I’m just staring to look into temp control for fermentation. I have a spare mini fridge and I was thinking of getting a controller and using it for fermentation. Do you think it would work well trying to keep one five gallon batch at a controlled temp?
Or would it be non efficient and a waste of time?
As long as your fermenter fits, you will be fine.
I used one as a fermentation chamber for about a year. The only draw-back is a lack of space. A 6 gallon carboy will fit in it, but just. Go for it.
Thanks guys, I understand it’s the difference between good homebrew and fantastic homebrew.
I dI’d see some plans online to expand so I may try that if it works well.
I’ve got a CAP fermenting in my mini-fridge right now with an STC-1000 controlling the temp. It’s my first fully automated temp control fermentation. It’s pretty sweet. I’ve been ramping up the temp the last few days and it’s as easy as pushing a few buttons. We’ll see if it makes better beer than the frozen bottles and water bath method, but at the least it requires less on-going monitoring. I even left town for the weekend with no worries.
I just purchased an inkbird ITC-308 plug and play controller. I found it on online for $40. I’m kind of excited to be able to lager in the future. Can’t wait to try a bock or vitus clone.
Thanks for all the input.
Not sure what you consider a mini-fridge, but I use an under counter fridge with an Inkbird controller for fermenting in, and it works great.
My mini fridge has enough room for 1 6.5 gallong carboy or a 6 gallon bucket and some bottles in the door.
I am currently using an Aveno Wine/Beverage fridge. It works great with my Inkbird temp controller, but I can only fit a 5 gallon carboy unless I build a collar to extend the door out.
I am now looking at ways to be able to ferment at different temperature; this would not be available with a chest freezer. I want to be able to do an ale, sour, and a lager. My solution to this so far is to build a glycol chiller, then pump the glycol into a common manifold to which I would tap lines off running to my fermentors. Those lines would then have an electrically controlled shutoff valve on each line controlled by Inkbird temp controllers. So I will need a total of three temperature controllers for a three vessel setup. One for the glycol reservoir and the other two controlling the shutoff valves. This project so far has only cost me $50 for the used A/C Window unit. I am using 3/4" CPVC pipe I already have for all the plumbing, then the actual fermentors I am planning on using www.gotta-brew.com water jackets.
This so far has been a very fun build but if anyone knows of a better way to do this please chime in!
wow, glycol, manifolds, multiple styles. Sounds interesting and ambitious.
I ended up returning that mini fridge and finding a small chest freezer at Best Buy on sale for $40 more.
I currently have a Maple Brown ale, Oatmeal Stout and an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ale fermenting or in secondary waiting to be bottled.
Chest freezer is better than mini-fridge or two if you’re doing all ales or all lagers at one time.
The STC-1000 works great however it can be frustrating to try to get the wort temp to match the set point if you are controlling the air temp in the chamber. I played around with the CA value until my set temp and wort temp matched. The actual air temp doesn’t matter. Only the set temp and wort temp. Start with water to get a base line and bear in mind that during primary heat will be generated so you will have to dial the temp down a few degrees to maintain your desired temp, and adjust back up as primary slows down. take notes on what you do and when and you can get a handle on things in a few batches. Any way, hopefully that helps your initial experience with a new ferm fridge less frustrating than my own
I bought a thermo well off of ebay. this allows me to take the temp of the wort right at its core.
a very small investment and piece of mind. Since I only use the thermo well on the wort that is actively fermenting I find that the other beers being stored, aging or in secondary that are in the freezer are with 1-2 degrees of my target temp.
When I’m not fermenting I Use a one gallon container full of water and drop my probe inside to maintain my target temp in the freezer.
That is a good solution. I have considered getting a thermowell Just for the purpose of knowing wort temp for a certainty but now that I have figured things out I am less willing to spend the money. I will probably break down one day spend the money though. as it would be nice to not have to check wort temp to verify.
How big is your mini fridge? Or small is your fermenting vessel…
I have always been puzzled by this. I think you are better off to tape a probe to the outside of a fermentation vessel. The thought process of taking temp of a gallon of water is missing the fact that it is not active fermenting wort. So you would be missing the temperature reading of the thermal energy put off by active fermentation that the water jug does not have. I think you would be within a closer margin of error if you were going off of the side of the bucket.
He’s talking about when he’s NOT fermenting. Just temperature maintenance in the chamber between fermentations.
Ha, pre-coffee post there. Sorry man… thanks Big Monk
Speaking of coffee, I cracked a bottle of my maple brown coffee ale last night. I added cracked espresso beans in secondary for 2 days.
The head was virtually non existent and any sign of foam dissipated quickly. I let my glass sit for a while to warm and the alcohol seemed to separate from the beer.
Should I attribute this to the oils in the coffee?
Likely. This is one reason to use a paper filter. I typically use cold brewed coffee, but head retention was much better the one time I filtered. It too way too long to filter, so I just deal with it.