Cc Freezer / Brewing

[Gout]

Guys, I now find i need a CC / brewing freezer. I want to 75% of the time cold condition my 2ndrys, and store 3 kegs maybe. But also bump the temp up to 9deg to brew lagers when needed.

What sizes do you guys have and what can you fit in them I am looking in the trading post but cant find much to suit......

I use the 19Lt water storage things to Cold condition so they shouls fit well, its the some times fermentor and kegs that worry me

I think this will really make a difference as at the moment my "cold conditioning" is at 22deg it just can cool it enough.

They are then kegged and sit in the beer fridge untill i drink them hence improve while drinking the keg as it ages

 

[Doc]

Short Answer: Buy the biggest ******* you can get and you have room for.

Long Answer: I looked around a lot before I got mine and decided the minimum size would need to be around 350 litres to accomodate about 3 fermenters. I watched eBay, Auction houses etc for about six months before picking up an 1100 litre one just before xmas (which was my xmas present from the missus).

Here is a picture of it with 3 x 25 litre fermenters, 1 x 30 litre fermenter, a 60 litre fermenter and some long necks at the end. There is still room for an 18 litre keg between each of the fermenters too.

A lot of the smaller ones < 250 litres are also not very high and don't accomodate normal sized fermenters let alone kegs and you have to build a collar for them (see Chest Freezer Conversion in the Frequently Requested Topics link in The Pub forum).

HTH,
Doc

 

[Gout]

Doc, I bought a 300Lt freezer $150 not the best but far from bad price. It's old but its down to -10deg in less than a hour, so she has some fire power

It's a pitty that I can only have a fermemtor 3 kegs, bottles and hops but the "step" where the compressor hides under, sits just to high to fit my cold conditioning containers (Damn it) and without the fermenter in it i can fit 2-3 of my 19Lt cold conditioning

 

[Gout]

Here is the photo of the inside ... hopfully i can manage better with it, I will move all my yeasts out to this freezer also to take up the "small" area's wasted, i just want to be able to fit in the 2 cold conditioning also ( I can when the fermenter is not in the freezer)

Maybe i will try to ferment in one of these???? for lagers etc (the other 4 fermenters will be wasted then)

 

[Gout]

Now with the abillity to brew cool (lagers here i come!)

Should i brew for 2 weeks, then 2ndry for 1 week then Cold condition for a month, or do i leave it on the 2ndry yeast cake for the entire month to clean then beer?

Cant wait to get the thermostat and start brewing cool!!! and nice long COLD conditioning.

Do you normaly 2ndry at the same temp as brew? or drop the temp down to cold conditioning

whats the difference between cc and 2ndry???

 

[Doc]

For my lagers I usually do 10 days in Primary, then a 24 hour diacetyl rest, then secondary for upto another 10 days then cc.
Secondary is at the same temp as primary.
CC is at about 1-3 degC. I CC in the secondary (ie I don't rack again).

In secondary fermentation is still ocurring. CC is maturing the beer.

HTH,
Doc

 

[GMK]

Guys

Talking to a Fridgie about freezer conversions- was told the following.

That the frezer compressor system is different from a fridge and that by remote controlling the turn on and off - you will probably blow the compressor within 18 months...

To stop this you need to convert the whole compressor system and thermometer to a fridge set up.

Any comments on this..

 

[Gout]

i am going to buy a fridge controler, this has -20 deg to 30deg. It has hyisterises (spelling sorry) so you can use say 5 deg, therefor it wont come on as often. Due to the worts large capacity i would hope it should average out and stay rather constant. I might also run the sensor to the side of the wort therefor turns on untill the wort is cool (say 10deg) and turns off untill it warms, this should stop it coming on and off as much....

Just couldn't find a fridge big enough to suit, the 300Lt freezer suits better, but i hear what your saying Ken and its of a worry to me, i'll let you know if i have any trouble.

