I have rigged up a Raspberry Pi with some DS18B20 temperature probes that measure both the water in the swamp cooler and the beer directly and store the results in a MySQL database. I brewed a new batch on 7/18, and fermentation began on 7/19, from which I have put varying amounts of frozen water bottles into the swamp cooler on 8 occasions. Here is the pattern I have currently noticed for adding frozen water bottles during primary fermentation (the …

(This is only tangentially related to brewing by virtue of Starsan and PWB - feel free to close if this is inappropriate) I have an evaporative cooler, better known as a swamp cooler, that I use in place of AC. It works by drawing water onto a particular material and then blowing a fan across the wet material; the evporation has a localized cooling effect. We use the same principal to keep our fermentation temperatures down if we don't have …

I have a setup with a raspberry pi and two DS18B20 digital thermometers that measure the temperature of the ambient air and the water in a swamp cooler that I place my fermentation chamber in. I was alerted to the fact that measuring the swamp cooler water was a poor way to estimate the temperature of the actual fermenting beer. I have ordered a third DS18B20 and I want to measure the actual beer temperature. I want to see if …

On Sunday (day 0) I bottled beer for the first time (with my first batch). I asked my brother how I could determine whether or not I successfully locked the caps onto the bottles to make them air-tight, and he said that I could stick them underwater and look for bubbles to float out. I live in California, and recently it has averaged 80*F daily. I have used a swamp cooler for my fermentors, so I decided to do the …

I was hoping to put together an information system that could measure the temperature of the water in a bucket where I place my fermenting-bucket and notify my smart phone when I need to replace the frozen water bottles. I have an old Android phone. I know Java and can learn to program Android relatively easily. What I am missing is the networked thermometer that can measure liquids. The iGrill could potentially work; however, in the FAQ section it states …

So I understand that going above the optimum yeast temperature specified is a bad thing and will cause major off flavors. But what happens when you go underneath it? For example, I am currently using a Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey from NB which specifies the optimum temperature range as 68-78*F. My tendency is, around 3pm, when I start to feel warm, to grab 5 frozen water bottles and throw it in my swamp cooler. I just rigged up a temperature …

I am a swamp cooler guy, and this is my first winter brewing; therefore, I will need some water heaters and water pumps. Here are my requirements: I have plastic swamp coolers -- no burning plastic Swamps are filled with around 5 gallons For vacations and when I'm not home, I cannot have any fire hazard or other safety problem The heater must be able to heat to the specified temperature, within a range of 1-2 F Edit: as per …

Summers where I live typically have 80F nights and it can easily pick up to 95 degrees during the day. I have a plastic trash can (which I bought for this purpose) that I have filled up with water. Currently, my apartment measures 79F, but measuring the water in the trashcan gives me 70F. 1) Can I just place my fermentation tank in this tub of water to counter the heat? An employee at a local brew shop said no, …

I am facing my first winter of brewing with a swamp cooler. I need to acquire a few aquarium heaters (incidentally, please let me know if you know a good brand) and drop them in my swamp cooler to maintain temperature. Now almost everything I read online states that I also need to acquire a water pump to place underneath the water heater in order to "distribute the hot water into the colder parts of the water" ... Why am …

I am thinking about setting up a bucket-o-water/t-shirt swamp cooler for my primary fermenter. The ambient temperature is about 82degF and I would like to ferment an American Ale around 74degF. I have two questions: 1) Would cold water suffice or would I need to add ice packs? 2) What is the best way of measuring temperature of the wort? Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

I use a swamp cooler to keep my fermentation cool: a bucket full of water where my carboy or bucket goes in, and a t-shirt draped over the carboy/bucket with a fan pointed at it. One room has two carboys in it and no sunlight hits them, so I use a white t-shirt over those and use bleach in the water of the swamp cooler. However I recently just set up two carboys in another room where light now hits …