DIY Fermentation cabinet...

**Duckfoot** · 10-16-2008, 03:41 AM

Short story, made long...

Saw a mini fridge outside a customer's office a while back.. Asked if they were tossing it... The owner said take it... Made sure it was working and gutted it when I got home...

Stopped by Goodwill store one day at lunch... Saw this... (minus all the beer goodies in picture)

Took it home that afternoon for less than $40....

Thought this area may be a great fermentation cooler w/ addition of the mini fridge guts....

After a trip to The Home Gestapo, one sheet of Foamular and a tube of foam adhesive later, we are at a small stopping point...

Need to get another sheet of 1" for the door and some 2" for the side walls.... May even get some of that spiffy plastic paneling to cover all the foam...

One temp controller away from being able to start fermenting more than 10 gallons at a time...

scinerd3000 · 10-16-2008, 05:37 AM

very nice. If only i had more space i would have done this long ago. Keep us posted but so far a very nice looking project

**Brooklyn-Brewtality** · 10-16-2008, 05:56 AM

looks good, nice and big too.

Hanr3 · 10-17-2008, 06:30 PM

Not a bad idea.

Question I have for you, is that cooling system going to be big enough to handle the extra load your putting on it?

**IrregularPulse** · 10-17-2008, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hanr3

Not a bad idea.

Question I have for you, is that cooling system going to be big enough to handle the extra load your putting on it?

The cooling system was from a chest freezer. Where is the extra load? That cabinet is very similar to chest freezer sizes

*edit* I'm an idiot. Guess I should read closer next time*

TimGrz · 10-17-2008, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IrregularPulse

The cooling system was from a chest freezer. Where is the extra load? That cabinet is very similar to chest freezer sizes

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duckfoot

Short story, made long...
Saw a mini fridge outside a customer's office a while back.. <snip>

That being said, it s should still do the trick for normal fermenting. I think I would go with 2" foam insulation all around as he lives in south GA, unless he plans to move it within an A/C'd environment. Lagering on the other hand... I don't think she'll work good enough for that.

/tg

**Duckfoot** · 10-18-2008, 05:15 PM

Yeah it was from a mini fridge...

My garage stays fairly cool (Atlanta ain't exactly South GA

) and I don't plan on lagering for the time being... Also, I darn sure don't plan on opening this thing all that much, so I am assuming (dangerous word) that it should be relatively steady temp-wise...

My thought process on this is I was using a Mother-of-a-Fermentation-Chiller and I could only get 2 batches in there... And when I find a nice deal on a chest freezer I will recycle what parts I can and turn it back into a storage cabinet...

**BlindLemonLars** · 10-18-2008, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duckfoot

Need to get another sheet of 1" for the door and some 2" for the side walls.... May even get some of that spiffy plastic paneling to cover all the foam...

Yeah, definitely insulate the sides and doors as well. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but would it be feasible to add some weatherstripping to the doors?

This could possibly be a great system. I took the easy way out, and opted for a cheap Craig's List chest freezer.

**Duckfoot** · 10-18-2008, 11:08 PM

Oh yeah... I just ran out of Foamular before I took the pics... Also planned on some weatherstripping for the doors...

I had what would have been a perfect keezer / fermentation freezer... It was a huge chest freezer a friend GAVE ME a few years back, but before I got sucked into this hobby, I was cleaning out the garage and since I hadn't used the damned thing for almost two years, I sold it... Oddly enough, on CL... Oh well... I will continue looking...

**Duckfoot** · 10-19-2008, 04:14 AM

So tonight I got another layer of foam on the bottom and back (now up to 1") and the sides done (2")... Also got the doors done with 1" foam... Haven't gotten to sealing up the seams, the hole for the cooling line or weatherstripping the doors, but after 45 minutes turned on, we were down to 42*F...

On a side note, I also got my new 5 gal cooler mash tun built this tonight as well... Leak testing it over night... Found a 5 gal Rubbermaid cooler at work that was ready to be tossed... No lid, but I am sure I can finagle something...