Aldi specials

[Digga]

Was there today and tossed up getting them again... was thinking I could do with the bottles then thought go the better of me... again and come home and drank home brew from the tap lol.

 

[Florian]

Forgetting the beer (although it's not completely forgettable), how good are the 330ml swingtop bottles at the price?

They are solid bottles. They are usually sold in crates including a deposit, land back in those crates after drinking and get carried back to the shop where they were bought to collect the deposit.
The bottles then get inspected and washed etc and get used over and over again, until they eventually fail.

I would not hesitate to use them at home.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Europeans, leaps and bounds ahead of Australia in terms of recycling and understand environmental challenges of the future.

 

[Mardoo]

What the hell are you talking about Deej? We don't need to change anything. The future is now! Trump!

 

[yum beer]

The future doesn't exist.

It's a concept created by Greenies to instill fear.

Nothing will happen tomorrow, or the day after.

Just ask your local LIberal representative.

 

[altone]

The Bergbrau mixed pack is 2 each Pilsner, Hella and weise.
The bottles are really thick and I'm thinking they would be good to reuse.

Drinking the "Bergbrau Lagerbier Hell" right now and unlike the name, it's a clean unimposing lager - not bad after mowing the lawn.

And the all important part for me is it's part of the grocery bill not beer money :lol:

And as for the hoohah about racist comments, we are all racist, sexist and bigots - it's called the human condition - we just speak more softly now than we used to.

edit: just tried the Pils and just ok for me, Still certainly drinkable, but wouldn't buy it by choice.

 

[kaiserben]

Coming up this Wednesday: https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/special-buys-wed-26-october/wednesday-detail-wk43/ps/p/129l-bar-fridge/

Has anyone used one of these fridges for fermenting?

Does it have a hump at the bottom?

Will it fit a fermenter without bending the freezer? (or if you need to bend the freezer, was that easy to do?)

 

[peteru]

I saw one of these on the nature strip during last council cleanup. I had a quick look and didn't think it would have worked as a fermenting fridge. The hump didn't leave room for anything wider than a ball lock keg, but there wasn't enough height to fit it.

 

[crowmanz]

I haven't got this model but I had a 120ish litre bar fridge, it will need the freezer section bent and door shelves removed at minimum to fit, mine also didn't fit a fermenter with an airlock (I use glad wrap though). My current 147L bar fridge didn't need to have the freezer bent.

 

[evoo4u]

Coming up this Wednesday: https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/special-buys-wed-26-october/wednesday-detail-wk43/ps/p/129l-bar-fridge/

Has anyone used one of these fridges for fermenting?

Does it have a hump at the bottom?

Will it fit a fermenter without bending the freezer? (or if you need to bend the freezer, was that easy to do?)

Short answer to Q1:
Yes.
Long answer:
I have been using one of those since last summer, and it's working very nicely. There were a few mods I had to make to it to suit my FV.

• (1) Unscrew the thermostat housing, and gently move it towards the back, and make it vertical. It's position in the fridge is irrelevant, as once it's been set to 'max cold', it's never touched again, as I'm using an STC-1000 to control the cooling.
• (2) Tilt the FV a little out of vertical with a length of timber under the two front legs. This is to allow the door to close. And the big one:
• (3) Either replace the door with something flat, or butcher the supplied door to make it flat. The cute little plastic shelves intrude into the fridge and render it useless as a fermenting fridge with a Cooper's FV.
• (4) With a Cooper's FV, trim the flange off the edge of the lid on the side opposite the tap, to allow the FV to sit up next to the left hand side wall (as you look in from the front).

In my case, I had already modded an old bar fridge door, and replaced the interior liner with a sheet of gal, and the door hinge points were identical. So I have the Aldi door stashed away in pristine condition.

I've also mounted a heat pad vertically behind the FV to raise the temp in winter. Works a treat!

So yeah, it can be done, and I'm very happy with the job it's doing for me, but it's not a straight-forward "un-box and away you go" job.



EDIT: And yes, it does have the hump at the back/bottom.

 

[droid]

Just scored one of these from Aldi

250kg rating - $20 = bargain!

 

[kaiserben]

Great info there evoo4u!

So with the door, can the plastic shelves be removed?

The FV I'd want to fit in there is a different shape & size to the Coopers FV and might be a better fit.

Coopers FV is 34L, 44cm high, 37cm diameter.
The one I want to fit is 30L and 45cm high (ie 1cm taller) and 29cm x 29cm square (but 37cm on one of those lengths when you include the tap). So it looks like I shave off 8cm of width - and I could put the fermenter in sideways.

 

[evoo4u]

Great info there evoo4u!

So with the door, can the plastic shelves be removed?

I'll go and take a look shortly, but from memory, the door liner (with the plastic shelves) included the mounting for the magnetic door seal, and there would have been no neat way to remove the shelves without stuffing up the seal. The old door I had was different, in that when you pushed the seal back, there were a dozen or so screws attaching the liner to the door. Undid those, replaced the liner with a sheet of thin gal drilled around the perimeter to match the screw holes, screwed it back, and the seal covered up the screws again. Piece of pie.

I'll go take a pic and post it ASAP.

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

I have fermented in one of these without modding. If you take the perspex door shelf caddies off there is just enough width inside for a Bunnings 25 litre round blue jobbie - just. I was happy with that limited extent - just do slightly smaller batch sizes if you are expecting high krausen. I reckon it could be a goer with some of the rectangular cubes as well. There is no way you could get a regular white plastic LHBS FV in there without evoo4u's mods.

 

[Bribie G]

The chest freezers are on again, on Wednesday. Mine's coming up 4 years old and hasn't missed a beat.
Would make a pretty good 2 keg kegerator with a collar, but perfect for bulk hop storage and meat etc.

There's also a wood fired pizza oven for brew-food enthusiasts. on Saturday.

 

[kaiserben]

If you take the perspex door shelf caddies off there is just enough width inside for a Bunnings 25 litre round blue jobbie - just.

Ah. Interesting.
The Bunnings 25L round FV has a height of 44.5cm and diameter of 29cm.
The Bunnings 30L square FV has a height of 45cm and width & depth are both 29cm (tap adds 8cm),

So the 30L might still squeeze in without modifying the fridge. But just being certain that the 25L FV will fit very handy info.

 

[evoo4u]

Just had a close look at the door. The seal is a press fit into a recess in the liner. The liner is bonded to the insulation in the door.

IF - you wanted absolute maximum room inside the fridge, you could either cut away the liner just clear of the door seal all around, or after removing the three clear shelf bits, just cut out some material from where the three shelves are.

Or as lagerfrenzy said, get an FV to suit the door as is.

As a side note about the fridge though, when I was looking around for a replacement for the old one I had, I tried all the usual places, but all the bar fridges on the market now are barely big enough for a 6-pack! So I was delighted when I saw the Aldi one.

And by keeping the door in pristine condition, I could still get warranty replacement if it ever came to it, whereas they might get a bit sniffy if the item had a mangled door!

 

[Feldon]

^ Great work with those explanatory graphics, evoo4u.

 

[A.B.]

Will corny kegs fit in the fridges? Anyone got the internet dimensions ?

 

[JDW81]

The chest freezers are on again, on Wednesday. Mine's coming up 4 years old and hasn't missed a beat.
Would make a pretty good 2 keg kegerator with a collar, but perfect for bulk hop storage and meat etc.

If anyone wants to make a kegerator out of one of these, I've got a collar for the aldi freezer that is surplus to requirements. Details are in this thread.