zacc
Well-Known Member
After getting tired of changing out frozen bottles in my old chamber I decided it was time to upgrade. Besides not using frozen bottles I also wanted the new chamber to have two different temperature zones and have a much higher capacity than my old chamber.
I did quite a bit of research on different designs and eventually incorporated ideas from several other brewers build into one design. Before starting the build I designed the plans in google sketchup. The frame is made out of 2x4 and insulated with 2" Iso foam, sprayfoamed around the edges and then filled the remaining 1.5" with batt insulation.
The top chamber is for fermenting ale and the bottom is for lagers, cold crashing, and aging. I'm using the ebay temp controllers which provide the ability to control heating and cooling. I'm using a 5000btu a/c unit to chill the bottom unit and pc fans to circulate cool air from the bottom to the top. I haven't decided what I will use to heat the chamber but I wired the controller to an outlet in each section so I can plug something in later like a small space heater.
I took care to keep the inside of the chamber well sealed to prevent any mold issues down the road. The inside is painted with an exterior grade mildew resistant paint, I put linoleum on floors and used silicon caulking around all the corners. In addition I'm using a eva-dry unit to absorb any extra moisture.
I brewed the inaugural batch yesterday and it's holding steady at 68. I have the bottom set to about 50 right now and all together have around 30 gallons in the chamber with plenty of room left. The last picture shows the ferm chamber in its new home :rockin:!
This was a fun build and turned out great. There are a few things I would change if building it again but overall I am very happy with how it turned out. I got a lot of ideas and inspiration from reading other build threads so hopefully I can pass on some knowledge I've learned during this build.
I did quite a bit of research on different designs and eventually incorporated ideas from several other brewers build into one design. Before starting the build I designed the plans in google sketchup. The frame is made out of 2x4 and insulated with 2" Iso foam, sprayfoamed around the edges and then filled the remaining 1.5" with batt insulation.
The top chamber is for fermenting ale and the bottom is for lagers, cold crashing, and aging. I'm using the ebay temp controllers which provide the ability to control heating and cooling. I'm using a 5000btu a/c unit to chill the bottom unit and pc fans to circulate cool air from the bottom to the top. I haven't decided what I will use to heat the chamber but I wired the controller to an outlet in each section so I can plug something in later like a small space heater.
I took care to keep the inside of the chamber well sealed to prevent any mold issues down the road. The inside is painted with an exterior grade mildew resistant paint, I put linoleum on floors and used silicon caulking around all the corners. In addition I'm using a eva-dry unit to absorb any extra moisture.
I brewed the inaugural batch yesterday and it's holding steady at 68. I have the bottom set to about 50 right now and all together have around 30 gallons in the chamber with plenty of room left. The last picture shows the ferm chamber in its new home :rockin:!
This was a fun build and turned out great. There are a few things I would change if building it again but overall I am very happy with how it turned out. I got a lot of ideas and inspiration from reading other build threads so hopefully I can pass on some knowledge I've learned during this build.