Lagering Freezer

Brewing Processes
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Decisions decisions

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It is hard to get a fridge with a flat bottom all the way to the back.  Sears has one (fridge only, no freezer) for about $600, but for an upright freezer with a flat bottom all the way to the back its only $400.

My brewing $$ is all but dried up since I just bought a conical, but the freezer is my next purchase.

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You’re obviously delusional.

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I just took the veggie compartments out, built a base from 2 X 4’s, and put an old fridge shelf on the base to make the whole floor level.  I can now put my wife’s champagne bottles on the floor under the base to keep them cold.

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that is exactly what I have in my serving fridge. The fermentation fridge is circa 1960’s or so so it’s flat on the bottom.

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We have 3 chests; fermenter, crash/carb/lager, and service.  Just last night I suggested we get a fourth, an upright to actually use as a freezer and put like… food in.  Well, and more hops of course.  Luckily, my obsession is shared so the response was, yeah we could make that work.

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This is the fridge I got for conditioning or aging up to 3 kegs, and the top shelves are packed with bottles, glassware goes in the door, and has a Johnson A419 keeping an eye on the temperature.

Also have one kegerator which holds two kegs, one chest freezer for hops and bags of ice (used during the chilling process) and another chest freezer on Johnson A419’s (one for cold, one for heat) for fermentation. Luckily my wife likes brewing and we’ve got plenty of room in the basement. I’d tend to count the kegerator as it doubles as a conditioning fridge when there’s no room left in the upright, so I guess that’s 4 for me.

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I have 3:

  1. 18.2 cf fridge ferment chamber, that also serves to cold crash prior to racking to kegs.

  2. 7.2 cf 3-faucet chest freezer kegerator holds four ball locks + 2 more on compressor hump for conditioning/carbonating

  3. side by side fridge/freezer, with half of freezer for hops, and fridge can hold two ball locks + 2.5 lb co2 cannister plus bottles.

The side by side plus my food fridge (not previously listed) make ice, which helps having two ice makers for filling coolers, house parties, etc.

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Currently at 4:

  1. 5.0cf freezer w/Ranco, originally bought for fermenting but now packed to the gills with hops.

  2. 7.2cf freezer w/Ranco, now used for fermenting, cold crashing, and pre-carbing kegs.

  3. 4.4cf mini-fridge (no freezer), converted to two-cornie kegerator with twin tap tower.

  4. 4.7cf mini-fridge w/freezer for bottles, yeast and additional hops in the freezer compartment.

Good thing the bride likes good beer and supports my insanity. Would like to replace #1 & 4 with a standard fridge/freezer to consolidate space in the garage. Let’s see what happens for Christmas…