Help with keeping fermentor at right temp...

I'm getting back into brewing but have a problem finding a place in my house or garage that stays around 70* for fermenting. I can't seem to find one. I live in Oregon and it's the summers I'm concerned about. No way in the garage. Any one know of any dorm-size fridges that can fit a 6.5 gal carboy?
Or, any other suggestions?

thanks

Well there's a few options that I know of...

1) Spend the money for a small fridge and temp. controller.
2) Put your A/C on 70 F

or I choose #3...
Place your carboy in a tub full of water and throw a frozen water bottle or two every now and then in to keep it down. The water cools/heats slower than the surrounding air, so it's easier to maintain temp. that way. Some insulation around it might help more as well.

I use a cooler filled with water and an aquarium heater @ 68. Cover the top with thick foam insulation and even my garage gets up to 90 it still sticks at 68.

Beernip said:

I use a cooler filled with water and an aquarium heater @ 68. Cover the top with thick foam insulation and even my garage gets up to 90 it still sticks at 68.

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Sorry, but how does an aquarium heater help keep the temps at 68, when the garage is at 90?

I used to use the ice/swamp bucket technique until I stumbled across a free full-size fridge with temp controller already installed off CL. It's great not having to swap out frozen water bottles, but that technique does work well. (just not as well as setting the thermostat and walking away)

JesseRC said:

Sorry, but how does an aquarium heater help keep the temps at 68, when the garage is at 90?

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The insulation keeps the heat out on the hot days and the heater warm on the cold days. I see very little temp difference as long as I keep the top on with a temp probe through the top.

Also helps that at night it gets down to 50.

Cheap Craigslist refrigerator and a $50 Ranco controller is all you need.

Ice bucket method works.

In Hawaii I used a cardboard box with some thick insulation and then just put in a few ice jugs to make a fermentation chamber.

I'm a new brewmaster but I recently tackled this issue. I brew in the desert, it gets warm here.

Get a bucket large enough to hold your fermentor. Fill bucket with water up to, or below, the level of the beer in your fermentor. Cover the fermentor with an old, wet t-shirt dangling in the water. It works reasonably well, keeping temperature below ambient, especially if you add bottles of frozen water to your bucket.

Another option is to look up plans and construct your own fermentation chiller. Look up "son of a fermentation chiller" or "mother of a fermentation chiller" for a good starting point.

You will want you ambient temp lower than 70...when it starts to ferment it will shoot up 10 degrees over ambient.

Pat

I scored a like-new mini-fridge not long ago, with the intention of lagering. I was bummed to see my carboy won't fit in it, due to the compressor hump.

So tonight I thought, why not build a collar for it similar to a chest freezer. That would bump the door out, and allow room for the carboy. I'll put an empty carboy in soon, and see how it will work. Height may still be a problem...

Dumb idea?

Beernip said:

The insulation keeps the heat out on the hot days and the heater warm on the cold days. I see very little temp difference as long as I keep the top on with a temp probe through the top.

Also helps that at night it gets down to 50.

Click to expand...

I just had to say something. :? Temp hit a 100 in the garage this weekend and temp jumped up to 75 so had to add some ice bottles. Stupid karma.

peter4jc said:

I scored a like-new mini-fridge not long ago, with the intention of lagering. I was bummed to see my carboy won't fit in it, due to the compressor hump.

So tonight I thought, why not build a collar for it similar to a chest freezer. That would bump the door out, and allow room for the carboy. I'll put an empty carboy in soon, and see how it will work. Height may still be a problem...

Dumb idea?

Click to expand...

Should work. Check out this for https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/new-fermentation-chamber-build-102846/ for other ideas.

McKBrew said:

In Hawaii I used a cardboard box with some thick insulation and then just put in a few ice jugs to make a fermentation chamber.

Click to expand...

i did that with a styrofoam box for my first lager. it actually worked great!

McKBrew said:

Cheap Craigslist refrigerator and a $50 Ranco controller is all you need.

Ice bucket method works.

In Hawaii I used a cardboard box with some thick insulation and then just put in a few ice jugs to make a fermentation chamber.

Click to expand...

MckBrew,

Where would you recommend looking for this Ranco controller? They seemed to be more than $50 by just doing a quick google search. Do you just plug your fridge into this controller and set the temp or is there some wiring needed? Is this recommended over the Love controllers?

thanks for the suggestion

Bump, bump

Beavdowg said:

MckBrew,

Where would you recommend looking for this Ranco controller? They seemed to be more than $50 by just doing a quick google search. Do you just plug your fridge into this controller and set the temp or is there some wiring needed? Is this recommended over the Love controllers?

thanks for the suggestion

Click to expand...

I've been doing some more research on this too. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but you can get both the Ranco and Johnson controllers in a single stage or dual stage. With the single stage you can control only one element. Either cooling (turning fridge on) or heating (turning heater/light on).

With the dual stage you can control both heating and cooling. If it falls below set temp 1 turn on plug A. If it goes over temp set 2 turn on plug B.

Search out the thread "Water Fermentation Chiller"
I built my system based on the model by JCarson99 and it works perfectly.
The most expensive item is the Ranco temp controller. Prewired with the thermowell, it ran me about $100.
I already had an ice chest and I picked up a 10 gallon water cooler on Craigslist for $25.
The system can also be Multi purpose, you can also hook up the system to your wort chiller and pump ice cold water through it to speed up the process OR use the 10 gallon water cooler as a Mash/Lauter Tun (I bought they bulkhead fitting for this reason).

It's not the cheapest system, but I think the multiple uses are enough to justify the cost.

peter4jc said:

I scored a like-new mini-fridge not long ago, with the intention of lagering. I was bummed to see my carboy won't fit in it, due to the compressor hump.

So tonight I thought, why not build a collar for it similar to a chest freezer. That would bump the door out, and allow room for the carboy. I'll put an empty carboy in soon, and see how it will work. Height may still be a problem...

Dumb idea?

Click to expand...

I converted a mini fridge to a fermentation chamber for my buckets. The fridge would not work due to the compressor hump like you mentioned. But the way I solved the problem was to change the inside of the door. My fridge had the small shelves on the inside of the door, these were what was holding me back. On mine if you lifted up the inside edge of the seal there were several screws that hold the inside of the door on. I removed all of them and then pulled out the inside of the door shelves and all in one piece. I went to Home Depot/Lowes and picked up some fiberglass/plastic sheeting used to make shower walls. I used the old inner door as a template and made a new inner door. Reinstalled the weather strip, new inner door, and screws. Now my fermentation bucket fits fine. It just does touch the inside of the door when I shut it.