Reddit mentions of Home Brewing Fermentation Cooler - Beer Temperature Control for Carboys. Serve Kegs and Corny Keg. Fermenting Brewing Bag, Insulated Fermenter chamber. Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler 2.0

Make consistently good beer without temp control....not really.

Get this: it is very affordable, it is very easy to maintain the temps using the methods they say (5 degree cooling for each 2 liter of ice). It folds up so when you are not fermenting it can be out of site, it doesn't take a lot of extra space. It really has helped my brewing improve. One other thing is, its a safety measure agianst ruining anything in the apartment because of a blow off. Unless the blow off happens to happen when you open the bag anything would be contained inside the bag. The bag is water tight as stated and I have tested that out.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008EKD7CQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

reposting again...

As I've posted before, a nice alternative to the swamp cooler method is the Cool Brewing Cooler. It works the same way as a swamp cooler, if not better, but you don't have to deal with a giant vat of water.

I use a Fermentation Cooler that I put 2 half gallon frozen jugs in each morning.

Not op but I was only able to bring it down a few degrees using this method. Ended up getting one of these for about $50. It brings it down by up to about 15 degrees depending on how many frozen water bottles you use. It's also pretty easy to dial in a desired temp within a few degrees.

I am an all grain brewer that lives in a 550 sq. ft. apartment with my girlfriend (including a 50 sq. ft. balcony area). I brew 5 gallon batches, and created by own cooler mash tun using the following link:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/g1580/how-to-build-your-own-home-brewing-mash-tun/

It's a 5 gallon cooler that I got at Home Depot. All of the other parts can be sourced at your local hardware store.

In addition to the cooler mash tun I have the following:

• 10.5 gallon boiling kettle
  
  
• Long stirring spoon
  
  
• Standard plastic 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket
  
  
• Cool Brewing jacket for temp control, because I live in Hawaii
  
  
• Standard plastic bottling bucket & spring-loaded wand
  
  
• Hydrometer & thermometer
  
  
• All required airlocks
  
  
• Auto-siphon & tubing
  
  
• Tons of cleaned bottles with labels scrubbed off (stored in 12 pk cases)
  
  
• Accessories for adjusting water (minerals, pH meter, test strips, etc.)
  
  
• DME and a couple mason jars for yeast starters
  
  
• A collapsible table (~2.5x5 feet) that I store in the bathroom behind the washing machine, good for extra work space on brew day
  
  
• Other odds and ends
  
  
  I list all of that to show the type/quantity of things I am able to store. My girlfriend loves the hobby and participates on brew day (yay me!) so that's a bonus, but I don't think the stuff above is truly prohibitive in terms of storing. I have a section of my standard 2x5 ft closet for the large equipment, and I store a lot of the minerals and water chemistry stuff in my bottling bucket when not in use. Cleaned bottles are stored in the 12 packs they originally came in, stored in a little nook above my kitchen cabinets. The mash tun doesn't take up much square footage, being one of those cylindrical coolers, and I keep that outside (no doubt a benefit of the place I live).
  
  I boil on a pretty standard, probably low-end electric stove. Takes a little longer to get things going, but I do get to a rolling boil. I cool the wort in my sink, which I fill with a party-size bag of ice. I also have a few pounds of hops portioned and stored in the freezer.
  
  I hope that helps ease any concerns about apartment brewing.
  
  tl;dr Apartment brewing is incredibly doable, even for someone like me who does all grain 5 gallon batches in a shared 550 sq. ft. apartment.
  
  [Edit: additional info]

This isn’t fool proof but does the trick for me at room temperature. I cool using some ice packs it comes with.

Home Brewing Fermentation Cooler - Beer Brewing Temperature Control, Keg Cooler, Fermentation Brewing Bag. The Original - Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EKD7CQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Zy9RDb3E513D0

You can use a fermentation cooler bag and ice packs.

I use a gaint carboy sized cooler bag found here. It can fold up pretty small or slide under your bed when not in use so you aren't commiting to bulky fridge or something similar. Putting a frozen 2 liter in there will easily bring you down to around 65 degrees.

2 Birds

> The lady friend isn't too thrilled about having a bonus fridge in the living room though.

Yeeeeeeah, I'm running into that as well lol. I picked up one of these a couple weeks ago, which should be more than sufficient along with some frozen water bottles. I'm hoping to start a new batch this weekend, we'll see how it works!

http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Brewing-LLC-Fermentation-Cooler/dp/B008EKD7CQ

Do you have a porch or patio? I have been way happier since I ditched the stove in my small apartment and moved to a banjo burner on my patio. I also bought a short hose and adapter to screw it into my kitchen sink. So I can run water out to the patio for cooling and cleanup. (It isn't food grade so I don't use it for water used in the brew) Way nicer to be able to just hose everything out when done as well as hose away any spills or boil overs ect.

Even if you don't have a patio or porch, some sort of courtyard or BBQ area in your complex might work if you have access to a hose spigot.

I also don't have room for a temp controlled fermentation chamber but one of these fermentation cooler bags has worked really well for me and it collapses down to store away.

I can fit my 6.5 gal carboy into my kettle (its short and wide) with room for a bag or two of ice.

Frozen water bottles are great if you have a container that will hold them. I use one of these now, its soft and folds up nicely: https://www.amazon.com/Home-Brewing-Fermentation-Cooler-Temperature/dp/B008EKD7CQ

When its occupied and its real hot, I've been using Voss Kevik, which has been delicious even fermenting at 90-100 deg. https://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/sigmunds-voss-kveik

Good to know, I saw a few websites that had calculators for that but just went with what the recipe called for. A refractometer is absolutely my next purchase, and a fermenter bag like this which I've heard great things about. Wish I had the space for a chest freezer to convert in my home. ( http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Brewing-LLC-5B-YTCW-X9LG-Fermentation/dp/B008EKD7CQ)

Just kinda brainstorming here, I think I know my options but maybe somebody has some suggestions. I have a tiny crowded apartment, can't get a freezer/mini fridge. It stays pretty warm, like 75 ish. I keep my fermenters in our closet, which i shut the vent to and keep the door closed, but I'm not sure how much that helps. I'm planning on mainly doing 1-2g brews, and i was considering either doing a swamp cooler set up, which i don't really wanna do just cause itd look bad, or getting this which i don't really do because it's kinda expensive and i could probably only fit one of my small batch fermenters in it. There's gotta be some other kinda way to efficiently cool down a tiny 1g fermenter!