Please help me not freeze my beer...

Hi

I have a small magic chef fridge that I keep my homebrew in out in the garage (live in Chicago). Last winter I had only a couple 6 packs out there, and they froze in December. Would love to be able to use it all through the winter - any ideas?

Thanks!

Ranco, Johnson, Love.

Unplug it?

Heat lamp?

Move it inside?

Not really getting a feel for the issue here. Is it that the unit runs too cold or that, just by the nature of it being garaged it freezes?

If the latter, you can get a lamp and a timer on a budget or go with a dedicated controller (named above) and the lamp/heat pad/etc...

Thanks - the issue is that it freezes just being in the garage...

MGBeer said:

Thanks - the issue is that it freezes just being in the garage...

Click to expand...

Sounds like a good reason to move it inside to me.

- would love to move it inside, but space & spouse dictates that that is not possible...

Throw out her shoe collection. Space problem solved. Spouse likely too.

I snuck mine in overnight. She was not amused but, has gotten over it.

No doubt she's waiting for the day the toddler decides to pull the handle and walk away.

put heat in the garage a tv and a couch.. Little extreme ? Well if the air temp in the garage is below freezing then eventually everything is going to freeze. I would just get a temp control and some type of heating device set it to 40 and walk away.

Perhaps Heat Tape?
The stuff that goes in gutters or the ones that wrap around water pipes to keep them from freezing. You would just have to check the temp that they turn off at and be 5-10 above that temp to be sure that your fridge and the tape aren't battling it out at the same time! Anyone tried this? (I have not, BTW)

The answer is simple. Turn your fridge on low and put in a simple lightbulb. It will heat enough to keep it from freezing. Trust me. I have my kegerator in the garage and it's been fine.

Get one of those reptile heat pads they have in the pet stores.

Hook it to an external temperature controller.

I have the same problem here with freezing temps in my garage. I went with a Ranco two stage controller, one stage for the fridge and one for a small ceramic cube heater in the fridge. The advantage of the dual stage controller appears in the fall and spring, where temp swings require not just heat or not just cold, but both at different times of the day. Now I just put my temp probe in the beer, set my desired temp, and leave it.

+1 on the dual stage controller. Make sure you don't get a single stage on the advertised "heating or cooling" because it won't do both at the same time.

Bobby_M said:

+1 on the dual stage controller. Make sure you don't get a single stage on the advertised "heating or cooling" because it won't do both at the same time.

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For beer service I found the dual stage to be convenient at an unnecessary expense. At 24*F when will the cooling stage ever need to cycle? Know what I mean?

I opted to move my dual stage to serve the fermentation chest and moved the single stage to serve the the keezer. If you have the cash for the DS I completely agree that it is worth the "convienience" of setting both stages and forgetting about it but, for a little less the single stage will do the job. You just have to remeber to switch modes and plug the proper coord in.

I definitey suggest you get the digital. The Johnson analogue will work too but, you have to open the controller to switch stages.

When ambient is solidly and consistently below freezing, I agree with you. It's the spring and fall change over that can get annoying. One day it's 33, the next it's 29. Do you set it to heat or cool. If not dual stage, the only logical way is to leave it on cool mode and add a constant but very low wattage heat source. They'll fight it out to some degree, but it's better than freezing.

I have this issue with lagering in my garage rather than kegging. My kegger is set to 42 and that's as cold as my garage ever gets. It's when I want to lager ferment at 52 and the garage ambient is fluxing between 48 and 55 from day to day that I have this issue.

slimer said:

The answer is simple. Turn your fridge on low and put in a simple lightbulb. It will heat enough to keep it from freezing. Trust me. I have my kegerator in the garage and it's been fine.

Click to expand...

will this work? I am having some problems with keeping mine high enough...

use like a old lamp or something? lol

what could you use to keep the light out?

aekdbbop said:

will this work? I am having some problems with keeping mine high enough...

use like a old lamp or something? lol

what could you use to keep the light out?

Click to expand...

Yes and a black trash bag parka.

Put a coffeecan over the bulb. I mean you want to use a low wattage bulb, like 10w.

I use the reptile heating pad. I got the smallest one they had and its working great. In the winter, just unplug the fridge and plug the pad into the controller.


As far as dual stage versus single stage. I have a single stage and let the heater and fridge 'fight it out' during the transition months. Also, I'd personally get two single stages over one dual stage because it makes it more versatile for other things. That way, you only use the second one for transition months and the rest of the time, its good for other tasks. Just a thought.

If the fridge has a light that only comes on when you open the door you could just disable the switch and let the light stay on all the time to warm it up enough in there.

Yeah, I just have the analog johnson, so i dont think that I can use it with a heater pad.. I was just going to use the bulb and have the fridge compensate..

aekdbbop said:

will this work? I am having some problems with keeping mine high enough...

use like a old lamp or something? lol

what could you use to keep the light out?

Click to expand...

Why do I need to keep the light out when all my beer is in cornies?

Personally, I have a little clip on light that used to clip on my desk. Works well, has a plug and puts out just enough heat to keep from freezing.

I did just fill my fridge door with Great Stuff, so I should have even less of a problem this year.