Cooler Bags For A Fermenter

[komodo]

I can't for the life of me work out how it's possible for people to use so much energy. I would have thought I was a crazy high user but apparently not.

Every one else has a hydroponic setup?

Personally for what its worth (about $50ea second hand) a bar fridge plus a $50 fridgemate = $100 temp controlled fermentation cabinet. When you start talking about using a fridge and seperate temp controllers and gerry rigged fans and ducting I think your asking for trouble plus its not like your saving room - a small bar fridge isnt that much bigger than a fermenter and people practically give them away half the time. They run bugger all.

How much is fans, ducting, insulation, temp controllers etc going to cost you?

 

[MarkBastard]

you would need to return the air back into the fridge so it wasn't sucking in warm air all the time...

Sure thing, just run another duct back to the fridge/freezer. Probably wouldn't need to be fan forced.

you would be better off building a small cool room with a split system that has some insulated boxes with temp controled fans for the ales and the rest kept at larger temps (my dad built one for storage, so no boxes, that also uses fans to transfer air for outside in if the temp outside is cooler than inside at night in the winter etc the refrigeration unit hardly runs)

If I had enough room for a cool room I'd have enough room for an array of bar fridges, which would be a much better solution. Cheaper in price and all can be individually temp controlled.

 

[MarkBastard]

Every one else has a hydroponic setup?

Personally for what its worth (about $50ea second hand) a bar fridge plus a $50 fridgemate = $100 temp controlled fermentation cabinet. When you start talking about using a fridge and seperate temp controllers and gerry rigged fans and ducting I think your asking for trouble plus its not like your saving room - a small bar fridge isnt that much bigger than a fermenter and people practically give them away half the time. They run bugger all.

How much is fans, ducting, insulation, temp controllers etc going to cost you?

I agree, but disagree on the size consideration. Bar fridges are typically around 100 litres and my batches are 20L. I'm not happy with that overhead personally as I have a very small area to ferment in. I can fit two bar fridges under my garage work bench (already have one and will buy another) but I do like this idea. I could fit four fermenters on top of the bench, with space in between, for example. I reckon if I went down this route I would have double the fermenting capacity. Not that I ever would, much too complex / costly / time consuming and no guarantee it'll work.

 

[BEC26]

You can get the can coolers (75 cans) from bunnings. they are in the esky aisle and they are grey and collapsed - do look for grey flat hings hahaha

About $30 and magic with 2 frozen pet bottles - around 18-20 no probs. If you want colder, add another PET bottle

Cheers

 

[absinthe]

i don't know what i was thinking when people were talking about ducting air.. its big (large ducts) its a very poor transferrer of heat etc etc etc,,, why not have on cooling unit (one bar fridge) with a vessel of fluid and then a pump inside with a pressure switch (for when all the fermenter's are at the right temp) a few solenoid and just pump a coolant around the system? would cost about the same (or less) use less space be much more efficient etc etc.... the only thing is you would lose the fermenter in the fridge

 

[MarkBastard]

i don't know what i was thinking when people were talking about ducting air.. its big (large ducts) its a very poor transferrer of heat etc etc etc,,, why not have on cooling unit (one bar fridge) with a vessel of fluid and then a pump inside with a pressure switch (for when all the fermenter's are at the right temp) a few solenoid and just pump a coolant around the system? would cost about the same (or less) use less space be much more efficient etc etc.... the only thing is you would lose the fermenter in the fridge

You could use glycol as well.

Only thing is how you get that cold liquid cooling your fermenter? Do you wrap tubing around the outside for example?

 

[airofu]

Just wondering when using the frozen block method for cooling my fermentor in say an esky or cooler bag....where do you guys put the frozen blocks? right up next to the fermentor touching it? is this ok?

 

[Bribie G]

2 fermenting fridges = 3 fermentors on the go.

Most the time I only need to run the main 1 that holds 2 fermentors and I mainly use Ale yeasts; so it's only running at 18 most of the time, hence not cycling on that often.

