Fermentation Room or Chambers?

Ok So I have this space 22'x13' that I am turning into my home brewery.

Option A: I thought about making a 13'x6' Fermentation/Grain room. I could control the temp via a mini split or window AC with Coolbot. I do 95% Ales so I thought I could keep the room at 60F and call it good. I have a standup chest freezer when I need to lager or do special multi temp fermentations. I thought about investing in those fast ferment fermentors to mount in the room. And use my Brewhemoth when I need more than 5 gallons.

Option B: Forgo the room and buy a couple of chest freezers with controllers. And stick to carboys.

Looking at costs it would be about the same. Ive got to build some walls and adding a door and a little more insulation would not add that much to the cost.

Thoughts?

Your call.
Do you like lifting loaded carboys in and out of a chest freezer?
Are you a big, strappin' young fella'?

Sounds like you might be the type that brews a good bit, and likes to keep the pipeline full.

I never attempt the loaded carboy into or out of the chest freezer feat by myself!

I like the way you think. I am not sure if I am strapping enough! Sounds like the big walk-in fermentation chamber is the way I may want to go. So...Next decision do I just put in a mini split and set it at it lowest of 61F or do I put in a window unit and use a coolbot ( http://www.storeitcold.com/index.html )for a more accurate and slightly lower temp. Some folks have said and ideal ambient temp for most ales is 59F as the beer will be a little warmer from the fermentation. Any thoughts about this?

I would *not* do the fermentation room, and here's why.

You need to control the temperature based on the temperature of the beer, and adjust according to where it is in the fermentation cycle. If you have a "fermentation room," you can set the temperature of the room to 60° F, but the beer's temperature could vary considerably. Initially, it might be 65° F (or whatever you're capable of chilling it down to during brewing), then you pitch your yeast and put it in the room. The room continues cooling the beer, such that by the time the yeast get to work, the temperature of the wort has dropped to match the room - 60° F. That's a little cool for most ale strains (Nottingham notwithstanding), and the yeast will be sluggish, and never really get going enough to produce their own heat and move the needle much above 60° F. As they exhaust their supply of sugars, they'll start going to sleep, possibly before finishing the job, and you risk underattenuation.

On the other hand, say you set the room at 65° F. The yeast will get to work, and warm the beer up, possibly to 70° F or even higher, producing undesirable off flavours. Then, toward the end of fermentation, as they wind down, the beer will cool back to 65° F, encouraging the yeast to drop out when they instead should be cleaning up after themselves.

I guess what I'm getting at is, with a "fermentation room," you're not controlling the temperature of the beer - you're controlling the temperature of the room. A conventional fermentation profile advises holding the desired temperature until fermentation begins winding down, then warming the beer up to encourage the yeast to clean up after themselves.

Ideally, you want the temperature probe attached to the fermenter (or even inside it, i.e. thermowell), so that you know the exact temperature of the beer, and can adjust the temperature of the surrounding ambient air as necessary to hold it in that range. But with a fermentation room, you'll probably have multiple fermenters in there, at various stages of their fermentation cycles. Some should be warming up to get the yeast to clean up, while some will be roiling away at peak fermentation, producing heat and needing more cooling effort to keep them from getting too hot.

I would (and did) go with the single-vessel fermentation chamber.

I think your right! My only thought is that 75% of my brews are with 60-65f yeast and the 25% that are not I have an upright freezer with a controller. I was trying to get by with some short cuts for my US-05 brews. I thought hey. Great place to store grain too. Still thinking... But sounds like 4 stand up freezers might be better than a 60f room.

anthropod said:

My only thought is that 75% of my brews are with 60-65f yeast

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Right, and that's fine, as long as your temperature control is based on the temperature of the beer and not the room. That is, you need to attach the thermometer for the cooling system to the fermenter, and not just hanging loose in the room. If you keep the room at 60-65, then the beer could be anywhere from 60 - 75°, depending on what stage of fermentation it's in, and that's too wide a range.

Checkout the Brewpi thread also, with a brewpi and a thermowell, my fermentation's stay within a degree and ramp perfectly.