Fermentation Fridge

[Leonardo]

Hi All!!!
First of all i wish you Merry Christmas and happy new year i hope you guys are having great times with your families.

So here i am, i wished to start brewing since a year now and my wife bought me a starter kit from SMALL BATCH BREW and im soo keen to start soon.
My only problem is i dont know where to locate during the fermentation process as my house gets too hot during summer. Im asking for help to find the right solution within 200$ budget. Thank you so much for your help!!

Leo

 

[gaijin]

It looks like that's a 5L kit. Do you have a spare bar fridge? It would probably fit the carboy. After a few good batches of beer, you will probably catch the brewing bug and want to upsize to a full size 32L fermenter. Either way, I would recommend not buying a new bar fridge (unlesss space is an issue) and instead, pick up a second hand chest freezer and attaching it to an electronic temp controller. It will shut off the freezer when it gets to the right temperature and turn it back on when it's exceeded.

A quick check on gumtree - $80 for a chest freezer and $80 for a new temp controller <$200. Winning.

Ghetto option is to wrap the carboy in a towell, place it in shallow water and face a fan on it so evaporative cooling keeps it around 18-24C (ale). Don't try a lager without a fridge/freezer.

 

[Leonardo]

It looks like that's a 5L kit. Do you have a spare bar fridge? It would probably fit the carboy. After a few good batches of beer, you will probably catch the brewing bug and want to upsize to a full size 32L fermenter. Either way, I would recommend not buying a new bar fridge (unlesss space is an issue) and instead, pick up a second hand chest freezer and attaching it to an electronic temp controller. It will shut off the freezer when it gets to the right temperature and turn it back on when it's exceeded.

A quick check on gumtree - $80 for a chest freezer and $80 for a new temp controller <$200. Winning.

Ghetto option is to wrap the carboy in a towell, place it in shallow water and face a fan on it so evaporative cooling keeps it around 18-24C (ale). Don't try a lager without a fridge/freezer.

Thank you so much man. I appreciate your replay and as you said i will go with the chest freezer. Any good brand or specific temp controller i should buy? Also should i put the sensor inside the freezer or directly inside the fermenter? Thank you again for your time.

 

[peteru]

Council clean up is another option.

 

[brewermp]

+1 on gumtree. Got my freezers from their. Spent 30 on the last one.

 

[DunAthad]

Inkbird ITC-308 temperature controller sitting at less than $44 on eBay at the moment.... saves a few more pennies!

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/705-5...0001&campid=5338413729&icep_item=322181962638

Price will rise again after Boxing Day no doubt but they'll run another sale soon enough.

 

[peteru]

+1 on the Inkbird ITC-308 or ITC-310. I have both (won the ITC-308 recently) and they are the perfect solution for an immediate and painless fermentation controller solution. I have it connected to an old freezer that I extended to fit a kegmenter. The heating circuit has a reptile heat belt connected so that I can ramp up the temperature in winter. It's a simple and reliable solution. The ITC-308 is robust enough to completely recover even after a mains power failure.

 

[gaijin]

Thank you so much man. I appreciate your replay and as you said i will go with the chest freezer. Any good brand or specific temp controller i should buy? Also should i put the sensor inside the freezer or directly inside the fermenter? Thank you again for your time.

No worries mate. As far as I know, they're all fairly similar. I included a link in my original post to my local home brewing supplier. Being in Sydney, you won't really need to buy one with a plug for a heating pad unless maybe your fermentation freezer is sitting under a back deck in winter.

Also, since you're considering a freezer, make sure the dimensions allow for you to fit in 2x 32L fermenters. If you're like me, you'll probably end up brewing with mates and split batches. The internals of my freezer are 660 long, 380 wide and 660 high and allow 2x fermenters side by side plus the airlock protruding. The only thing it doesn't do is fit corny kegs with the quick disconnects attached... but that sounds way down the brewing road for you

 

[Leonardo]

Thanks to all of you guys for the advice. Its time to get into it and start my first batch. I ll keep you posted with the set up as soon as I got all the equipment. Cheers again guys

 

[peterlonz]

An option not mentioned that will cost about $100 is to purchase an insulated jacket which will accommodate your typical fermenter (my fermenter has the capacity to brew 23 litres). You quickly find yourself able to judge how many bottles of frozen water to place around the fermenter inside the zip top jacket. Sure this means you need to constantly supply frozen water bottles & you need a bit of extra freezer capacity for that. Also you will need a low cost (Ebay) digital readout thermometer so that you know at all times what the temp is inside the jacket & therefore inside the fermenter.
When not in use it just collapses. Took me a while to invest but now I see for myself the results. Sure a fridge based fermentation control would be better but with all my brewing gear I have no more room for another fridge. Check with your LHB store for availability in your area.