Freezer type

Hey,Quick question. Would a upright freezer work as lagering cabinet ? I'm figuring that a temp.controller would be needed...Any ideas ? Pics.?Tips?Warnings? Shane

Most folk on this forum seem to like chest types. I can't quite figure out why. I think an upright would be much easier to get the beer into and that's what I want. The only down side is an upright is not quite as energy efficient as a chest. The newer the better the older one are quite the energy hogs chest or upright.

My english, typing and spelling which is bad to begin with goes down hill fast this time of night after a couple of beers.

Some will work just fine, but you need to find the ones that don't have the coils that run through the shelves. Usually the shelves are too close together to fit a carboy between them.

The Chest freezers are better because when you open the door the cold stays inside the freezer (heat rises, cold sinks) this is also why they are better on power consumption. Also depending on the size you might have an eaiser time fitting more than 1 carboy in a chest freezer.

I say if you have one and want to use it go for it.. you will need a temp controler but other than that it should work fine.. they do the same thing after all.

SpamDog

SpamDog said:

The Chest freezers are better because when you open the door the cold stays inside the freezer (heat rises, cold sinks) this is also why they are better on power consumption. Also depending on the size you might have an eaiser time fitting more than 1 carboy in a chest freezer.

I say if you have one and want to use it go for it.. you will need a temp controler but other than that it should work fine.. they do the same thing after all.

SpamDog

Click to expand...

I agree

And if you happen to be 6'4" and 220lbs with 3% body fat they are great.

But even a body builder risks back injury bending at the waist raising and lowering
heavy objects such as a glass carboy full of wort.

I'll take a slightly less efficient freezer with less room over a back injury any day of the week and twice on sunday.

I lager in an upright refrigerator that has an Ranco controller on it. it does a great job but I can only fit 2 carboys at a time. It is energy star rated and dos'nt seem to drive the power bill up to much. I agree lifting a full carboy when you can't bent your knees is risking a lot when it comes to a back injury!!!!!

Are people really hurting themselves handling 5 gallons of beer? I'm not a big a guy, have a fragile back and only lift weights under duress, but particularly with one of the nylon strap carboy carriers, I've had no problems at all handling my batches. (Knock on wood.) I'm going to buy a chest freezer for the packaging and energy efficiency. But then again, I'm using Better Bottles.

I pick up my carboy and place it on the counter to syphon to a new carboy.. none of the chest freezers I have seen are taller than that.. and I also use a nylon carrier so it is a matter of bringing your hands a few inches below the top edge of the freezer when you put it in.. as long as you aren't bending over and falling in you shouldn't have any problems..

If I do my math right a 5 gal carboy is approx 40lbs (8lb per gal water *5 gal +/- for carboy weight) if that is true when I was on "Light Duty" for a severe back injury 4 or so years back I was not to lift more than 50lbs... so even with a back injury so bad I couldn't sit still and hardly walk, I should have still been able to lift carboys (If I had brewed back then it could have really helped my mental state too )

SpamDog

I've got a chest and would never consider an upright they just work out so much better. Yes it can be a pain to put a 6.5 carboy in but with a carboy carrier it's not to bad (and I've had back surgery).
here is mine:


Now that I use carboy carrier's on my 6.5's I can get 5-6 carboy's in my freezer.