Fermentation Temps

Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews

Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews

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Just out of curiosity, what does everyone use to control your fermentation temp?

Personally I keep my beer in the basement while it’s working. It stays a pretty consistent 65-70 degrees there(depending on the time of year), so l just run with it and choose yeasts that work in that temperature range. Seems like a feasible work around to me, but I keep reading about how critical temperature control is for brewing. Am I missing something or???
 
I have an upright freezer with an Inkbird two-stage temperature controller and a Fermwrap heating blanket taped to the inside. Your approach is quite realistic and works just as well as mine.
 
Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews said:
Just out of curiosity, what does everyone use to control your fermentation temp?

Personally I keep my beer in the basement while it’s working. It stays a pretty consistent 65-70 degrees there(depending on the time of year), so l just run with it and choose yeasts that work in that temperature range. Seems like a feasible work around to me, but I keep reading about how critical temperature control is for brewing. Am I missing something or???
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I'm in the same boat, basement is consistently in the mid 60s so I just use strains that fit in that range but I am in the market for affordable temp control as well. Thinking about getting some kind of large insulated cooler and then just changing out frozen 2 lt bottles to use as icepacks. The tough part is finding something that won't break the bank that will accommodate a 5 gallon bucket and airlock bubbler. I'm thinking if I use a hard cooler I'm probably going to have to make a custom foam lid for it
 
My brewery is in the garage here in Louisiana. So I need temperature control. I use the SS Brewtech fermenter with the heat exchanger coil in the lid. I have a chilled water reservoir in the Keezer next to it.

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I have a fridge in the garage with an inkbird 308. For a heat source I just use a fan driven cube heater.
Attaching the wrap around heater was a major PITA for me, especially when I have two batches in there...
I use to have this fridge in the basement, but carrying the fermenter to the basement was real awkward.
The beer eventually needs to end up in the basement, but it is so much easier carrying a keg to the basement.
I don't have a consistently cool place, so going to temperature control was a game changer for me as far as beer quality goes.
 
I put mine in a cooler with ice bottles. I will add cold water if I’m making a lager or in the case of summer anything. If the fermenter has a spigot I just use extra ice bottles. I am for 50-55 for my lagers and 64-66 for my ales. Most of the time it has worked well. I have also put a wet tee shirt over the fermenter.
 
I scored a little beer fridge for free that just barely fits my Brewbuckets, I have an inkbird attached to it that I put in the thermowell of the bucket and adjust as necessary.

For the first 2 years or so I just fermented in the basement where it stays around 20C though.
 
Mother Nature and my house environment are my ferm control. Meaning, I have none. Unfortunately, living in a townhome with no basement and with home brewing being my #3 hobby/habit, I’ve maxed out all my storage. So, the fall and winter months are my friend as the closet I store my fermenters averages 67 - 69. For the summer months, now that I’ve discovered Kveik, I’ll ferment in my garage where it’s easily in the mid 90’s. Regardless of the lack of control, my beers still turn out very good.
 
Like some others, I have a basement that maintains a pretty equal temperature year round. I choose yeasts that work for my temps, and if I need some heat I use a heat pad.
 
This will be my first winter brewing the only times ive needed heat was kveik and it pretty much produced its own.
 
Old house the basement was fairly consistent 60 in winter & 65-70 summer. 1st few batches I used US05 & let the room dictate fermentation temp. When I went to all grain I got a little more particular since it is a bigger time commitment. I purchased a Thermostat & Fermwrap. I set it where I want. I recently bought another Fermwrap & the Northern Brewer branded Inkbird, so I can have two batches fermenting at once. We shall see how the new house goes. So far the garage hasn't gotten below 59.
 
I have a fridge with an inkbird controller and a heating pad.
But..... All is still in storage, so the last months, I've been making cider with no temperature ccontrol. I also had no power.
I put the 10 litre bucket fermenter in a coolbox to minimise temp fluctuations and still ended up with a decent cider ;)
Off topic - I just got a solar system installed. Things are slowly improving
 
Freezer run on an STC1000 with heat belt for winter just to maintain temp usually when I'm pushing kviek at 35+c
I just love the control it gives me on the beer.
Also good for crashing before packaging:).
 
Just a nice, cool basement. I might look into a frig/temp control set up at some point. But all of my favorite beers are ales so it’s not very high on my need list.
 
Years back I built a fermentation chamber, it got nicked named the fermenator and to this day it's still called the fermenator. I brew a lot of lagers and because they stink, they have to be done in the unheated garage. So I have a keezer out there for the summer and a 100 watt heater in the fermenator controlled by a low temperature thermostat for winter months. The winter temperatures can drop to -30F (-35C), the 100 watt heater holds the temp really well. I have had the chamber at 60F while the garage was at -20F, no problems.

The hardest time to brew lagers is in the spring and fall when the highs are 50-ish and the lows are 20-ish. That's when neither set up works very well. The keezer gets too cold and the chamber gets too warm. That's a good time to brew ales.
 
I have an old fridge with an Inkbird temp controller. I took off the inner freezer door and installed an old computer type fan in the freezer door hole. this runs all the time the fridge is plugged in. For heat I have the bottom half of an old coffee maker with a large heat sink screwed to the warmer plate.
 
I use a 14 cf fridge with a Ranco 2 stage controller. We keep the house at 75 during the Summer and 70 during the winter, so I don't need any heating in the fridge.
 
My basement runs 65-70f, so a good fermentation temp. If it looks a little slow, I'll bring it upstairs where it's a bit warmer (70-72f). If I need it cooler, I have a Cool Brewing fermentation cooler and use their Cooler shock ice packs. Four ice packs and I get get the temp of the beer down to 40f (i.e. lagering), change them out every 12 hours or so.

https://www.cool-brewing.com/products/improved-cool-brewing-fermentation-cooler
 
For years I fermented at ambient temperature in my basement, but that was too cold in the middle of winter and too hot in summer. It worked fine as long as matched the beers I was brewing to the current ambient temperature, but it meant there were 4 or 5 months per year I couldn't brew the beers I wanted. I finally got a (free) mini fridge and I bought an Inkbird 308 to control it. Now I can brew year round, and while the beers are not necessarily better, they are much more consistent, which is the biggest plus for me.
 
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