After years of going without temperature control & never making lagers, I have finally made a step in the right direction.
I had purchased a Johnson digital controller, last week (planning ahead).
Then, 2 days ago, I got a free (YES…FREE) 10 cu ft chest freezer, on craigslist.
Last night, I added a 2x6 cedar collar.
(Incidently, my house & garage smell freakin’ marvelous, right now.)
It’s very plain, but I’m extremely happy & excited.
Maybe some day I’ll get around to making it pretty.
This afternoon, I’m brewing an American Lager.
Can’t wait!!!
Damn, I am jealous. I’m planning to purchase a chest freezer and Johnson controller this fall as well to start with fermentation temperature control. But free for the freezer! That’s insane. I wish I could be so lucky…
+1! 15 years of off ‘n’ on brewing and I also finally got a chest freezer a few months ago. WOW! what a difference. I’m drinking on a keg of brown ale that I fermented at 60 deg with US-05. It is so clean tasting that it’s hard to believe that an 8% beer can be this drinkable. Congrats on your new equipment!
-J.K.L.
Are you going to add a liner of styrofoam insulation on the cedar? I’m not sure if you need to but I’ve seen that before. Looks like you have room so it might not hurt. I just bought a brand new freezer so I can make my older one into a beer freezer. Not quite the deal you got. Gets delivered today.
It holds the temperature pretty well, so I may not bother…Time will tell.
It actually took me a few weeks of very intense searching, to find this one.
I called & emailed so many, I started to seriously confuse myself as to which ones were which.
I was just about to give up & buy one from Menard’s, when I saw the ad for this one.
Persistence pays off.
Awesome! This will revolutionize your brewing. It’ll take getting used to but I love just putting the fermenter(s) in and walking away. No fiddling with ice-packs or watching the thermometer. No real temp swings that the controller can’t take care of. I have mine set at 65F for now. Fluctuates between 62-65 and the batches that have been coming out have been exceptional.
Funnily enough, my stepdad told me that a friend of his has two 5 cf chest freezers he’s trying to get rid of, both in good shape and free. I was planning to downsize my batches to 3 gallon batches and ferment in 5 gallon kegs anyway, so this sounds like I scored a deal also.
My water comes out of the tap, quite cold…Like roughly 45-50.
So, I just chilled with my immersion chiller, transferred to the carboy, placed it into the freezer & pitched.
Ah, that’s cool. Perhaps I should only brew lagers in the winter and spring months when the water coming out of the tap is sure to be colder. Otherwise, I can’t do that in the summer as I’m pretty sure the water doesn’t get that cold.
In this season at it’s coldest my tap is 86F. That’s the summer for ya! But I cooled 6 gallons last evening to 62 in 35 minutes total with an ice-water recirc after the wort hit 88. It went into the fermenteezer. A few more minutes with the ice-recirc and the wort would have been at lager pitching temps.
A solid pickup! Adding a freezer and a controller was probably the best thing I could have done for my beer! I can’t believe I went without it. Now I just need to get another one to set up for kegs like you did!
A few more minutes with the ice-recirc and the wort would have been at lager pitching temps.