Newbie's Fermentation Chiller

After doing some research on home brewing (this forum is great ) I realize that I need to keep my Mr. Beer fermenter at a stable temperature. I read over the plans for the Son of Fermenation Chiller and got an idea.

I have a coleman 5-day cooler thats big enough (hopefully) to retrofit it into a chiller.

The pics are pretty much self explanatory so here you go:





I already cut the holes for the fan and the other airway - just don't have pics of that yet.


I have a piece of foam cut to fit snugly into the cooler as a top for added insulation and then the lid will close over top of that.

My main concerns are:

1. Will I be able to fit enough frozen water bottles to keep the temp stable for the 10 hours i'm at work?
2. Will it get too cold? (Its rather small compaired to the regular Fermantion Chiller plans)

I have a thermostat that runs off of 2 AAA batteries and I already have a 92mm PC fan wired up to a 12v DC adapter (building PCs is my main hobby )

Thoughts? Concerns?

Welcome, it looks good to me. It should keep the temps. I would put a towel or rag down there to keep the water from pooling up. Also don't listen to the Mr. Beer haters that how
ALOT of us get started myself included. And I may no have even taken the plunge if it weren't for MR. Beer. Now I'm brewing all grain with a keggle steam mashing and have 9 yeast strains on agar slant. : D This hobby is fun and I hope you get as addicted as the rest of us.( To the brewing of course, I would never hope the other)

krops13 said:

Welcome, it looks good to me. It should keep the temps. I would put a towel or rag down there to keep the water from pooling up. Also don't listen to the Mr. Beer haters that how
ALOT of us get started myself included. And I may no have even taken the plunge if it weren't for MR. Beer. Now I'm brewing all grain with a keggle steam mashing and have 9 yeast strains on agar slant. : D This hobby is fun and I hope you get as addicted as the rest of us.( To the brewing of course, I would never hope the other)

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Thanks for the suggestions. I hope to get better equipment and more advanced brewing techniques later on down the line but for now the Mr. Beer will work. (My apartment limits how much I can do)

As for the towel suggestion, where does the towel go? In with the ice bottles or in the chiller chamber?

I had steady brewing temps with just icepacks or frozen coke bottles doing it this way when I was brewing with MrBeer albeit without the styrofoam.

Banjoman76 said:

I had steady brewing temps with just icepacks or frozen coke bottles doing it this way when I was brewing with MrBeer albeit without the styrofoam.

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Howd you get the water to boil?!? JK

If you can fit them under the Ice bottles I would put them there. But if not lay it flat along the whole bottom. I usually have a rag under the bottles. I also have 4 bottles in there 2 in front 2 in back. This seems to last me about 10 hours during really hot days and ACTIVE fermentation. If its a mild brew the bottles can last 24 hours.

the only real problem with mr. beer is that it makes such small batches. Even so, I do find I frequently want to make a smaller batch, for experimental brews and such.

Anyway - good on you for paying attention to your fermentation temperature. If you check out the many 'why does my beer suck' troubleshooting threads here, you'll find that many of them have the common denominator of poor temperature control (or liquid yeast with no starter). This design should work perfectly well.

Update:

I got pics of the airflow holes and wired up my thermostat and a status LED so I know when the system is running. Tested it out and everything works great

Just waiting for the sealant to dry (I caulked the joints) and then a test run tomorrow to see how the temps hold up.

I've got a nice sensor that records max and min temps (for my guitar) that I will use to get an idea of how much the temperature fluctuates.

Yea boy your in trouble. You got bit by the bug bad.

krops13 said:

Yea boy your in trouble. You got bit by the bug bad.

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lol I guess so.

Good news, when I came home today the temp inside the cooler was a cool 62 degrees.

The thermostat worked perfectly and I was able to keep the temps between 60-63 degrees with just two small frozen water bottles for 13 hours. The water bottles had just a little bit of ice left floating but there was bound to be more melting since the temps were about 74 inside the cooler when I closed it up.

Hopefully i'll be brewing this Wed. when I have off work.

Remember, fermentation is an exothermic process, so your ice will melt faster in the first few days of fermentation when things are going really fast.

Your build looks really solid; I hope it works out well for you.

Slider46 said:

Update:


I've got a nice sensor that records max and min temps (for my guitar) t

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Just curious, why do you need to know the temperature of your guitar? Are your licks really that hot?:rockin:

kwantam said:

Remember, fermentation is an exothermic process, so your ice will melt faster in the first few days of fermentation when things are going really fast.

Your build looks really solid; I hope it works out well for you.

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Thanks!

Stickshaker said:

Just curious, why do you need to know the temperature of your guitar? Are your licks really that hot?:rockin:

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Unfortunately, no lol. Its actually a humidity sensor that also has a temperature sensor. I have a nice Taylor 214. A $30 investment to protect a $1000 guitar doesnt seem like a bad idea