Built a Fermentation room

I built myself a Room to ferment in. I have been building it the past couple of weeks. I used a small dorm style frig , Love TS controller & 3 computer fans out of an old Dell server.I will heat with either a Heat lamp bulb or ceramic heater. Heres a few pics.

Also I built a new Kegerator.



I wanted more room inside so I installed the manifold outside.


It holds 6 kegs with room to spare.

Very cool! What did you make the door with? What material did you use for the interior walls? Is that switch the master switch?

More pics of the inside please.

I am uploading them now, I used Fiberglass shower panels from Home Depot.
I used a door off of a upright freezer that I had that went bad an old R-12 unit. Also I used 3 inches of foam insulation.
These are all of the pics I have right now but if you want to see more I can take some tonight.

A ferm room and a kegerator? I'm very jealous of your beer skills.

And yes it is the master switch. when I want to run the heat I just plug it in and set the love to heat and the fans run with what ever I have pluged in or if i dont want the fans to run I just unplug it..
And to cool I just plug in the compresser and unplug the heat sorce.

LakeErieBrew said:

A ferm room and a kegerator? I'm very jealous of your beer skills.

Click to expand...

O I built more, on the other side of that white door is my brew room. I will take some pics tonight and post them tommorow.

Cool. It kinda looks like a shower, complete with soap holder.

What are the inside dimensions? Are you going to use shelving to get more fermenters in there?

If that heat light is too much, just try an incandescent light bulb. I use a 25 watt vanity bulb for my chest freezer and it keeps it a 65 degrees when the garage dips to 40.

keiths said:

And yes it is the master switch. when I want to run the heat I just plug it in and set the love to heat and the fans run with what ever I have pluged in or if i dont want the fans to run I just unplug it..
And to cool I just plug in the compresser and unplug the heat sorce.

Click to expand...

I leave the Love controller connected to the compressor and it will cycle my freezer to compensate for the heat generated from the light bulb.

My shop dips further then 40 here in Michigan. Its 17 degs. out side right now.I tried a bulb but it takes to long to heat up that big of an area so I got the 240 w heat bulb and it works, but not as fast as the ceramic heater I have. Ya it does look like a shower, I will take the dimensions tonight. And there is plenty of room for shelves if I need them.I am 6'2" and I can just stand up inside.

EdWort said:

I leave the Love controller connected to the compressor and it will cycle my freezer to compensate for the heat generated from the light bulb.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I will have to try that and see if it will work for me.

keiths said:

My shop dips further then 40 here in Michigan. Its 17 degs. out side right now.I tried a bulb but it takes to long to heat up that big of an area so I got the 240 w heat bulb and it works, but not as fast as the ceramic heater I have. Ya it does look like a shower, I will take the dimensions tonight. And there is plenty of room for shelves if I need them.I am 6'2" and I can just stand up inside.

Click to expand...

It won't take that long once you put fermenters in there. Plenty of room for a conical or two.

Ya I have a 15 gal conical and a 14 gal fermenter and they both fit with room for some carboys.

I use the ranco two-stage controller. In my case, I have freezers, but I put stage 1 on cooling, and set the max temp and range for the freezer to cool, then I set stage 2 to the lower temp and range and it powers a silver dome light fixture with a ceramic heat bulb (no light to light-strike the beers).

I had to put a foil sheet hanging around the lip of the dome fixture to keep the heat from being too intense on the upper shelf carboy next to it, but otherwise this works beautifully and my fermentation control in the one freezer is great. My other is the chest freezer I age beer in kegs in, and it's great too.

Maybe ceramic bulbs would work for you?
Is your temperature out there steady enough that you can tell when you need to switch the controller from heat to cooling? Mine is very unstable in my uninsulated garage and North Carolina weather. In fall and spring I don't know when it will be too cold or too warm, sometimes both in the same day, so the two-stage is a must for me.

Is your temperature out there steady enough that you can tell when you need to switch the controller from heat to cooling? Mine is very unstable in my uninsulated garage and North Carolina weather. In fall and spring I don't know when it will be too cold or too warm, sometimes both in the same day, so the two-stage is a must for me.[/QUOTE]

Yes it is pretty stable( Cold ) during the winter

I have to ask how you determined where to drill through the side of your refrigerator. I'd like to throw my CO2 on the outside, but have been really leery of punching through the side.

I went online and looked up the parts break down & drawings for the type of frig.)whirlpool ) that I have and seen that all the cooling was in the freezer, it has a big condenser in the back of the freezer and NO coils at all on the sides.

keiths said:

I went online and looked up the parts break down & drawings for the type of frig.)whirlpool ) that I have and seen that all the cooling was in the freezer, it has a big condenser in the back of the freezer and NO coils at all on the sides.

Click to expand...

I'll have to see if my old refrigerator has an online drawing. Thanks.

all you will need is the model #

Does the minifridge compressor/coil have enough strength/cooling power to cool that room down?

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but this fermentation chamber build is exactly the thing I've been searching for for my garage. Thanks for the posting.
Redbeard5289