Ugly junk 2012, Ghetto Lagering Chamber

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Revvy

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
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Living in a small condo these days I really don’t have the space for a dedicated lagering fridge. When I lived in my loft, the garage had cabinets that got cold enough to lager in al-fresco, during the winter months. My GF has an unheated sunporch at the back of her house that I can use to cold weather lager in. Of course there needs to be a way to maintain a somewhat steady temp through all the changes we have during our odd Michigan winter. The biggest thing of course is preventing the beer from actually freezing solid. It also needs to keep the light from ruining the beer.

So for this winter I have put together my ghetto-licious lager box.

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It is a simple insulated box to which I have a computer fan to draw some cold air in as needed,

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a heat belt around the vessel,

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a temp controller based on the ever popular (and cheap) Ebay aquarium temp control module,

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and a thermowell made from a stainless rigid supply line and a carboy cap (about $8.00 total) to put the temp control probe into.

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I won’t go into detail on the build of the temp controller, it’s based on the one that Tomsd did for the love controller

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/another-tss2-controller-box-build-195713/

It has an “always on” bank of outlets on the top so you can plug any accessories into it, or to make up for tying up an outlet, and rather than just one outlet for hot and cold, it has the ability to plug two fans or a heat belt for to fermenters.

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Here’s my wiring diagram for it.

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Since the temp controller is in Celcius, I found a conversion chart online and stuck it on the side, as a reference.

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Now the thermowell, is extremely complex to build, and has a lot of expensive parts to it. ;)

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It uses a $3.95 HD stainless plumbing supply line, a $5.00 orange carboy cap, and some glue.

Just measure the length you want it to be (I chose 10”.)

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Then I crimped it closed, the proceeded to hit it with a hammer to flatten, folded the end over, hit it again with a hammer, folded it over again, hit it flat and then folded it a third time, and flattened that again.

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It’s not pretty, but it wouldn’t be ghetto if it was.

Next cut off the center pole of the carboy cap.

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I then bent the cap over and made a slit to accommodate the crimped end.

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Then I just pushed the tube through the hole in the cap and sealed it with glue.

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I used gorilla glue, I don’t advise it, the stuff ran all over the place and made a mess. I would use a less viscous glue. It formed a nice bond, but looks like crap.
Viola, an $8.00 dollar thermowell, to replace the $30.00 one my lhbs had.

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The chamber itself Is a large rubbermade bin.

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This is the brand I used. It was $15.00 bucks at Meijers. I got the largest one they had so it would easily fit 2 carboys in there.

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For insulation I bought a 6 pack of Styrofoam “poly panel” insulation.

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You can use anything really. I would have used “pink stuff” foam board, but I couldn't fit a panel in my hatchback, so I went with the Styrofoam instead.

The first thing I did was work out the base, which used the lid.
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I measured out the inside surface of the lid, leaving plenty of room for the box to still fit on it, cut a piece of the foam, and glued it down, then weighted it until it dried.

I cut a second sheet of foam, and traced out roughly the diameter or my carboys.

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I cut out both circles and glued that sheet on top of the other one.

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Next I placed a carboy on each side of the base, then putting the lid back on I felt for the indentation that the mouth of the carboy made on the top, and drew a rough circle. Then I put a lit that was the size I wanted over that, traced a circle and cut out two circles to make room for the carbou caps/airlocks.

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I also looked for a place to cut a spot for the fan. The label seemed to be in the perfect location

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I cut that out as well, then placing the fan over the hole, I also marked the bolt holes to mount the fan.

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The next step is to measure the dimensions for the top and sides of the lid, cut the pieces and glue them in place. I used duct tape to hold them in place while they dried.

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Then cut out the foam over the airlock holes and the fan slot, and mount the fan on the end.

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Now that everything is assembled all that’s left is to set it up.
I put a heat belt on the carboy.

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Put the lid on and plug the fan and the heat belt in.

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Slide the temp probe down into the thermowell

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To keep excess light from getting in, I taped a piece of cardboard over the empty carboy hole.

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And taped around the hole with the carboy in it.

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Since the ceiling tends to leak a bit, I just wrapped a bag around the controller.

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This can be used anywhere cold, a garage, your deck/terrace if you live in an apartment, your back yard even, as long as you live in a cold climate. So don’t let the lack of a refrigerator/freezer deter you from brewing lagers. In many places, brewing was seasonal, with lagering being done in the winter, and ales being done when the cold was gone.

