[quote=“amtierney13”]Can a swamp cooler maintain a cold enough temp to make a lager without a lot of hassle?[/quote]Would depend on the ambient temp and how much freezer space you have to spare for rotating the ice jugs. Or you could just buy ice each day (I can get 20 lbs for $1.50 from the machines). You just have to add enough ice to keep the water at 48-50F.
It works for me, although I’m starting out in an already cool basement (low 60s). I would think you could do it anywhere, but you may have to change out ice packs more often than I do. It requires more babysitting than a temp controlled freezer, but once you get a system down its not that big a deal. I actually used to ferment in a temp controlled freezer, but I’m now using that for my serving kegs, and I do all actual fermenting in a swamp chiller.
What I do, is prior to pitching yeast I load the chiller down with ice water to get down to fermentation temperature. You’ll have to keep adding ice for a while there as it melts. Once I reach fermentation temp if there’s still a significant amount of ice I pull it out again.
Once I reach fermentation temperature, its just a matter of maintaining. I have two large ice packs that I keep in my freezer, and I rotate them roughly 12 hours, putting the frozen one in the chiller and taking the one out of the swamp chiller and putting it back in the freezer. I find that this maintains my fermentation temp within a degree or two (as measured by one of those stick on thermometers on the fermenter) pretty well. Both the chiller water and the beer itself contribute to the thermal mass of the system, so once you reach fermentation temp it will only vary slowly.
BTW, make sure your stick on thermometer is above the water line. If you can spring for a thermowell, that is obviously better, but the stickons work for me.
I may give that a try. My concern is temp. variation. I will most likely have to put that in my garage since I dont have a basement. So during the summer months it varies from the 80s-90-s during the day to the 60s-70s at night. The temp variation goes even further during the spring and fall and in the winter heat isnt a problem.
[quote=“amtierney13”]The temp variation goes even further during the spring and fall and in the winter heat isnt a problem.[/quote]Use a larger Rubbermaid container so the water volume gives you a large thermal mass so it’ll take a long time for changes in ambient temp to affect the water temp. You can also wrap the container in a couple of blankets to help insulate it.
