After close to five years of brewing I finally decided it was time to build a fermentation chamber. I currently have a saison fermenting away. Here are some pics:
All buttoned up:
Cooling chamber:
Cooling chamber open:
Fermenting chamber:
Ferm chamber open:
Control unit:
I built the controller directly from plans that were posted on the AHA website a few months back.
The insulating panels themselves are 1" rigid foam. Yes…this is thin however I get away with it because I am not dealing with wild temperature swings. It is then all wrapped in OSB.
This is my second beer that I have fermented in here and it has been holding temperature like a dream. I have also been able to slowly ramp up the temperature of the saison that is currently in there with amazing precision.
I have 4 coffee cans that I fill with water and freeze. Depending on how much cooling power I need will depend on how many cans go into the cooling side of the chamber. Then it’s simply a computer fan that pulls in the warmer air, over the cans, and back into the ferm chamber. Right now I don’t really need much cooling power - just enough to keep me from overshooting my target temp. So I only have 1 can in there. As far as I know, it hasn’t had to kick in yet. More of a precaution.