Upright freezer recommendations

Hi all,
Looking for an upright freezer for fermentation in a Sanke keg and brightening. I'm willing to pay for a new one but having a tough time finding one with adjustable shelves and a flat bottom.
My ideal would be one that can fit a Sanke fermenter on the bottom and then a shelf with a carboy above it.
I've been looking at the Whirlpool EV181NZTQ but I can't find anywhere to see it or confirm the internal layout.

If anyone knows of a specific model that would fit the bill, please share.



Thanks,
Da Spoon

I use a Kenmore for fermenting ... Look for a frost free model (obviously). You'll also want to build a shelf, as the shelves won't hold the weight. Here's my build: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/dutch-s-cadillac-fermentation-chamber-build-251579/

You don't need a "frost free freezer". Your temperature controller is already doing the work of the defrost timer.

But most manual defrost freezers contain coils integrated into the shelves so you'd have to bend those up in order to use it to ferment in, whereas the "frost free" units typically do not contain coils integrated in the shelves...so I'd suggest looking for a "frost free" model. I have a 13.6 cu/ft frost free freezer from Sears I bought about 4 years ago and it's about 22" x 22" inside and has a flat bottom with metal wire shelves, I think it was $400 brand new, although I use an old fridge for fermentation and use a Sanke keg with the Brewers Hardware tri clover racking cane setup. You can definitely get away with a fridge if you're only using a Sanke, but the freezer would be nice (I want one so I would have head space to get in and rack/sample easier, and if I eventually get a conical I'd be able to fit that in there as well).

cranium213 said:

But most manual defrost freezers contain coils integrated into the shelves so you'd have to bend those up in order to use it to ferment in

Click to expand...

I just bought a freezer off Craigslist for $40 without realizing that it had coils integrated into the shelves. Is it really possible to bend them around without breaking them and causing a mess?

EDIT: Looks like I can indeed bend those coils without causing too much trouble. Or rather, bending the shelves in their entirety so that they're diagonal. I plan to ziptie the bottom one to the one above it so it doesn't rest on the carboy. I will have to switch to 4 gal batches as the 5 gal carboy is the biggest thing I have that will fit in there, and even it will require a little bit of jimmying.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_295041-2251...uctId=3116845&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1

If you remove the panel on the inside of the door, you can fit a Blichmann 14-gallon fermenter in there. Flat bottom.

I paid under $400 on sale recently.

Hi Spoon,

I have that Whirlpool freezer model. Purchased at Lowes about 3 years ago for food use. If you're still interested in evaluating that model, let me know what I can measure for you. It's pretty full, so I don't want to empty stuff out to do so if you've found something else. The bottom has a slide out basket and I think it's not completely flat -angled in the back? . . . to accommodate a motor on the underside?

I'm considering adapting a fridge or freezer for summer brewing. Can anyone point me to a thorough how-to guide? I have a big fear of electrical work due to ignorance and would probably rather buy things like pre-wired relays instead of electrocuting myself to save money (I don't even know how they work, just that it's needed to control the temp???).

Thanks, clueless,

haus frau

Thanks haus frau. I've actually picked up a Frigidaire model: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/GLFH21F8HB.html. It's not cheap but I figured once I'm adding a large appliance, I want to make sure I can use it for as many things as possible so it'll probably double as a second fridge for food.

The Frigidaire has removable shelves and a flat bottom that will fit the Sanke fermenters well. I'm also planning to build a platform based on Dutchoven' inspiration so I can throw a couple of cornys or a carboy to lager or cold crash multiple batches.

Thanks again for the offer but no need to empty your freezer.

If anyone else is interested, I'm happy to post any information about the freezer (at least once it arrives).

Spoon