Hope this helps!
:mug:
 
wow man! i dig it, i've been debating the same thing for even my ales..
my "storage/movie/man cave/my room" actually gets too chilly (toward lagering temps) so i've just been leaving the door open to the rest of the house which helps, but i'm diggin this!
(heart) your ugly junk.
 
This is fantastic. Thanks for posting. I always like reading about all the whiz-bang stuff people on here come up with, but I'm often intimidated because I'm not even vaguely handy.

I think I could actually build this ugly junk. Thanks, Revvy!
 
very nice, Revvy! you know i've been waiting to see how this turns out! very nice, and very easy on the wallet. it's very similar to how i'm doing my garage lagering tub, except i'm using a water bath and aquarium heater to heat mine, and good ol' mother nature to cool. temp controller's running the heater thanks again for the thermowell idea, sure as $h!t works better that my idea of rubber banding the probe to the carboy. :rocking:
i'll get some pics up as soon as i start lagering this Alt, she's in a swamp cooler in my cool room (front room's an old converted 3 season porch!) fermenting away at 55 degrees with little help, maybe a bottle of water here and there. :mug:
 
Great stuff Revvy! I have been wondering what I could use as an inexpensive thermowell. I checked at my local Home Depot and Rona but the only rigid supply lines I could find were chrome plated copper. Does anyone know if there are any concerns with having this in the fermenter for extended periods of time?
 
That's pretty badass. I've been ready to pull the trigger on some kind of heated fermentation chamber to get me through the cold months. With something like this I wouldn't have to hump my full carboys up a flight of stairs. Thanks for sharing.
 
So Revvy, can I tell you why I love you? I have been digging through hundreds of pages of eBay controller threads. You are the first person to post a wiring diagram I can read and understand. I am confused on wiring my stir plate. So that is really quite a feat.

I can't thank you enough.
 
So Revvy, can I tell you why I love you? I have been digging through hundreds of pages of eBay controller threads. You are the first person to post a wiring diagram I can read and understand. I am confused on wiring my stir plate. So that is really quite a feat.

I can't thank you enough.

Thanks, I had the same issues with most of the other ones on here as well. I was pmming several people showing them the ones I was confused by. I finally had to just do it for myself..I just figured it's because I'm too dumb to read a "correct" one, that I had to do one in my own "Idiot Language" :) glad to know it was helpful.
 
Thanks, I had the same issues with most of the other ones on here as well. I was pmming several people showing them the ones I was confused by. I finally had to just do it for myself..I just figured it's because I'm too dumb to read a "correct" one, that I had to do one in my own "Idiot Language" :) glad to know it was helpful.

Lol. I'm going to assume that one of the benefits of being experienced with electrical work, is being able to scribble a diagram on a napkin, and feel like that should be sufficient. :D
 
I thought I'd update this to show how I've finally figured out how to seal my ghetto thermowell. I really wasn't too keen on the bend and fold method.

Basically I fill the bottom with 100% silicone for aquariums which is food safe, then seal it with some tinfoil and paint on some more silicone over the tinfoil to seal it.

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This is from my ghetto sous-vide cooker.
 
Did you have any problems with the bend and fold t-wells? That looked like it would work fine to me as long as you didn't hammer it so hard it cracked. I also don't see why you couldn't use copper feed line as well.
 
Did you have any problems with the bend and fold t-wells? That looked like it would work fine to me as long as you didn't hammer it so hard it cracked. I also don't see why you couldn't use copper feed line as well.

I've read that copper and fermenting beer don't mix very well..
 
I've read that copper and fermenting beer don't mix very well..

I would doubt that, traditional boilers are made from copper. Also, I believe the copper ions than get into the wort/beer are good for the yeast but I can't remember where I got that from. The low pH of the beer will actually keep the copper clean too.
 
I would doubt that, traditional boilers are made from copper. Also, I believe the copper ions than get into the wort/beer are good for the yeast but I can't remember where I got that from. The low pH of the beer will actually keep the copper clean too.

The brewing illuminati say NO to copper in fermentor, yes in the boil pot.

Apparently, copper sulfate, a poison, can result if copper is present post-fermentation. While I doubt it's a serious problem, I wouldn't tempt the hand of fate.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/Brew-Strong-09-29-08-Metals-that-Affect-Your-Beer
 
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