Couple Of Ferment Fridge Questions

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I use an old chest freezer for fermenting, fits two fermenters and a couple dozen bottles. Having to lift fermenters in and out is possibly the only disadvantage I can see as compared to a fridge.

As an afterthought would not worry about what is easy to fix and just avoid buying anything the does not work well. That said my freezer was fairly cheap as the seals are crap so it constantly iced up as a freezer but makes no difference for fermenting.
I had a freezer like that, still got it. Had ran mine for years with a rubbish seal, could not replace them, so got some neoprene adhesive strip about 40 mm wide about 6 to 8 mm thick (Clarke Rubber) and stuck it around the beneath where the seal sits, fixed it, no more icing up and electricity usage dropped significantly.
 
Thanks markp, weal & Bonenose. I love the idea of the chest freezer. Lifting shouldn’t be too bad hey? It’s only gonna happen 2 times in 2 weeks eh!
 
Beware of expansion I now have two beer fridges, chest freezer for fermenting, a keezer and a chest freezer that I actually use for a freezer that was bought to replace the freezer that became a keezer when I discovered that four kegs fit in it. I am now considering another for cold crashing.
 
Your power bill must be through the roof.

Just a question about cold crashing - I note that many people have a separate rig for CCing, why can you now just use the fermenting freezer for that? Is it just that you have so many batches on the run that you are running things like a process line and there are other batches in there not ready for CCing yet, Or are there other reasons why the fermenting freezer can't just have the temp dialed down for a few days?
 
Yeah, sorry, what I meant is to ask why people have a separate freezer for fermenting and cold crashing. Can't the one freezer do both jobs just by adjusting the temp?
 
There's no reason why the same fridge couldn't be used for both stages of the process, as long as it can get cold enough. There are some who use old inefficient fridges for fermentation only, because the fridge can't actually reach CC temps.
That being said, those who ferment in a chest freezer and use a standard plastic fermenter with tap would have to lift the vessel out of the freezer and place on a higher level in order to keg/bottle. Doing so agitates all that settled crud that would've stayed put had you not moved the vessel at all. Such people could instead move that FV to a CCing fridge, where the height is already optimal for kegging/bottling, without agitating the crud.
 
Yeah, sorry, what I meant is to ask why people have a separate freezer for fermenting and cold crashing. Can't the one freezer do both jobs just by adjusting the temp?
You can, but not at the same time.:) I find using a secondary works best in my case, conditions and clears at the same time, the last beer I did was pouring clear out of secondary the following day still at fermenting temperature.Though that could have been because of the balls up with the pressure ferment, put a few million yeast cells to the sword that day.
 
Beware of expansion I now have two beer fridges, chest freezer for fermenting, a keezer and a chest freezer that I actually use for a freezer that was bought to replace the freezer that became a keezer when I discovered that four kegs fit in it. I am now considering another for cold crashing.

Bloody hell. Any room left on the roof for solar panels?
 
Good tips. Hadn’t thought about the cold crash. I’ll be going with the single fridge/or freezer for fermenting & cc. New freezer might be the go.
 
Yeah, sorry, what I meant is to ask why people have a separate freezer for fermenting and cold crashing. Can't the one freezer do both jobs just by adjusting the temp?
One freezer can be used but often have bottles in there carbing so need to maintain temp for them.
 
Bloody hell. Any room left on the roof for solar panels?
Just over a year into things and I now have 3 fridges and a keezer. Thankfully I've got solar, and we get over 14 hours day light where I am this time of year.
Come Winter I'll wind it back to the one fridge and keezer.
 
Given my tendency to dive in head first these stories about multiple fridges should worry me...
 
I've been putting jugs/containers of water in the freezer overnight, and transferring into the fridge by day in order to access all those otherwise wasted BTUs in the freezer section.

In terms of number of fridges I remember a poll on AHB some time ago and the number of freezers that you guys have (at least those that answered the poll) is scary.
 
Thoughts - Too small? For the beginner - 1 fermenter at a time.

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/hisense-145l-chest-freezer.html


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