Fridge Without Fridgemate?

[anthony]

I have an old fridge that will eventually get a fridgemate hooked up. My saflager efforts at 18 degrees and 24 degrees have been acceptable but I am sure they will be so much better in a fridge.

My question is will it be any good to use a standard fridge as a brew fridge simply set at the highest setting? Will the saflagers S-23 etc ferment at the temp likely in a standard fridge at the highest setting?, I guess this will be around 5-6 degrees?

 

[goatherder]

Grab yourself a thermometer to put in the fridge, so you can see what is going on. You can get these at homeware shops pretty cheaply.

Then grab a 24hour timer switch and try switching the fridge off and on for an hour or two at a time throughout the day. Keep an eye on the temp and you will get a feel for what is going on. You should be able to keep the temperature fairly stable by adjusting when and how long you switch the fridge on.

 

[anthony]

I was thinking setting up a timer so the fridge runs through the day and switches off through the night. Still thought that this method may end up cooling my wort down around 6 degrees while the fridge is running (at a guess)... will saflager yeast keep plodding along at those sort of temps or will I stress it and put it into a coma?

 

[scrogster]

I think 6 degrees might be a bit cold for Saflager, and fluctuating temps in general are not a good idea. Do yourself a big favour and get a Fridgemate controller, it will make everything so much easier, and will save you from having to worry about brews being the wrong temperature.

Fridgemate is definitely my favourite brew-toy!

 

[mika]

If the fridge is a bit on the old side, at it's hottest setting you might see 12degs, but even that would be pushing the yeast, unless using W34/70.
Go the fridgemate, you won't look back.

Also, fill in your location, so the rest of us know where to stop for a cold beer when we've been dragged out on a shopping trip with the missus

 

[anthony]

If the fridge is a bit on the old side, at it's hottest setting you might see 12degs, but even that would be pushing the yeast, unless using W34/70.
Go the fridgemate, you won't look back.

Also, fill in your location, so the rest of us know where to stop for a cold beer when we've been dragged out on a shopping trip with the missus

Yea, the fridge is maybe 20 years old. That's why I thought out on the back verandah with sun on it for half of the day it might be ok.

As far as yeast goes I was going to use the kit yeast with the coopers brewmaster pilsener which I read somewhere is the W34/70.

And now you know where I live :beer:

 

[mika]

If attempting the Pilsner the W34/70 is the way to go, though I think it'll only be their top of the line kits that are actually using a true Saflager yeast.

I guess the best thing to do id try it. Stick a thermometer in the fridge and see what happens. Better still if you an get one of those cheap weather digital thermometers that can tell you min and max temperature.

Unfortunately you're a bit too far away for a beer, but others might drop in :chug:

 

[BOG]

What I've done is fill the freezer section with bottles filled with water. This will stabilise the fridge temp internally with less ups and downs as the compressor kicks in. It makes the fidge as cold as possible.

My old fridge wound down (up in temp) with the freezer full of frozen water will keep a constant temp of about 15 deg. The compressor rarely ever kicks in due to the cold sink of frozen water.

You can then turn off the fridge off for say 12 hours via a timer and see what the result will be. Bit more peaky in temp but will warm up into the 18 - 20s for you.


Hope this helps.


BOG