Keg/Fermentation Setup

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bluespook

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I've made 4 extract brews, so I am clearly new to the "art". I've been reading various threads on this site for a couple of months, so I'm becoming familiar with the terminology, equipment, etc., but I would like to confirm my understandings regarding a couple of areas.

1. I understand that some beers, lagers I believe, need to be fermented and stored at a relatively low temp...like 35F. Generally, the equipment used for this storage/fermentation is a converted freezer, preferably a chest type, with an external controller. If this is correct, with a collar, a smaller freezer can handle three or so cornies. I see plans and discussions about "son of somebody" coolers...are these for the same purpose?

2. The CO2 systems I see, sometimes called "kegorators" or what have you, are for cooling and dispensing beer in your home.

These two things are not dual purpose, but rather separate functions...right? If a person is making different types of beer with different fermentation temps, he would need maybe two temp controlled freezers? Gads, this could be expensive!
 
Temperature control can be expensive. I have a serving fridge (kegerator) and a fermentation freezer (lagerator, or fermenator, lol, find a name and run with it). If you only have one then you will bottleneck your brewery on lagers. I am in this position right now as I need another freezer for lagering so I can keep fermenting and serving out of the other two.

Yes with a collar a keg can hold more due to you enlarging it.
 
bluespook said:
I see plans and discussions about "son of somebody" coolers...are these for the same purpose?
I don't have direct experience with the Son of Fermentation cooler, but I don't think it's intended for lagering purposes. It's only intended to maintain temps a few degrees below ambient, so getting to go into the low 30's would probably be very difficult.

Having a separate lagering chamber and a kegerator doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor if you're able to find used freezers on craiglist for next to nothing, but if you're new freezer/refridgerator, then, yeah, it would be costly.
 
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