Conditioning in a cooler

[Bolwerk]

So, I just bottled an alt. I'm looking to condition the bottles at
around 50 degrees (F). Sadly, I don't have a fridge for lagering, and
either way I don't quite want lagering temperatures. So, what I did
was, I stuck the bottles in a 70 quart cooler that I use for mashing and
immersed them in water. The temperature stabilized at around 63 F, so I
added a bit of ice to drop it down closer to 50 F (I figured I'd rather
have it a little above than a little below). It seems like a good
solution, so far. My concerns are:

1) any risk of this shocking the bottles or harming the caps? I'd
probably like to keep them this way for close to a month.

2) Some bottles had to be placed on their side to fit in the cooler. I
don't see why this would be a problem, but I never had to do this before
so I figured I'd ask: is this a bad idea?

I really don't mind adding some ice every 2-3 days for a month.
Actually, I'm chilling some soda bottles for that purpose now too.

However, if I'm doing something dumb, I don't mind conditioning bottles
at a higher temperature, if I must.

[baloonon]

Post by Bolwerk
So, I just bottled an alt. I'm looking to condition the bottles at
around 50 degrees (F). Sadly, I don't have a fridge for lagering, and
either way I don't quite want lagering temperatures. So, what I did
was, I stuck the bottles in a 70 quart cooler that I use for mashing
and immersed them in water. The temperature stabilized at around 63 F,
so I added a bit of ice to drop it down closer to 50 F (I figured I'd
rather have it a little above than a little below). It seems like a
1) any risk of this shocking the bottles or harming the caps? I'd
probably like to keep them this way for close to a month.
2) Some bottles had to be placed on their side to fit in the cooler.
I don't see why this would be a problem, but I never had to do this
before so I figured I'd ask: is this a bad idea?
I really don't mind adding some ice every 2-3 days for a month.
Actually, I'm chilling some soda bottles for that purpose now too.
However, if I'm doing something dumb, I don't mind conditioning bottles
at a higher temperature, if I must.

I've kept bottles cold in a cooler for a month and it's never been a
problem. Once you have a case or two cooled down, they tend not to need
much additional ice to keep them cool. To insulate the cooler more,
cover it in a blanket or depending on how much you're cooling, nest a
medium size cooler in a larger cooler. I use those blue freezer packs
instead of ice because they're much easier to use. You can also refill
and freeze old 2 liter bottles or gallon milk containers, although I find
that freezer packs fit my cooler better with less wasted space. I have
one of those infrared remote thermometer deals which I used to use to
measure the temp when I cold crashed, but then I stopped worrying about
it, feeling by hand seems to be sufficient, but I'm not hyper uptight
about these things.

[Bolwerk]

Post by baloonon

Post by Bolwerk
So, I just bottled an alt. I'm looking to condition the bottles at
around 50 degrees (F). Sadly, I don't have a fridge for lagering,
and either way I don't quite want lagering temperatures. So, what I
did was, I stuck the bottles in a 70 quart cooler that I use for
mashing and immersed them in water. The temperature stabilized at
around 63 F, so I added a bit of ice to drop it down closer to 50 F
(I figured I'd rather have it a little above than a little below).
1) any risk of this shocking the bottles or harming the caps? I'd
probably like to keep them this way for close to a month.
2) Some bottles had to be placed on their side to fit in the
cooler. I don't see why this would be a problem, but I never had
to do this before so I figured I'd ask: is this a bad idea?
I really don't mind adding some ice every 2-3 days for a month.
Actually, I'm chilling some soda bottles for that purpose now too.
However, if I'm doing something dumb, I don't mind conditioning
bottles at a higher temperature, if I must.

I've kept bottles cold in a cooler for a month and it's never been a
problem. Once you have a case or two cooled down, they tend not to
need much additional ice to keep them cool. To insulate the cooler
more, cover it in a blanket or depending on how much you're cooling,
nest a medium size cooler in a larger cooler. I use those blue
freezer packs instead of ice because they're much easier to use.
You can also refill and freeze old 2 liter bottles or gallon milk
containers, although I find that freezer packs fit my cooler better
with less wasted space. I have one of those infrared remote
thermometer deals which I used to use to measure the temp when I
cold crashed, but then I stopped worrying about it, feeling by hand
seems to be sufficient, but I'm not hyper uptight about these
things.

I changed my mind a little. So far, anyway, I'm trying to keep it in
the high 50s/low 60s to get some carbonation. I think I'll wait a week
before dropping it into the low 50s to condition. I carbonated on the
low side (as fits that style). For now, I'm keeping the temperature down
with frozen 16oz pepsi bottles. A few more pepsi bottles should get it
down more and keep it down.

My main concern was the submerged bottles, not the temperatures itself.