fridges for fermenting in

[edit1now]

Do calm down

Most fridge-freezers only have one cooling system, so you're going to have to decide which compartment you want to use.

As mentioned elsewhere on JBK, you should be able to get the fridge compartment, or the freezer compartment, to the right temperature with a TC-10 by winding down the fridge-freezer control knob to the lowest setting, e.g. 5 out of 1 - 5, then using the TC-10 probe in the compartment you want to control and ignoring the other one. The TC-10 switches the fridge-freezer on and off until the compartment with the probe is at the right temperature, and you ignore the other compartment unless it happens to be at a temperature which is useful for something else, e.g. fermenting at 17°C in the fridge bit and keeping the icecream at eating temp (-1 °C - also handy for lagering) in the other bit.

[Hogarth]

Hi Hogarth
Fridges are designed for indoor use
the damp would gradually be absorbed by the electrics and wiring over a period of time.

Then its bye bye fridge

Thanks for that, Frisfur. I suspected this might be the case , good to have it confirmed by an expert.

[Vaclav]

Most fridge-freezers only have one cooling system, so you're going to have to decide which compartment you want to use.

So it would be better to lay hands on fridge only. The best would be two fridges. One for fermenting, one for lagering if set up on the highest point. Right?

[Subsonic]

I use an upright fridge freezer. Bottom = freezer and takes 2 cornies. Top = fridge & takes a standard Keg. Taps out through the top door and gas in through the side. I use a highly sophisticated 'plug timer' to cycle it on and off every few hours. After a bit of tinkering with that I can happily report it runs at:- 'Freezer' = Lager, (2 cornies) 1 to 3 C. 'Fridge' = bitter 12 - 14C. Its bloody perfect and so stable I am not even contemplating the electronic temperature controller. In the winter it may go pear shaped but for the mo it is working perfectly. I Never open the door mind, I have an electronic temperature probe inside so I can monitor temps. Opening the doors causes a lot of temp swings. Subsonic.

[Vaclav]

I wish i could do it like you, but new to brewing the beer So i will have to start slowly.

[steve thailand]

If you have some spare freezer capacity at home, a good cheap or free option is to get a big dead fridge, strip out the motor, grille, shelving, thing to keep the butter soft etc. Then swap a couple of frozen 2 litre PET bottles in and out. deadfridge.JPG I'm in South East Queensland where temperatures are around 30 for months on end, and often up to 35 in the brauhaus (garage) and have no difficulty doing ales at 19 degrees with two bottles swapped only once a day, or 'lagerish' beers done on Nottingham at 15 degrees swapping the PETs twice a day.

I would imagine in the South of England where it can actually get bloody hot at times, a dead fridge should handle it easily. Over here the big retailers usually have a 'take you dead fridge off your hands' service when you buy a new one and are glad to get rid of the hulks.

thanks for the idea. i've just returned to Thailand with 30kg of beer kits in my bags and i'm ready to start brewing. after reading this thread i've decided not to bother trying to modify a fridge, i'm going to use a big, insulated cold box and use the frozen bottles of water to keep it cool.

i'll post results for anyone interested.

steve

[ChrisG]

Interesting topic this.

I'm using just a standard fridge to keep the temperature at around 14 degrees. Seems to work very well even without temperature control. I just open the door for a bit if it gets too cold.

[steve thailand]

don't waste time with a fridge. i use a plastic cold box but i've added an extra wall of polystyrene foam. i use one big ice block a day, a 2 litre plastic milk bottle filled with water. i change it every morning and refreeze the old one. i have a temp probe in the beer so i know the exact temp at all times. i can keep it perfectly at 20degC +/- 1 degree no problem and the outside air temp is between 28 and 34 here day and night.

the cold box/ice block method is very useful here because we frequently have long power cuts so i'm not so dependent on a fridge running all the time so long as i have ice.

[tubthumper]

Wonder why no one has suggested the boxes that they transport fish in guarnteed to keep it frozen for 5 days . so they must be good for this sort of stuff I found some on alibaba but you got to buy so many of them I left it

[rick_huggins]

Have a looky on freecycle and keep an eye out for a chest freezer; combined with a TC-10 houses both my FV's