fermentation cupboard

[toylander]

At the moment I am using my ensuite for fermentation. This is not ideal for a number of reasons,
1. The wife.
2. The temperature is not consistent.
3. In the summer time the room gets very warm due to a south facing window.

The back of my garage is partitioned off as a bike shed with it's own entrance door.
I dowt my garage reaches 20deg in the height of summer due to the fact there are no windows and is constructed with concrete blocks and a concrete floor.

I plan to enclose, insulate and fit doors under the workbench. I have purchased an electric tube heater like used in a greenhouse which is fitted with a thermostat.

Can anyone see any problems with this before I invest many hours of labour?

Thanks

[BertB]

Many people (myself included) use an old larder fridge as a pre-built insulated box to ferment in.

Is that not an option due to space?

I've recently acquired a larger (double height fridge) that I plan to reuse my STC-1000 and 60W heater in.

ETA: the fridge was free - from a local post on https://ilovefreegle.org/

[Rick_UK]

I think you would be fine with this plan. I did the same until I was given a free fridge - I basically used a shady corner of the garage with an aquarium heater without issue. If you end up with a heat wave, a wet towel and a fan keeps it down nicely. You only really need a fridge for lagers or if you brew somewhere prone warming up a lot.

[DethApostle]

I have the spare fridge ready but have only really used mine for crash cooling. I want to set it up with an STC as a fermentation fridge but equally need to be able to turn it back into a fridge when there isn't a FV in there!
Is a fish tank heater plugged into the STC sufficient for maintaining the heat or is there any advantage to having a greenhouse heater in there?

DA

[BertB]

I've not altered the fridge at all.

The temp wire and lead for the heater go in the front, they fit thanks to the seal. It's not ideal but a piece of sticky tape holds the door closed.

The fridge can be returned to normal duties in less than a minute.

In the future, I'll probably be rerouting the wires via the drain hole but that would make it a permanent install. Unless I can come up with a better connection method.

[Rick_UK]

I have the spare fridge ready but have only really used mine for crash cooling. I want to set it up with an STC as a fermentation fridge but equally need to be able to turn it back into a fridge when there isn't a FV in there!
Is a fish tank heater plugged into the STC sufficient for maintaining the heat or is there any advantage to having a greenhouse heater in there?

DA

Once you have an STC fitted you can set it to maintain any temp from the lowest the fridge will go to well above fermentation temps. You just need to wire in a heat source and the STC will switch the fridge or heat source on until the selected temp is reached.

I think you could use an aquarium heater in principle though a greenhouse tube heater or light bulb would work better. Its also a good idea to fit a basic 12v fan to improve temp equalisation, but not essential.

I can send some pics of my build if you PM me your email address.

Rick

[Fil]

+1 a fermentation fridge is a fridge with more options, so you can simply use as you need to. so imho go ahead with the brewfridge and end all fermentation temperature problems

[toylander]

I have space for a tall fridge freezer in the corner of the garage which I plan to get. The fridge part would be used for cold crashing and storage of bottles ready to drink. The freezer part will be used for food.

The space under the work bench I thought could be used for fermenting which is about 50cm deep and 120cm wide. As mentioned earlier I was only planing to fit a heater with a thermostat and nothing to cool. Every diy fermentation chamber I look at on the internet has heating and cooling. Am I missing something? I haven't measered the temp in the garage in the summer but I cant see it getting above 15-20 deg. If there was a heat wave surely the inside of a well insulated chamber would not be effected?

Thoughts anyone?

[jimpy0]

i may be wrong [ no suprise there] but i think fridge freezers run off 1 compressor/chiller and the fridge relies on the freezer to cool it. running as 2 separate entities may not be an option.

[Fil]

I think Jimpy0 is spot on with his fridge/freezer analysis,

a gardeners min/max thermometer sat in your garage during a few sunny spring days may indicate if your garage is the same type of summer oven ours is when catching the sun..

while sat in the house my brewfridge uses cooling way more often than heating, fermenting ale and beer generally 18-20C the healthy yeast activity of fermenting creates heat, the insulated cupboard of the fridge retains too much heat perhaps??

[jmc]

My brick garage, has no windows and is shaded by ivy and it still gets really warm in summer days.
Lots of temp variation too day & night. The FC insulation may damp that change but I bet you'd have a battle keeping it cool in summer.

I started with a fermentation chamber in an old larder but moved on to a fermenting fridge and it was one of the best improvements I made to the quality of my ale (Next was using liquid yeast)

A fermenting fridge just makes it much easier and gives you so much more temperature control, typically +- 0.5C.
When not in use chill a barrel of beer in the summer. Have it at 12C or whatever you want.

Brew ales at 18C, or 21C if it suits yeast better.
I ramp up saisons to 27C as Saison Dupont yeast likes that.

Brew lagers at 10C. Crash chill yeast to help it drop out etc etc.

[toylander]

Ok, thanks for all of the feedback. I will have a rethink on my options for possibly a fridge under the work bench.

Is one typical under counter fridge big enough for the average home brewer?

[jimpy0]

if you can find one and have the space go for a tall larder fridge, either 2 Fv's at a time or 1 Fv + demi's or bottles - dependent on quantities you make/drink

[Fil]

with an under the counter fridge you may have to select a 'new' fv to fit in, i had to move from buckets to 4"neck fermentors and jerrycans due to my fridges limitations .. Also sitting it at waist height if possible will allow an easy gravity drain/empty without having to lump it up and risk disturbing the sediment you have crash chiled to drop out but if your only fermenting one brew at a time then yes its ample for your needs, in fact you can be more productive as primary will generally complete within a week for most ales..