My Ferm Chamber is Finally "Finished"

For the last few weeks I've been working on the latest addition to my brewquipment, a fermentation chamber. Since I'm in an apartment, space considerations were pretty high on my list of requirements. I wanted it to be able to accommodate at least 4 carboys however, and it had to be tall enough to handle two stacked twelfth barrel kegs as well. The thing that really got me though was fitting through a standard apartment bedroom door (~30" wide). It may not be obvious in the pictures, but the entire chamber is sliced above the doors all the way around, and the top can be removed. I sealed the gaps with weather stripping, and caulked up all the seams that don't come apart.







Looking in:





Doors



Looking at inside top:



I modeled the whole project before I started the build.

ISO view:



Bottom View:



I actually made some adjustments to the model after I finished building the frame. Now it uses fewer different size 2x4 pieces, and would be easier to build.

I left out a lot of the details, like how the doors would be built, hinges, etc. Modeling that would actually have made my life a lot easier. Finishing the doors and the fridge side of the insulation took nearly as long as the rest of the chamber combined!

I've still got a couple of small mods to do, and I haven't installed the floor yet, but it easily chilled 20 gallons of brew (10 fermenting) to ~68. I'll probably update this post a bit tomorrow, but I was itching to get some shots out.

I realized when I accessed my post that the picture quality is dismal. I figured they'd be passable, but these are pretty awful. I'll try to grab my "good" camera tonight, and take some quality shots. Maybe get a few more angles in there too.

do you mean corny kegs? 1/4 kegs are the smallest they make and they are fat and short... the sankey kegs that look like corneys are 1/6.


I really like what you made btw!

Nope. They're 12th barrel kegs. They're similar in size to 2.5 gallon cornies, but think they're actually 2.53 or something. It's probably nice and round in liters.

Edit: Here's a shot of two of the kegs stacked on top of each other. They're about 29" high in that configuration.

benbradford said:

I really like what you made btw!

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Thanks!

Nice build. That is a 10L keg BTW.

I updated the pics using a real camera, and tried to include a few more angels so people could tell what's going on. I'm impressed with how well it holds temps, but the real test will be driving it down to lagering ranges. I can't wait to see how it performs.

What are the interior dimensions of the box (not including the fridge)? Well done.

Where do you find the those kegs! I love them!

cyberbackpacker said:

What are the interior dimensions of the box (not including the fridge)? Well done.

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Per my design, the internal dimensions are 27.125" x 36" x 29.75". I haven't measured the as-built dimensions yet, but they will definitely vary a little bit. I've still got to install a permanent floor and ceiling (perhaps walls), but I plan to measure actuals this weekend.

Edit: To expand on this a bit, the green block in the center of the design is supposed to be the usable internal space, and the negative extrusions were made as accommodating volumes for the carboys and kegs I would be storing in the unit. The large cylinders are 13" in diameter, and are representative of 6.5 gallon glass carboys (though I extruded their volume to the ceiling), and the smaller circle is 10" for corney kegs. The diameters are larger than actual for some wiggle room, and the height was determined, as I said in an earlier post, to accommodate two of the 2.58 gallon sanke kegs stacked.

...and thanks!

lylo said:

Where do you find the those kegs! I love them!

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Plastic Kegs America - they said they weren't suitable for homebrwew, but I'm not a very good listener.

those are totally listed on that site as 1/12, which I had never heard of...

Did you have to buy 5?

Group buy plans?

Plastic Kegs America - they said they weren't suitable for homebrwew, but I'm not a very good listener.

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I've looked at those before, you have no issues with reusing them?

Nice job!

Most of the kegs on that site claim not for use with home brewing. Wonder what they're suitable for then....

Are the standard sanke connectors?

How cold can you keep this thing? I've been thinking of building something exactly like this but for holding 8 kegs (approx 4'x2'x3') at refrigerator temps (obviously not loading 8 kegs from room temp at a time)

benbradford said:

those are totally listed on that site as 1/12, which I had never heard of...

Did you have to buy 5?

Group buy plans?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I bought five. Shipping was killer, but I really wanted to try them out.

I think I understand why they say they aren't suitable for homebrew; they are the Miller style Sanke kegs (at last I think that's the style - they have the rubber gasket, no retaining ring, and no obvious way to remove the spear. I'm hoping that I can get the safety clip I've seen talk of to pop and remove them if I really need to, but it hasn't come up yet). After I read the threads about pressurized fermentation and stuff, I realized that if you've got a keg, you've got something you can put beer in... only cleaning will be a problem. Just how much, we'll have to see.

Brewmiser said:

I've looked at those before, you have no issues with reusing them?

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I haven't gotten the chance to reuse them yet. I'll be putting at least one of those two carboys worth of beer into them to really test them out.

The way I see it, if they can be used for beer, they can be used for homebrew. It's definitely going to take a little ingenuity, but I figured I'd take the plunge and try to figure it out. In part for a little idea I had, and in part for this community to be honest. If they work out well, these plastic kegs might actually be a good corney alternative.

I've read hear and elsewhere that the only real concern with using the sanke kegs as a closed system is beer-stone. I bought a used micromatic sanke cleaning system from someone on this forum, and it says that beer-stone is one of the things that it can reliably clean... we'll see how it all works out in the long run, but it should be a simple matter to force beer into the little guys. I'll probably just use one of my cornies.

Smashing said:

Nice job!

Most of the kegs on that site claim not for use with home brewing. Wonder what they're suitable for then....

Are the standard sanke connectors?

Click to expand...

Thanks!

That's what I thought... and why I decided to put it to the test.

They are standard connections. I've got taps for all of them, and they work as advertised... soon they'll be working with homebrew Haters gonna hate.

BigRob said:

How cold can you keep this thing? I've been thinking of building something exactly like this but for holding 8 kegs (approx 4'x2'x3') at refrigerator temps (obviously not loading 8 kegs from room temp at a time)

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I measured the internals just now, and they are 30" x 27" x 30". I actually think it can hold 9 cornies, but I haven't tested that yet... I'll check with what I've got when my fermentation is over. I designed it to hold 8, so it'll definitely hold that many. You can kinda tell in the picture that 3 will fit along the back easily enough (there are 2 carboys there now), 2 in the middle, and another row of 3. It'll be tight with 8 inside, but I'm confident they'll fit.

I actually finished the chamber on the same night that I brewed the two carboys in there, so I haven't had a chance to push it to the limits yet. It's got a pretty ridiculous R value though, and theoretically should be able to hold 40 Fahrenheit (~5 C), no problem.