Fermenting Cabinet on the shelf

Time to move the fermenting "ale pales" out of the hallway closet. The temperature in there is not controllable and is steadily approaching 70° F+. After studying several under the workbench fermenting cabinets, I decided to design and build one on the shelf in my garage/brewery.

I scored a Haier Mini Fridge from a garage sale the other day for $15.It is a 2.5 cu. ft. model.
I cleaned it up, and set it on the shelf. Fits perfect.



I went to Lowe's and bought two 4'x8' sheets of 3/4" foil backed insulation foam. and started trimming in the cabinet. I have doubled the thickness, so it should have R9-R10 insulation factor.



Then I installed the front face of the cabinet. I re-used the door from the mini fridge. I made a seal out of galvanized steel used for roof flashing. The magnetic strip in the rubber door seal keeps the door closed tight.







I turned the fridge on last night, and it chilled down to 50°F by this morning.
I still have to finish installing insulation panels.

I plan on painting the front face on one side with blackboard paint, so I can make notes of what is brewing, and when it is due.

I am also planning to install a Love temp controller and a fan, and possibly a stir plate or yeast starter/ storage area.

The shelf area beneath the fermenting cabinet is going to be removed in the future, to store my brew rig that I am going to build soon.

Nice. I like how you reused the door.

1

Give the temp sensor some thermal mass, or try to get it inside of your fermenting vessel.

This will 'smooth' the temp curves, and you really want to control fermentation temps, not air temps anyways.

sweet build. If I ever get my garage in order I might have to do something like this.

You just made my day. I'm building a chamber with that exact same fridge and I was a little worried about it cooling a larger space. That is an awesome build.

Another project on my agenda, when will it ever end.

PaulHilgeman said:

Give the temp sensor some thermal mass, or try to get it inside of your fermenting vessel.

This will 'smooth' the temp curves, and you really want to control fermentation temps, not air temps anyways.

Click to expand...

So far the only temp control I have is the one that came with the mini-fridge.
It has an aluminum thermocouple that is about three feet long. I moved the sensor to the middle of the fermenter, and turned the setting to "1" of 7. This is the lowest setting. It chilled down to the low 50's.

Now what you are saying is give it some thermal mass? Do you mean place the probe inside of a jar of water? or what?

deflagratio said:

You just made my day. I'm building a chamber with that exact same fridge and I was a little worried about it cooling a larger space. That is an awesome build.

Click to expand...

So far I think this little fridge is going to work fine. I plan on using it for Ales, but I'm sure it will be fine for lagers as well. It will be interesting to see how it does this summer , when my garage heats up to 100°+.

I am going to have to make a drain pan of some sort with a drain line, because when it turns off the ice melts off of the tray and runs everywhere.
I haven't bought a controller yet, but they look pretty easy to wire up.

looks nice!

android said:

looks nice!

Click to expand...

Android
I looked at your Ebay temp controller. Can you get that where it reads °F instead of °C?
And does it come with a thermocouple?

I purchased a temp controller from Grainger. I went with the TSX-10140. I also installed a thermistor with 10' cable length.



I have lined the ferm chamber with .80" conolite, to prevent damaging the insulation panels. I placed the sensor into a yeast vial filled with freezer pack goo. It was still cold, when the picture was taken. The compressor turned off because I have it set for a higher temp, so I know the controller works.





I still want to add a circulation fan into the compressor circuit.
This controller came with a thermocouple. I wired it into the "def" slot, and placed the sensor on the exterior of the cabinet. I was hoping to use it to indicate the outside air temp. When I powered up, and programmed the controller, I got an error in the secondary temp probe. So I just turned the "def" probe off for now.

I plan on painting the cabinet today.

Do you have any updates for this? How did it work last summer? I just started brewing this winter and I keep my house at 68 in the winter but summer is fast approaching. I keep my house at 78 in the summer so that is going to be too warm to just leave my carboy in the kitchen cabinet. I also don't have a generator capable of running my house A/C but I can run the fridge and also, perhaps more importantly, my fermentation cabinet than I'm building.

Nice looking and out of the way. Similiar to my build going on now. Pics will be up on a new thread in a couple days.

insp79 said:

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I still want to add a circulation fan into the compressor circuit.
...

Click to expand...

Just want to comment on this. I think that you should have the fan on 100% of the time. This will ensure that temps are uniform even with the compressor off.