Lagers Up Top, Ales Down The Bottom

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This seems like an obvious topic, but I've searched and searched and can't find anything. So feel free to point me to another thread.

I just found a fridge in the bin room, good upgrade for my little bar fridge fermenter. This fits two fermenters perfect in the fridge section. It also fits two party kegs perfectly into the freezer. So my plan is to ferment ales in the bottom, and lager in the top when necessary. i plan to keep the temp controller probe in the fridge. I'm considering puting a small adjutable vent between the two so I can adjust the temperature difference, or possibly a computer fan attached to a seperate temp controller if I want to get really fancy.

Q1 Any problems with storing kegs on their side when lagering in them?

Q2 Has anyone done this before?

Q3 For those who have a fridge freezer, what temp is your freezer when fermenting an ale in the fridge?

My guess is the freezer temp is fairly variable depending on the outside temp. If the outside temps below 18C then the fridge wont run and the freezer will be too close to the fridge temp and I might not be able to lager. When its really warm the fridge will be on a lot more and the freezer may freeze (hence the need for the adjustable vent).

SWMBO will not allow two fridges so can't use the bar fridge for lagering.

 

[donburke]

hi paxxy,

a benefit of lagering is that yeast settles, if your keg is turned upright you would stir up your yeast, this would not be a problem if you filter

when i set my fridge to ale ferment temps, the freezer is not frozen, when i set it to lager temp, is frozen, and i am only guageing this by some water bottles that sit in the freezer

i think you might run it to issues controlling both temps, but give it a shot anyway

This seems like an obvious topic, but I've searched and searched and can't find anything. So feel free to point me to another thread.

I just found a fridge in the bin room, good upgrade for my little bar fridge fermenter. This fits two fermenters perfect in the fridge section. It also fits two party kegs perfectly into the freezer. So my plan is to ferment ales in the bottom, and lager in the top when necessary. i plan to keep the temp controller probe in the fridge. I'm considering puting a small adjutable vent between the two so I can adjust the temperature difference, or possibly a computer fan attached to a seperate temp controller if I want to get really fancy.

Q1 Any problems with storing kegs on their side when lagering in them?

Q2 Has anyone done this before?

Q3 For those who have a fridge freezer, what temp is your freezer when fermenting an ale in the fridge?

My guess is the freezer temp is fairly variable depending on the outside temp. If the outside temps below 18C then the fridge wont run and the freezer will be too close to the fridge temp and I might not be able to lager. When its really warm the fridge will be on a lot more and the freezer may freeze (hence the need for the adjustable vent).

SWMBO will not allow two fridges so can't use the bar fridge for lagering.

 

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Do constant temps matter so much for lagering? I will complete the primary ferment of a lager in the fridge part under strict ferment temps, but if during lagering the temp varies between 1C and say 7C will this make much difference to the taste? I know that at 7C the beer will not be as smooth as at 1C, but will there be major problems with a non constant temp that remains in acceptable lagering temperatures? It will be a prob if the temp gets higher than this, but then I can just put an ice bottle in the freezer.

hi paxxy,

a benefit of lagering is that yeast settles, if your keg is turned upright you would stir up your yeast, this would not be a problem if you filter

when i set my fridge to ale ferment temps, the freezer is not frozen, when i set it to lager temp, is frozen, and i am only guageing this by some water bottles that sit in the freezer

i think you might run it to issues controlling both temps, but give it a shot anyway

 

[Thirsty Boy]

If that freezer has 20L of beer in it - its temperature will be much more stable than it wil be if it was empty. Lots of thermal mass.

I suspect that with fridge at ale temps it will be pretty cold, and at lager temps probably cold enough to freeze water.... But maybe not cold enough to freeze beer. Better shove a bit of stuff in there and test it out.

My ferm fridge is an older style one with a freezer compartment up top that is essentially a shaped cooling plate. It provides all the cooling. Its internal thermostat is buggered, so i run it all with a tempmate. The probe is attached directly to the freezer plate. The way it works for me, is that if the temps are set so that the main body of thte fridge is any warmer than 8 or 9 then the freezer section starts to defrost between cycles.. Just. The temp stays pretty low though. Even with the main fridge sitting on 12 or 13 the freezer is cold enough to keep a frozen PET pretty much frozen, but it would struggle to freeze it from scratch. Ice cubes form a scum of ice over the top, but take days to freeze through.

So in my fridge - if the fridge is on 12 ... Then the freezer is probably on an average of say -1-0. So at ale temps it would be somewhere around 4 or 5. Roughly what you are looking for.

Of course my fridge wont be like your fridge - but IMO its not completely out of order to think you might be able manage it the way you hope.

TB

 

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Unfortunately I have a lager in it at the moment so I can't really test it without stuffing up my lagering. Although it is sitting at -20C with the fridge at 6C but its been running for a little while straight to drop to this temp because the lager was a bit warmer before, it will probably warm up once the fridge is stable. I guess I'll have to be patient and wait for the lager to finish or just try it on this batch when I do my next ale and have room in my kegs for the current lager. But this tells me a new problem, the freezer will be much cooler if I'm dropping the temp of something in the fridge because the compressor will be on longer. So if I'm chilling an ale to pitching temp, the freezer may cool down too far.

I had another thought, rather then placing a shifting vent I will just remove part of the metal cover between the fridge and freezer and then cut the styrafoam between the fridge and freezer in to small squares which I can pull out and put in to adjust the temp of the freezer, easy, just need to monitor it when theres a lager in there to make sure it doesn't freeze. Although according to palmer a freeze wont cause any damage to the beer, so no big risk and because the beer will be in kegs and under pressure, freezing temp should be lower than normal.

 

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Alright I went and bought 2 10 L jerry cans that fit perfectly into the freezer. The have the added bonus over the kegs of a bung that when on the side it sits on top. I can remove it to syphon out from with out disturbing the trub. I put the current lager into them, and moved them to the freezer with the temp control on the freezer at 6C. I've put some water into the fridge and I will see what temperature it levels out at.

Hopefully its bang on 18