Recently a member posted that they used a cooler to keep fermentation temps down. And although I’ve been happy using a swamp bucket up until now and have been successful keeping my temps under control, I had a few things that I didn’t like about the swamp bucket method. So here is my solution:
60 qt Ice Cube Cooler with thermometer:
Cooler with 6 Gallon Carboy and 2 Ice bottles (can add more):
Cooler closed up with top of Carboy sticking out:
What’s nice about a fermentation cooler is 1) No more carrying around heavy carboys because the 60qt Ice Cube Cooler is on wheels; 2) There is a spigot at the bottom, so if you need to fill the cooler with cold water to cool things down, it is easy to drain (no more picking up the swamp bucket to dump); and most important 3) The cooler is insulated so it should keep temps down without any problems.
I tested the temps and with one bottle of ice in the cooler (nothing else) I was able to keep temps below 70 in the southern heat (after a full day, there was ice still in the bottle). I am planning to brew my pumpkin ale today and will use the cooler for the first time this afternoon with a full batch, and will let everyone know how it works!
G2Fly
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