I don't think it would take much more power to run the fridge, than to keep freezing water bottles every day and putting them in it to keep the same temp. Also I tried the water bottle trick before I had a temp controller; I could not maintain a decent stable temp; and stuff that playing with it every day. Maybe when I retire, but at the moment no chance. Often I throw the fermentors in there and don't even open the door again for a week and a half - and at that stage it is only a quick check before I drop the temp for crash chilling, ready for kegging.

But my power bills are too high; Ergon sent stats for my area, I use about 2 1/2 times the average household. Maybe I should get shares in them.


QldKev

Just had my first quarterlyy power bill for my new setup which has been going since September so this is a good benchmark for the rest of the year considering we have had some bloody hot spells in SEQ. My equipment includes:

Birko Urn, 90 min boils
Fridge freezer in kitchen
Big fridge freezer in garage for lagering and production of ice bottles. It only gets opened a couple of times a day.
Kegmate kegerator in the lounge room running at 7 degrees 24 / 7
Big screen LCD
Big screen twin core computer on most of the day
Reverse cycle LG aircon that only runs about 3 hours a day mid to late afternoon.

Set against that ceiling insulation and solahart for all hot water (switched booster off last year) and all lights replaced with curly bulbs. Plus a rigorous regime of turning things off, never using the tumble dryer except in emergencies etc. Most houses around the place look like a bloody Christmas tree nowadays.

$260 for the quarter which sounds ok to me.


In that time I have pumped out 19 brews with full 90 minute boils, with 5 being true lagers produced in the dead fridge, and 14 being ales of faux lagers produced via my ice block, towel and doonah method with the frozen 2L PETs and all of them cruising at below 20 degrees.

I reckon I've hit some sort of golden spot here IMHO, especially considering that the brauhaus gets to mid 30s most days as it's right on the North Wall.

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

Just a hot tip on ice blocks. Probably nothing new but I thought I would just share anyway.

Add 1 tablespoon of table salt per 1 litre of water.

We use it on the boat and it outlast standard ice by days.

For ice we use a 4lt ice cream tub half filled with water and 2 tablespoons of table salt to make good cakes of ice.

The ice lasts for the day of fishing and we have left the eskie aside for 2-3 days with only small blocks of ice left over.

Yes. Adding salt to the ice/water mix causes a temperature drop that slows the melting rate and increases the freezing rate. The net result is that the ice melts more and more slowly after the initial addition of salt.

It is in fact NOT the size of the block of ice that has made it melt slower but the addition of salt to the ice.

 

[benchick]

iv been thinking of circulating glycol around my fermentors in tube for a while now, live in sa and my houses ambient is up to 32 sometimes. basically i have a 40l engel that runs constantly, was thinking of putting a glycol tank in it with a pump, connected to a temp controller, chill it to -15, and then coiling tube around the fermentor in an insulated cover/bag/esky like mentioned before, rekn it could work quiet well and using glycol you could prob even lager beers with some good design, only prob was running the cable and tube in and out of the engel without having to mod the lid on it.
why someone hasnt invented an electric homebrew fermentor yet is beyond me cos im sure it would sell, heat in winter and cool in summer, i could only dream of something like that.

 

[Barley Belly]

why someone hasnt invented an electric homebrew fermentor yet is beyond me cos im sure it would sell, heat in winter and cool in summer, i could only dream of something like that.

$100 for second hand fridge
$100 for Tempmate plus installation parts
$5 PC fan plus free 12v adapter
$0 hand me down heat belt

Having a temp controlled environment the ferment and condition beer in PRICELESS

 

[MetalDan]

An old post but thought I'd add to it rather than start a new. With it being 34 degrees or so in Sydney over the wend, I went in search of a cooler bag for my fermenter. No luck at Kmart, BigW, Bunnings, Anaconda etc (or let me know if I just missed them..?), but managed to find this at Masters (38l soft cooler):
http://www.masters.com.au/product/100486327/tradie-bazza-cooler-lunch-pack-38l

There isn't a masters near me so I just ordered online, when it arrives I'll let you know how it cools. Until then, the swamp cooler seems to be doing an ok job.

 

[MetalDan]

The cooler from Masters (link in above thread) rocked up, but unfortunately is too small for a fermenter (although needed one for camping anyway so its been put to good use). I've looked in every store I go past, and fairly thoroughly online, does anyone know where still has a decent sized cooler?

Cheers for any help!