Hey guys new to the board and the association. I’ve been researching fermentation chambers I’ve seen products such as Brewpi and Ranco Controllers. From what I’m seeing most guys are either using a upright freezer or most preferably a refrigerator to house the beer. So my question is what are some of the products you use and what route did you go. They beauty of this craft is their seems to be great diversity in how to approach this. Thanks for your time in advance…
14cf whirlpool chest freezer and ranco two stage from more beer. I use a sunbeam heat pad without the auto off safety feature for the heat source. No mods to freezer needed.
The most important question: Do you need to heat, cool, or both?
My chamber is a box built from 1" foam insulation sheets and duct tape, with a $20 Chinese temperature controller running a $9 ceramic space heater.
If you need cooling, I’d use a chest freezer. They hold more and are more efficient.
Another important question is what temps you’re hoping to maintain. Will you be lagering?
I have a room in my basement (approx 6 x 12 x 7) that is temp controlled at 60, which is just fine for my ales. I can get it colder, if I need to, but it’s pretty inefficient for lagers because the room is too big.
I have a window unit to cool in the summer and a ceramic heater to warm in the winter.
14.8 cu. ft. chest freezer, Auber TD100 controller (I’m LOVING this new find!), and a reptile heater bulb for when it needs to be warmed up.
For most of the year where I live, only heat is required. I have a space in my garage where the bucket sits in box to keep out light/dust. My heat is a home made ferm-wrap thing made out of flexwatt heat tape and an STC-1000 controller. I was able to scrounge enough stuff to keep the cost to about $30.
I’m just now testing an Arduino controlled controller that will supervise my next batch. If you’re technically inclined, that can be fun. But you can pretty much dial in your own sweet spot on the cheap/easy to expensive/complicated continuum and make good beer.
Well I have my brewing set-up in a finished garage so I figure I need my chamber to do both because the temperatures will fluctuate…
Jim, I’m struggling to find a link to this sunbeam pad that you like. I know you have posted it several times, mind posting it again? Just not sure if I need to be looking at a 12"x24" or a different size. i have a 7.2 cf chest freezer with a ferm wrap, just want to be able to heat more than one vessel at a time. What can you tell me?
I bought mine on eBay. Get a large and make sure it does not have the automatic shutoff. If that doesn’t help pm me and I’ll try to find a model number for you
Just searched sunbeam throughout the forum and found it. Sunbeam 732-500
Thanks Jim. I’ll look for it
I did find one that can be set with no auto shut off, but not that model. Amazon is not selling that one right now due to some issue, I should have it in time to use this weekend
Cool. I just tape mine to the back wall inside my chest freezer and turn it on high, plug into temp control and forget it. FYI mine has been running that way non stop for a year ish. The only issue was my 12"x17" was struggling when we had the below zero weather so I swapped it out with a spare 12x24 i had. Works fine.
Good to know, that’s what I was hoping for