Greetings,
Found this 12 gallon igloo in my warehouse and it happens to fit a 6gal better bottle very well. When the bottle is centered, there is about 1 to 1.5 inches of space all around and approx 5 inches of top space. I’d either mod the red plastic top to accommodate an airlock or fashion a top out of styro etc. So my though is to fill with ‘some’ water and use zip locks or other filled with ice etc. The majority of ice would sit on top. What do you guys think of my evil scheme? Also, do you think it has lagering potential? I suppose I’d have to really baby it right??? Bueller??
I like it a lot. If I load the coolant reservoir cooler with ice blocks, it lasts for days, plus it has the benefit of the ice underneath it to keep the yeast cake cool.
I think your set up will work, but it will take some careful monitoring and constant adjusting until you get a system down.
Ideally, you want the carboy in a environment with more “mass” at a stable temp to keep the beer temps where you want it. 1.5 inches around is not a lot and ice on the top will create cold in spots.
Again, there is no yes or no answer (someone might be able to give one) but more trial and error.
I would start by fashioning some sort of spacer under the carboy so water could flow under. If it were me, I would start with cold water at the temp you want to hold and probably add frozen small water bottles to the top area (I cannot tell if or how many would fit). Then I would fashion some sort of pump (aquarium?) that would move the water slowly around the carboy. You would have to experiment with how many ice bottles to add, and how often to keep the temp you want for the beer. You would need some sort of probe that could go into the beer to be able to see what is happening.
If you are trying to ferment a lager, you will have to carefully monitor temps. If you are done fermenting and looking for a lagering chamber, load it up with ice and change often
Cool. I hear lagering will poke your eye out :shock: My main objective is to drop some degrees for fermenting ales. It seems pretty viable as I look at it in person. There are also ice packs that can wrap around the space I have. Not too expensive and likely worth it.
Also think about how you’re going to get your beer out. That’s going to be heavy to lift when full, so you’ll want to have it raised so your siphon doesn’t stall out with beer left in the bottom.
Good point.
I use one of these carboy strap cradle things to get my full carboy in there.http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/the-brew-hauler.html
I pull it out and set it on the counter when I need to rack to secondary or the bottling bucket.
Edit-
I had thought about trying to find one of the round cake pans to make “ice donuts” to set right over the neck.
But so far that hasn’t gotten past the thought stage.
Good point but fortunately my fermentation room is the downstairs shower stall A small piece of tubing attached to the spigot on the igloo will allow me to drain the water out, no muss or fuss. I’ve never had a problem lifting a full better bottle up by the neck in the past so I don’t see any problems there. The BB will be out of the igloo when time to xfer to keg.
Edit-
I had thought about trying to find one of the round cake pans to make “ice donuts” to set right over the neck.
But so far that hasn’t gotten past the thought stage.[/quote]
Yes, the cake pan with the funny name.
Being not much of a baker,I can only assume they come in many different sizes.
I’ll look around for one that can mold a suitable sized ice cake.
A small piece of tubing attached to the spigot on the igloo will allow me to drain the water out, no muss or fuss. I’ve never had a problem lifting a full better bottle up by the neck in the past so I don’t see any problems there. The BB will be out of the igloo when time to xfer to keg.
