Ale Fermentation Cabinet project

[Crouch]

With my brewery finished (for the moment) its time to turn my attentions to another project for brewing ... temperature controlled fermenting cupboard for ales

I have several of these shelving unit milling around my warehouse and I thought they would make the perfect fermentation cabinets for ales. Ales specifically as there isn't (without loads of stuffing around) any practical way to cool the complete cabinet ... and I prefer ales over lagers. I have one fridge that can fit a 60l fermenter that could be used for lagers if the need arises.



So the plan is to reinforce the shelving so it can take some weight - don't remember what the rating was but a quick trip the big green shed will let me know. Once that is done, clad the back and sides with some 50mm SL grade EPS polystyrene covered on the outside with form ply. The front will have 30x70 timbers added to the sides to reinforce and provide mounting points for hinges, double doors will open the unit for easy access.

The doors will be painted with blackboard paint so I can scribble notes on the outside that correspond to the position of the fermenter behind the doors.

Properly reinforced it could easily hold 6 x 60L fermenters neating arranged, or 10 x 30L fermenters if they were placed touching each other and of centred (5 per shelf). I don't need (nor have) that much fermentation space so will rock the setup you see in the picture - with the addition of my other 60L fermenter currently housing my latest APA in the fermentation fridge.

2 x 50w ceramic heating lamps will be housed inside controlled by an STC1000 with the probe connected to the closest fermenter. I am not entirely sure how to monitor temperature of multiple vessels within the same space but I'm assuming that if the temperature in one fermenter is 'n', it will be 'n' in all of them. Several small fans (perhaps 4 large computer fans - 2 per shelf either side) will be placed inside to circulate air to ensure 'even' distribution of ambient heat.

 

[Crouch]

Looking at that picture I just realised the top and bottom 'sections' of the cupboard will be separated from each other, possibly allowing the use of 2 temperature controllers to maintain 2 different temperatures inside - with the necessary insulation between the two sections of course. Hrmmm ... alternative is to drill breathing holes between the layers, but this would reduce the strength of the shelves ... hrmmm

 

[68DEGREES]

I've got the same shelving at home. I use it for the chutney business. It holds about 350kg each shelf so no reinforcing needed for the three fermenters even if they were 60l each!

 

[Camo6]

You could drill a 100mm hole at each end of the shelf and use two pc fans to recirculate. You'll want air movement in there anyway. I've had one running in my ferment chamber constantly for about two years! Just don't use cheap ones off ebay like my early stirplate.

 

[seehuusen]

This project sounds good, I will keep an eye on your progress

Are you going to provide any cooling? Or is that only us QLDers who suffer that type of consideration dilemma?

 

[bingggo]

How did you go with this project