New fermentation chamber!

Just took delivery of my new chest freezer. I picked up a 14.8 cu ft Maytag for 319.00 and free delivery. I'll be wiring up a Johnson A419 to control it.

I just got tired of worrying about how warm my basement gets and juggling frozen bottles of water. I just couldn't stand the juicy fruit "hinky" taste after my last two batches fermented a little warm. Now to get back to brewing....








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Yep... I can't understand why everyone does not have this setup. A cheap version (craigslist fridge and ebay temp controller) can be had for less than $100.

People fiddle and f*ck around with and buy a million different things in order to increase this or that by one point or whatever, but then they ferment their beer in a cardboard box with a frozen bottle of water or place the carboy next to an air conditioner. Sorry but that's just dumb.

I actually know a guy who was buying stainless and a mig welder to make a brewing system, but fermented his beer in a cold water bath in the bathtub...

This is one of the best investments you can make, period. Yeast contributes something like 70% of the flavor to certain beers, you need to treat those suckers right. I live in a 700 sq ft NYC apartment and I have a chest freezer with a johnson control; anybody can make it work (needed but not mentioned: very tolerant, beer loving SWMBO).

I got tired of looking at craigslist to be honest. Where I am doesn't have a large variety of stuff on it near by. I'm not downing anyones choice of fermentor design. To each their own! I just knew I wanted something simple that would allow me to ferment ales and wine at a steady controled temp and eventually work to doing a lager.

bmick said:

anybody can make it work (needed but not mentioned: very tolerant, beer loving SWMBO).

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Well my SWMBO is not a huge fan of beer (though she likes my cider and wine), but she is VERY tolerant and loving. She really doesn't mind my hobby a bit. She actually helps out a lot on brew days.

bmick said:

(needed but not mentioned: very tolerant, beer loving SWMBO).

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And, therein lies the rub. At least for me. Wife will not stand for a chest freezer in our 800 square foot apartment... But, I bet I can get away with a small, dorm size fridge or wine chiller as long as it is big enough to hold an ale pail with airlock attached. That would take up the same amount of space as a swamp cooler in the laundry room.

Have you found the freezer aspect to be over kill? I did at first because I had my temp probe in the carboy and I found that too drop the mass of the carboy my freezer would run too long. I was getting -2* drops. I added the DIY light bulb in the paint can trick but it didn't help too much. Then I taped the temp probe to the out side of the carboy with a towel acting as a buffer on the outside and it's helped a lot. Oh, I use a dimmer switch to lower the heating temp.

Anyone else have issues with a freezer?

frailn said:

And, therein lies the rub. At least for me. Wife will not stand for a chest freezer in our 800 square foot apartment... But, I bet I can get away with a small, dorm size fridge or wine chiller as long as it is big enough to hold an ale pail with airlock attached. That would take up the same amount of space as a swamp cooler in the laundry room.

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You need to upgrade your SWMBO:rockin:
Just kidding, I'm a lucky guy. When my beer fridge died my wife bought me a chest freezer and temp controller. we had a party coming up and she wanted the beer served properly, And she doesn't drink much beer, she's a wine drinker. But OTOH space is not an issue for us, we have a 2.5 car garage and we only put her Miata in it so I have plenty of room for my brewing stuff.