two room cold room plan

I want to build a cold room. The space available is 4'6" x 12' I think two sections with two ac units would give me the best control. I could put one conical in each and make whatever I wished. My glycol chiller is dead (at least for now) and besides, I would love a place to store finished beer that was ut of the elements. I have read John Beer's write up and many others, but what advice do you all have to offer?

DO IT.


Will watch with interest.

Does it sound like a good idea or a stupid waste of time and energy?

I think it is a good idea. I could probably use 2 more chest freezers (total of 3 then) for lagering, storage etc all that take up space and power. Then I got wine bottles sitting in areas in the house where it's too warm. A room would be awesome to have and I know exactly where in my place I could do such a thing too. I like the split in two areas thought as well.

Seriously,
It depends if you have the time, energy, space and $$$ to waste?
I know you are looking for a new project.
I love the idea and think I'd do it if I had all of the above.

I think I'd make the second a dual purpose general storage area so you could put both fermenters in one if they need the same temp. Or can shut one down when not fermenting to save $$$$

Can you heat with an AC unit as well?

No, but a controller could run a small heater as well. New Mexico gets hot and cold so I would need both. I just really don't want to waste my brewing time and energy on batches without good temperature control.

Is the space inside the house or something built outside/garage?

So, would each room have a separate temperature control?

It would be in the garage and each space/conical would have a controller/probe.

Brewpastor said:

It would be in the garage.

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Yea, that's my spot too. It's a storage, toolbench area today and probably about the same dimensions. All walls are there and even has a window for an AC unit. I'd need to build out the ceiling and a whole bunch of insulation in the John Beere model and a door.

My thoughts have been to keep the 1 chest freezer in there just for the 40 degree storage / lagering and keep the rest of the area in the low-mid 60s 365 days a year. Someday maybe.. good luck if you do it!

Brewpastor said:

It would be in the garage and each space/conical would have a controller/probe.

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You don't have a garage, it's a full blown brewery.
DesertBrew, have you seen Pastor's setup?

orfy said:

You don't have a garage, it's a full blown brewery.
DesertBrew, have you seen Pastor's setup?

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Yea, I think being able to park a car inside is required in order to call it a garage!

That is the only think that keeps my brewery in check. Got to keep room for the Honda Van or SWMBO will cut me off where it hurts - no more grain money!

I considered doing this. My old garage actually has an insulated room inside of it. I decided to go with the conditioning cabinet. If you decide to do the rooms, two words: Insulate & Insulation. At least R40.

I am considering building something very similar for fermentation in my garage. It would not be anywhere near as detailed as the walk-in cooler - probably just lined with plywood.

The only thing with the AC you have to worry about is excess moisture freezing up on the coils. I solved this by adding some 12v fans to the grill.

I guess I would also be worried about the drainage from the back of the AC - there will be quite a bit. If it doesn't drain outside, that will have to be taken into consideration.

The walk-in cooler has been up and running for over a year now - holding steady at 36 degrees - and I can tell you for fact that I have not noticed any difference in our energy costs at all. Its pretty amazing...

Let me know if you have any questions or would like a copy of the Zymurgy article.

david_42 said:

I considered doing this. My old garage actually has an insulated room inside of it. I decided to go with the conditioning cabinet. If you decide to do the rooms, two words: Insulate & Insulation. At least R40.

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I'll second that one!

You'll save quite a bit of money on your energy bills taking special efforts on your insulation. The walls you can either do rolled or rigid peices. Multiple layers of the rigid are easiest. (be sure to stager the peices so one sheet covers the seam of the sheets behind it. Also tape the joints)

calk any gaps before putting up the insulation to get a good seal.

Someday you might have a big spill... instead of running the insulation board all the way to the ground, lay down a peice of TREX 2x6 decking at the base. Calk around it. This will save you some headache in case of a mess from any liquid.

Put weather stripping on your access door. You might want to allow some air flow under the door as you'll be forcing air in from the AC units, so the pressure has to go somewhere.

Thanks for the great tips. This board is great.

I was thinking of a brew shed with dual walk-ins. One for ales, the other lagering.

I was planning on using one A/C unit in the lager side and using several CPU fans to circulate cool air into the ale side during warmer months. And a heater in the ale side blowing air into the lager side during the colder months.

Tons of insulation and air tight.

I know I'm bringing up a really old topic, but I wanted to simply correct something I saw.

davefleck said:

You might want to allow some air flow under the door as you'll be forcing air in from the AC units, so the pressure has to go somewhere.

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Window A/C units don't force any air into a room. They only strip the heat from the air already in the room and dump it out the back. I can't see any pressure increase from that, though I might be missing something.
Seal 'er up tight.
The rest of your post and the others here have been really informative, though.
If I had the space and a little dough I'd do it. Stainless steel panels on the inside walls, which would be constructed of SIPs would do the trick. Elevate the "room" and insulate the floor to the same degree as your walls and ceiling, and run a drain out through this 12" joist space, too, for the mess-factor. The floor could just be epoxy coated tongue and groove flooring boards, sloping in (or not, just squeegee) to the center drain. A nice door could be made from another sip cut to fit and hinged, weather-stripped, and latched. You'd need to seal the edges of the SIP somehow, too, probably just adding to the stainless panel that makes the interior side of the door. Hell, while you're ballin' out, why not fabricate some kid of duct manifold coming out of the A/C unit supply openings that more evenly distributes the air throughout the cooler?

I wonder if building one like this would be cheaper than just buying a prefab walk-in for about $6500 but I imagine it would be. And based on a google search worth of info gathering, I'm seeing R30 as being about average (could be wrong there), which could easily be beaten by a custom build. (Might not use SIPs though because they are something like R14) Although the marginal benefit of adding more insulation is probably beginning to go down at that point, your bills would still show it.

I wonder what ever came of this plan...

Take care of yourselves

Plans have changed, but at least they are under way!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/brewpastors-coldroom-build-135789/

I knew a guy that insulated a small shed with ac inside of his garage... got very cold, but I wasn't brewing at the time so didn't take alot of interest.

Your window unit wont go below like 55 degrees. So no lagering, and you may screw up your unit. I am building a 15x20 2 section cold room. Each side will be 15x10 with a a 4x7 doorway between them. I will hang the hanging plastic strip door between them. I have a 14k btu 2 fan chilling unit that I will put in one side to control to 30 degrees. And the excess will leak past the strip door into the ale side to maintain around 65.

I am running a small ac unit with a coolbot and having great results. The space is about 7 x7 and right now it is holding at 40 without any problems.

Beermaker said:

Your window unit wont go below like 55 degrees. So no lagering, and you may screw up your unit. I am building a 15x20 2 section cold room. Each side will be 15x10 with a a 4x7 doorway between them. I will hang the hanging plastic strip door between them. I have a 14k btu 2 fan chilling unit that I will put in one side to control to 30 degrees. And the excess will leak past the strip door into the ale side to maintain around 65.

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Beermaker.... have you finished this project? I'm curious how it worked out as I'm thinking about doing something similar for my nanobrewery. Can you share more info about the chilling unit? Is it an all-in-one evaporator and condenser?

- Chris