temperature control

[SunkenBier]

Since I moved into a new house recently I decided not to put up my largest salt aquarium. The nice thing about this is I had some leftover equipment which i put to brewing. Yea it sounds crazy but stick with me.

Normally I use two glass fermentors and keep them in a large plastic storage bin that holds water. This allows beer to stay at a more stable temperature since the larger volume takes longer to change temperatures.

The new addition I have done to this setup is I have hooked in an pump to cycle the water in the tuperware container and push it through an aquarium chiller. This allowes me to keep my fermentation temperatuire within 1 degree of where i want it. I am able to keep the temperature about 15 degrees below the outside temperature too.

In California heat is an issue, especially when my fermentors are in the garage. Thanks to this I can brew more in the sumer and I hope to make some lagers this winter.

[Gucci Pilot]

Dude, you got me curious of what the hell you are talking about. Can you post some pics? Sounds interesting...

[Homegrown Hops]

Sounds like you are on to something good for warm climate Homebrewers SB. I am also curious to see your setup.

HH

[SunkenBier]

Ill try to take some pics tonight. So far the thing is running perfect for a week. at a constant 69 degrees for my IPA. I even bought a second plastic container to put over it as a sort of lid to block all light. Got the containers at target for 8 bucks a piece

[Thirsty Mallard]

Sounds interesting indeed. Although, for those of us without a spare aquarium chiller lying around it may be out of reach. Those things are going for $300+ on eBay! Are there cheaper models?

[SunkenBier]

Thats about the price for the low end for new ones i believe. Im sure there might be some deals for cheaper ones out there. It saved me from the immediate need of a cooled conical fermentor. Yea Id like one of those but budgets restrict that for me.

Nice thing about the setup Im now running is that theoretically it can do multuple containers by pumping the water from one to the other. It does not need to run the cooling uint much since the one im using was for a 120 gallon fish tank and its only cooling about 10-15 gallons of water.

[Msk]

I found this thing

http://www.novatecproducts.com/more_about_iceprobe3.htm

It says it can cool 10 gallons 6-8 degrees off ambient which means it might be able to do 5 gallons 12-16. The positive is it doesn't need a pump like alot of other aquarium chillers. I may mess around with this once my Ranco frees up from my current fermentation.

I think they cost $100 without the temp control so you are looking at $210 or so for temp control. Theoretically you could add another one and be able to control two fermenters (at the same temp) for $310. One iceprobe might still work for two fermenters if you help it with some ice now and then

You basically could buy a fridge for that but its not an option for me.

Msk

EDIT
I came across this after posting. It looks like a conical with the ice probe INSIDE it. This could be very interesting if its sanitary enough. what do you guys think?

http://www.novatecproducts.com/iceprobe_product_gallery.htm

[Lars]

Yeah, that is B3's cooled/heated conical set-up. Expensive... but if you want the best.