Keep your carboy cool with stuff around the house

Last weekend I decided to brew up a lager. Not realizing that I didn't have space for the carboy in my fridge, I had to come up with a quick and easy solution to keep my fermentation temperature near 48 degrees. In one of my brewing books I remembered reading about submerging your carboy in a tub of water to keep the temperature lower than the ambient temperature and then running a fan to help give it that extra oomph. My coolest (as in not warm) location is the garage, and at this time of year I can expect the garage to fluctuate from about 45 degrees to 65 degrees. Not the best conditions for my Bavarian yeast buddies. So, what's the plan.

It actually turned out to be pretty simple and much more effective than I thought it would be. First, I found an old tupperware tub that I could get three inches of standing water. Second, I found an old t-shirt that i drenched in the water and put over the carboy. And finally, I had a fan blowing on the carboy and wet t-shirt. It's kind of like a real boring version of a wet t-shirt contest. To show how simple this turned out to be, I've illustrated this highly crafted visual representation: 

Yep, it's so easy that even a child can "draw" the "blueprint." Isn't that bird on the t-shirt awesome? I like to think it's an eagle, but it's not. Anyway, what's going on here? The real key is the t-shirt and the fan. This setup is basically a make-shift swamp cooler and uses the phenomenon known as evaporative cooling to knock the temperature down a few notches. It's surprisingly effective here in Colorado, but may not work well for those in a more humid climate. The t-shirt wicks up the water and the fan helps speed up the evaporation of the water and allows for the cooling the same way that when you sweat you cool down your body. You do occasionally have to "re-load" the t-shirt with a fresh batch of cool water. 

So what were the results? It turned out to be a a warm week and the day time temps were right at 65 degrees in the garage. But, the carboy? Well he stayed right at our below 50 degrees a whole 15 degrees difference from the peak daily temperature. I was worried that I would end up with a steam beer, but in the end the temp was exactly what I was looking for. And the best part? I didn't have to buy anything! How often can you saw that with homebrewing? The temperature stayed rock solid and would also be effective for ale temps during the late spring and early fall seasons.

While this isn't the most elegant solution, it can work. And it's something I am going to be doing a lot more.