Most of the time it will be in 2ndry / cc or just cold storage so the door wont be open and hence the comp. shouldn't come on much. When fermenting though it may have a bit of work to keep the brewing wort down to 9deg (lagers)

 

[Batz]

I would'nt worry , I am going the freezer way as well , bet it will be fine , other have had them cranking away for years

 

[Doc]

GMK,

I've heard talk of that as well. I guess the fridgys think the freezer will be doing extra work, but this is not the case.
As you can see from my temp monitoring graph, my chest freezer is only coming on an average of 2.5 times every six hours. Surely this is less work than if the freezer was trying to keep the temp at -4 degC.
Hopefully I'll get even more life out of it

Thoughts ???

Beers,
Doc

 

[Gout]

Doc, thats great!, do you have your temp sensor on the wort? or in the freezer?

I am thinking when the wort takes off in the first 24hrs it will sit hotter than the freezer air, there for if you want to ferment at 9 deg set the freezer to say 7deg. but as the ferment slow's you would need to up the freezer temp to 9-10 deg.

If it was on the wort itself, it would take care of all this????


BUT

When the wort is hoter than the "set temp" the freezer will come on, untill the wort is cooled to the set temp, this could mean it took so long the freezer reaches 0deg etc and then the wort will continue to cool while the freezer is turned off.. Do you understand my confusing why of explainin it

almost like the large mass of the wort would act like hyisterisis....

I am about to set up my thermostat now and not sure where to place it, about to findout where the original one sit's and that might be a good start.

 

[Doc]

Ben,

Currently the sensor is suspended in the middle of the chest freezer.
I have considered immersing it in a body of liquid in the freezer to further reduce the cycle time of the chest freezer, however I don't know if I will.

I know what you are saying with the temp of the liquid in the initial stages of fermentation, but from what I've seen the temp of the wort is down to the set temp of the freezer before this stage kicks in, and with all the other fermenters sitting at the same temp around it I have found that my active fermenter does not get away with temp during the early stages.

However I haven't done a brew with a real real real active ferment yet in my new freezer. Only done brews using WLP001, WLP002 and WLP004 and one with a packet yeast for a ginger beer.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Gout]

Just found that my new thermo wont work in the original position where the factory ne did. It was very slim and sat in some copper to conduct the temp. Mine is to fat and its not working.

did you drill a hole to insert the probe or wires through? was there any problems with drilling through the body? i dont want to hit any of the gas tubes within the walls.

 

[Doc]

I didn't want to drill any holes in my freezer.

The thermostat controller is just a long piece of wire with the bulb sensor on the end, so it just runs across the top of the freezer (between the lid and the freezer compartment). The freezer when I bought it had a thermometer screwed in the lid so I unscrewed one end and ran the wire sensor through it and screwed it back in. That way when I close the lid of the freezer the thermostat hangs in the middle of the cavity. You can just see it on the left of the picture above.

For the monitoring sensor and the fermenter audio streaming microphone I just taped them in place on the lip of the cavity. You can just see the tape for that in the top right hand corner of the photo and you can see the microphone and temp sensor hanging in the top of the freezer on the right hand side.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Gout]

I think i can see the sensor tube running across the inside of the lid. and maybe the bulb. Mine is the same a tube with bulb on the end. I was going to have it sitting on the floor of the freezer (coldest part) and have it protected, in a courner, my round tubs wont touch it. also out of site and the way.

Is yours coming throught the lid?

What would you do with my set up, there is no holes for anything to enter the freezer, eg bulb, tube or wires, so i will need to drill a hole somewhere, the lid would have no problems with the cooler tubes, but i imagin the bulb hanging in the way would be a pain??

 

[Doc]

No mine isn't coming in through the lid.
It is coming in from the side and just goes through the thermometer on the inside of the lid.
When I lift the lid it sits almost flush with the lid.
When I shut the lid it is then suspended into the middle of the freezer cavity.

Are you able to cut a small channel in the seal of the lid to allow your probe to come it and duct tape it to the middle of the lid ?

Beers,
Doc

 

[Gout]

yeah i can do that, and it was a option just hate the thought of stuffing the seal. Mybe i'll just run it under the seal, i dont thingk i'll loose much temp there.

if all else fails i'll drill

thanks DOC

it looks to be holding the temp well now