So I recently moved into a house that had a fridge left in it. It still works and all, but we upgraded. In the meantime we had to put it outside until we could make room in the garage for the old fridge. I moved it in there tonight and opened it up and there was some mold. Not a ton, but around some of the gaskets and inside the fridge and freezer. I wanted to get a temp controller and use it as my spare fermentation chamber when my kegerator is in use as a fermentation chamber. Is this bad to do if I clean it all out as best I can? I know almost everything is about sanitation etc., but since it will have a blowoff tube or airlock would it be okay to ferment in the old fridge?
I don’t see a problem with it. I’d make sure to clean the fridge completely, then hit it with a bleach solution to kill off any residual from the mold. Should be good to go.
No worries. When my fermentation fridge is at ale temps it almost always ends up with some black mildew in there. I wipe it up between brews but it can get fairly gross in the mean time. not had a problem yet. even if I just slap a piece of sanitized aluminium foil over the whole in the bucket lid and skip the actual air lock.
ha ha, although I have heard vinegar does work well on mold. Sounds like is okay as long as I clean it fairly well. I have just been using my kegerator, but I have a honey blonde ale I will be brewing soon and then I need to get my pumpkin ale going to enter into a competition. First time I will hopefully have multiple batches fermenting around the same time.
Either a soap/water washdown solution that includes a splash of bleach, or if there are crevasses unreachable with a cloth/sponge, then follow up after the washdown with a mix of water and a tad of bleach applied via a spray bottle. Mine (old fridge dedicated as a ferment chamber) is turned off if nothing is fermenting inside, and during that time it gets a little cleanup and I leave the main and feezer doors open a bit so it’s dry inside so no mold will grow, but mine is in the basement where the ambient air is dry.
Thanks. I ended up using a diluted bleach mix and wiped the inside down and the gaskets etc. I was able to get it pretty clean. It is now acting as my cellar for my aging beers until I need it as a second fermentation chamber.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!! Use everything thoroughly, waste nothing, and brew carefully enough so you really enjoy what you have spent all that time and money to create! After I have fermented a beer, if I bottle all/some of it, then my ferment fridge next becomes the bottle conditioning chamber. I tape a FermWrap heater to the back inside wall of it and it attached to my temp controller uses very little energy, sheds no light, and is electrically safer than most heaters.
Clean as others have recommended, then hit the inside with some Star-San from a spray bottle. I clean the inside of my fermenting and lagering fridges every couple months with a mild spray cleaner, the sanitize them with a spray bottle of Star-San and a wipe-down with paper towels.