up and stay wet. You might need to wet the shirt from above to some extent to make it work. It’s not really dependent on the temp of the water being used because it’s going to cool the fermenter via evaporation. this method requires enough air circulation (fan, breeze) to make sure the air is not saturated with moisture around the fermenter.
Ice in water cooler - this is actually using the ice to lower the temp of the whole mass of water and beer in the tub. You can cover this set up and it will work as well or better in a small enclosed area. You are transferring heat from the fermenting beer through the water into the ice. You can get much colder with this and you don’t need to use the water, if you insulate your tub or box you can use ice packs to chill the air inside and get the same results. But insulation is required in that case because you do not have the thermal mass provided by all the extra water.
With that attitude guess you won’t be finding out.
You mean you were gonna post pics? :o
Some great ideas. I’d love to install a window AC in the basement tool room where my summer fermenation is happening, but it probably won’t happen soon. For now, the mead is in a tub with 4 ice packs, the session IPA is in a secondary at ambient (ca. 70F), and the new hefeweizen is in another tub with an ice pack. Sounds like I should set up a fan and drape a t-shirt over the IPA at least. Southern New England gets moldy in the summer, though, so I’m a bit anxious about what could start growing on a wet t-shirt. I suppose I have enough shirts on hand to swap them out daily. Vacation starts in a week - just hope fermentation is quiet enough on all fronts by then and that ambient stays below about 70…
Try pouring a bit o’bleach in the water every day and that might help retard mold starting up.
Retard mold? :o
oops… :
And watch the airlock closely - they dry out faster when the fan blows on them - that’s how I got mold in my beer once…but I didn’t check the mold for any classification.