scottsr123

Recipes 

Crane - good advice. I stole a small fan from my son that has a spring clamp mount. I'll just clamp it to a shelf on the fridge blowing out into the chamber.

I need to see how low it will go, but where I have it, ambient temp is about 50 F right now, so it wouldn't be a great test. Will try when it warms up. I do know that I can easily hold 20 C (68 F), so ale fermenting is definitely a go.

I need to brew...

scottsr123

Recipes 

I could've made it just a little shorter, but I wanted to make sure I have enough room for a blow-off tube or airlock, so I left a little extra head space.

scottsr123

Recipes 

After a couple days of testing, I added a fan inside to keep constant air circulation. I had a cheap A/C fan that has a spring-clip mount on it, which I just clamped to one of the shelves in the fridge, blowing out across the chamber.

Yesterday evening, I set the controller for 10 C, or 50 F, to see if I can hit lagering temps. This morning, the chamber is holding at 10 with an ambient temp of 70F.




I'll let it hold here today, then set it to about 3C to see if I can get it down to cold-crash temp.

mforsman

Recipes 

Wow this is awesome. How much did the total supplies run you if you don't mind sharing? I'm assuming this lives in a garage or someplace outside of your "living area"?

__________________
Primary: Centennial Blond | Kegged Carbonating: 3 Empty Kegs | Kegged: ESB, Pale Ale | Bottled: Red Ale, Black IPA, Hoppy Holidays (light red), IPA, Apfelwein

scottsr123

Recipes 

Thanks!

I honestly didn't keep track of cost, but my estimate is around $280. That includes the fridge, which I bought used, the controller, most of the wood and electrical materials. There was some wood, electrical and misc. stuff (caulk, glue, fasteners, etc.)that I had laying around that went into it.

I have a detached building in my backyard with a semi-finished loft upstairs. This is where it currently resides, along with my other brewing supplies.

scottsr123

Recipes 

Well, I let it run for about a day and a half set at 4C. It looks like it's bottomed out at 7.2, or about 45 degrees F. Not as low as I'd like for cold crashing, but not too shabby.

Now, I need to brew something to give it some real work.

LaFinDuMonde

Recipes 

Nice job! Have you tested the heating aspects of this yet? I'm looking to build a chamber soon and was wondering if a reptile heat light was enough.

Thanks,
Mike

scottsr123

Recipes 

Here's what I'm using for heat. These emit almost zero UV light that would skunk beer, and are less than half the cost of the ceramic reptile heaters.




During a recent cold spell, I was testing with the probe in my fermenter full of water. With an ambient temp around 50F, this easily maintained 70F.

rudzy17

Recipes 

What are your thoughts on that controller? I saw it was listed on homebrewfinds.com at a price of $20. That's an insanely good deal for a dual stage controller that made me think perhaps its too good to be true...thoughts?

meadmazer

Recipes 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-aquarium-temp-controller-build-163849/

Most rave about them. I just got one on the way a couple days ago.