Fermentation Chamber idea

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Dwain

Dwain

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OK, I've looked through all of the posts that I can find having to do with fermentation chambers. There are some great ones here. When I built my shop to tinker with Jeep restoration, I put a small 5'X6' room to store my small brewing items. I have a different storage area for kegs, propane bottles, CO2 bottles, etc. Then, I "inherited" a couple of vehicles, so space is at a premium. The room is air conditioned and super well insulated, but I will be in and out too much to use the whole room as a fermentation chamber. I was trying to decide what I could put in the small room to use as a fermentation chamber. Freezer, refridgerator, mini fridge, I thought about each one, but couldn't find one that I could put more than 2 fermenters in as well as leave me any space. I have a countertop across one of the 5' sides.
What I'm thinking about doing is getting a mini fridge and putting it on one end of the counter top. Building a 2'X3' area underneath it with a door, and cutting 2 holes through the bottom of the fridge and the top of the chamber. Connect them with a collar like they use in A/C plenums. Install a fan in one of the collars to pull air into the bottom area, and it should force air back up through the other hole. I will wire the fan into the main fan so it will cut in when the compressor runs. I will also put a false bottom in the fridge so I can set a fermenter on it but it won't block the air flow. I will use a Ranco controller to run the fridge. This would give me room for 2 maybe 3 in the bottom and 1 in the top. I brew mostly ales and barley wines, but may start doing a few lagers. Possibly even one of Yooper's FYBs for the in-laws.
What do ya'll think? Anyone know of a small fridge that will fit a fermenter and doesn't have the lines running through the bottom? Any and all comments/critiques welcome. - Dwain
 
Dwain said:
OK, I've looked through all of the posts that I can find having to do with fermentation chambers. There are some great ones here. When I built my shop to tinker with Jeep restoration, I put a small 5'X6' room to store my small brewing items. I have a different storage area for kegs, propane bottles, CO2 bottles, etc. Then, I "inherited" a couple of vehicles, so space is at a premium. The room is air conditioned and super well insulated, but I will be in and out too much to use the whole room as a fermentation chamber. I was trying to decide what I could put in the small room to use as a fermentation chamber. Freezer, refridgerator, mini fridge, I thought about each one, but couldn't find one that I could put more than 2 fermenters in as well as leave me any space. I have a countertop across one of the 5' sides.
What I'm thinking about doing is getting a mini fridge and putting it on one end of the counter top. Building a 2'X3' area underneath it with a door, and cutting 2 holes through the bottom of the fridge and the top of the chamber. Connect them with a collar like they use in A/C plenums. Install a fan in one of the collars to pull air into the bottom area, and it should force air back up through the other hole. I will wire the fan into the main fan so it will cut in when the compressor runs. I will also put a false bottom in the fridge so I can set a fermenter on it but it won't block the air flow. I will use a Ranco controller to run the fridge. This would give me room for 2 maybe 3 in the bottom and 1 in the top. I brew mostly ales and barley wines, but may start doing a few lagers. Possibly even one of Yooper's FYBs for the in-laws.
What do ya'll think? Anyone know of a small fridge that will fit a fermenter and doesn't have the lines running through the bottom? Any and all comments/critiques welcome. - Dwain
Click to expand...

One problem you may have is that the bottom chamber will be colder than inside the fridge on average - when the fridge is not running, the cold air will sink down into the chamber below even with the fan off, unless you put a flapper valve over the holes. I wonder if it would be possible to use a dual output temp. controller - keep the fridge cold for lagering, then let the fridge supply cold air as needed to the bottom chamber through a hole with a flapper to keep that chamber at ale temps. Let the second output of the temp. controller control the fan/flapper to the bottom chamber. Or instead of supplying air to the bottom, use a tank of non-toxic antifreeze in the fridge with lines running to a small radiator and fan in the bottom chamber - second controller output controls the pump and fan. I don't know if that would really work, but just throwing it out as possibly another idea to think about.
 
I didn't think about the cold air "falling" into the bottom chamber. I like the flapper idea. Any ideas on what I could use to make one?
 
Dwain said:
I didn't think about the cold air "falling" into the bottom chamber. I like the flapper idea. Any ideas on what I could use to make one?
Click to expand...

Well, of course you could try to make some kind of spring loaded door, but that sounds like a lot of trouble. I'm just brainstorming here, but if you could run the pipe from the fridge with a sort of S bend in it, so that it comes down, then turns at 180 degrees up, then another 180 back down to the lower chamber, so that you have a short section where the air from the fridge is going straight up, then maybe put a slightly larger cross section "can" in the middle of that section, with some kind of ball (ping pong ball? - maybe too light?) blocking the airflow, but being pulled up by suction when the fan comes on? It'd also be nice if that section were transparent, so you could see if it was working properly - maybe find a way to use a plastic or glass jar?
 
What about using (2) 4" pvc couplings in the holes, then reducing the size of the pipe and routing them against the sides of the fridge and extending them close to the top of the fridge. I can mount the fan in the bottom of one of the couplings and pull air from the top of the fridge area and recirc it back to top. This would prevent most of the cold air from falling into the lower chamber. The only thing is finding a frige that I can route the pipe in and still have room for a 5 gal. fermenter. What do you think? - Dwain
 
Dwain said:
What about using (2) 4" pvc couplings in the holes, then reducing the size of the pipe and routing them against the sides of the fridge and extending them close to the top of the fridge. I can mount the fan in the bottom of one of the couplings and pull air from the top of the fridge area and recirc it back to top. This would prevent most of the cold air from falling into the lower chamber. The only thing is finding a frige that I can route the pipe in and still have room for a 5 gal. fermenter. What do you think? - Dwain
Click to expand...

Sounds like it could work, but I really don't have any experience in this area, so your guess is as good as mine (maybe better).
 

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