Pipeline Woes

Well, just when I thought I had my setup all figured out, I realize that my garage fridge can't be a fermentation chamber and a fridge at the same time. I've been enjoying a successful all grain batch of Ed's Bee Cave Pale Ale for the last couple weeks, and my brewing confidence has had a boost since I've gotten good reviews from friends. Now I'm ready to get another batch going since I'm sure this batch won't last long.

Problem is I use the same garage fridge with a t-stat override to ferment in, crash cool, etc. that I have my current batch kegged in. How I long to have a pipeline going like I've read about here, but I'm just now realizing that I think I need another fridge for that to happen. I tried bottling a few using a stopper in the bottle to slowly bleed off CO2 like I read about here so I could just keep a sixer cold in the family frig inside. I was disappointed to find them much flatter a few days later than when drinking from the keg. Do most folks have two separate refrigerators dedicated to their homebrew? Please tell me I'm not going to have to start campaigning again for yet another fridge/freezer!

I have a small ferment chamber set up with blow off tubes for the summer time when it gets warmer.
Right now i have just beeing leaving the carboys in the basement and they are reading 64 degrees...once it hit 70 so i dunked the shirt it water and it brought the temp back down.
As for cold crash.....I used to do it, Just like i used to allways secondary. Frankly i have gotten lazy and dont have the time to transfer 10gal just to make it more clear. I honestly did a test one 5 gal i secondary the other just primary 2 weeks. Both same FG and i swear i couldnt taste the difference and 2 of my other freinds said..dude same beer...sure you dont have a keg hooked up wrong?

I guess what it boils down to is, Depending on where you live, How cold or warm the area is, Depends on what ya need.

Getting a pipeline going is hard, I have a 6 tap kegerator in my living room and keeping it full of beer is a challange when working 60hrs a week+ at times....

Hope this helps ya out a bit

I employ 2 chest freezers for fermentation (1 for ales, 1 for lagers), a fridge for bottle carbing, and a mini fridge that contains my stir plate for yeast starters. All 4 have temp controls as well as heaters for year-round control and I live in northern Indiana.

As winstonofbeer stated a lot will depend on where you live and how much space you have.

Sorry, probably not the answer you wanted, but many here employ other methods of temp control (swamp cooler, fermantation chamber builds, etc)

Beach

Here in Texas, temperature is constantly going to be an issue. My house is almost never under 70 degrees and I don't have a basement. I finally bit the bullet and got the t-stat so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. The idea of going to wet t-shirts and/or ice packs pains me after being able to set it and forget it in the frig. I have two cornies, a glass carboy, and a sanke as a boil kettle. With these, I'd like to get to a point where I have 2 or three batches either kegged or fermenting at a time. I really don't see how to do this without another dedicator kegorator in the mix. I just posted hoping someone else has had this problem and came up with an alternative I haven't found other than crying in my homebrew knowing I'll have a month+ lag time between drinkable homebrews.

well if you want controlled temps during fermentation and you want to drink kegged beer, then yes, you need 2. I have keezer dedicated to finished kegged beer. Then I have a Thermostat controlled freezer to ferment in. I ferment for 10 days, then pull the carboys out to room temp as long as I want.

At this point my fermenter is ready for another batch. I ferment a few more carboys for 10 days then pull them out to room temp, then stick the room temp carboys from previous batch into the fermenter and down to 34 degrees for a cold crash for 4 days, then into the keg.

beach said:

I employ 2 chest freezers for fermentation (1 for ales, 1 for lagers), a fridge for bottle carbing, and a mini fridge that contains my stir plate for yeast starters. All 4 have temp controls as well as heaters for year-round control and I live in northern Indiana.

Click to expand...

Hey beach, any way you could help me work out my upcoming speech to SWMBO on the importance of temperature control?

carrotmalt said:

Hey beach, any way you could help me work out my upcoming speech to SWMBO on the importance of temperature control?

Click to expand...

I can help with the composition but the passion and salemanship are on you. Temp control is critical for what we do. The best thing I ever did was get my girlfriend hooked on good beer. Now she won't even drink the swill from BMC etc and tells people if they want a good beer to look me up.

Just an FYI, I'm single and live with my dog, except for college breaks when my son comes home to raid my stash/pipeline. :cross:

I didn't pay a cent for either of my chest freezers, just mention it to EVERONE you come in contact with and you'll probably score 1 or 2 from people who want to get them out of their hair. Free should fit into the SWMBO speach nicely. Lobbying for space is the next hurdle to overcome. No basement here either, Do you have a garage?

Good luck

Beach

beach said:

...Lobbying for space is the next hurdle to overcome. No basement here either, Do you have a garage?

Click to expand...

Yup, space is the real issue. We have a garage, but we already have the one fridge I'm using now, plus a stand up freezer full of venison. By the way, I initially thought I could use the stand up freezer with the t-stat, but the shelving throughout it is part of the cooling mechanism so that's out. A third bulky appliance in our already crowded garage is going to be a hard sell, but thanks for the tips. Finding a free one might ease the pain a bit. We'll see.

I live in an old farm house that happens to have two kitchens. So space is not an issue for me. I have a fridge & keggerator plus a wine cooler I ferment in and I still feel like I could use another!

beach said:

I didn't pay a cent for either of my chest freezers, just mention it to EVERONE you come in contact with and you'll probably score 1 or 2 from people who want to get them out of their hair. Free should fit into the SWMBO speach nicely. Lobbying for space is the next hurdle to overcome. No basement here either, Do you have a garage?

Good luck

Beach

Click to expand...

This is how I acquired my beer fridge.
Fortunate for me the closet I ferment in is a steady 60 dergees this time of year.

rwinzing said:

I live in an old farm house that happens to have two kitchens. So space is not an issue for me. I have a fridge & keggerator plus a wine cooler I ferment in and I still feel like I could use another!

Click to expand...

Two kitchens! Now that I could sell to SWMBO!