My ferementer temp went up overnight to 74F so put the bucket in a plastic storage tote with a few gallons of water. After a few hours it dropped to 72. Should I try and get it colder with a couple ice cubes? Going by what it says on the US-05 packet I’m still a bit on the warm side of ideal.
Drape in a wet t-shirt and blow a fan on it.
Thanks, twice ;) I’ll add the fan.
I used to use ice packs in a tub of water. Take yeast temp recommendations with a grain of salt and shoot for the low end.
The wet shirt and fan is working great for now. Dropped the temp to under 69F. I’ll add an ice pack later if it starts going up again. Seems to warm up a bit more at night when the AC isn’t running as much.
A great idea if you live in a dry-ish climate. It’s the same concept as an evaporative cooler, which cools my entire house in Denver. When I lived in Texas this actually made my beers warmer because the t-shirt increased the humidity around the fermenter and retained the heat. I resorted to a water bath plus icepacks but eventually adopted a more consistent approach with a small fridge.
I use a wet bath towel (because it takes longer for the water to evaporate) and a fan, but same idea.