[thebigbaker]

I have an extra cooler that I put my carboy in to begin fermentation.  I put an old dark t-shirt over it and about two inches of water in the cooler (w/out the lid on).  To cool it even more, I'll do as Euge does and put something frozen in there (frozen ice packs or ice).  During the fall and winter, I don't need to do this as much since my basement gets cool enough down there.  After about 10 -14 days or so, I'll take it out and let it warm up a little as it finishes out.

[euge]

I have done the cooler route too. Currently what keeps my beer fermenting cool is a chest freezer with an analog temp controller. But I've done many a batch with the ice-pack method. Cheap and easy.

[thebigbaker]

I have done the cooler route too. Currently what keeps my beer fermenting cool is a chest freezer with an analog temp controller. But I've done many a batch with the ice-pack method. Cheap and easy.

That's my next item.  I thought I would just build a fermentation chamber, but it's easy to find cheap freezers on CL that could hold a couple carboys/ buckets.