show us all your fermentation closets/chambers here

3 Dog Brew said:

That is the coolest thing I've ever seen JohnnyMac. Good work, man!

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Thanks! I am brewing a nut brown ale today on the system - my 10th batch on the system now.

beerman70 said:

here's some pictures of my fermentation chamber I built. My intent was to make it look like a shipping create. Some fool was throwing away a perfectly good tiny office fridge. To small to fit anything... or was it. When I use it to lager it does take about a day to get it down to temp but I do believe that this is a good thing in that I'm not shocking the yeast with a quick temp change. I like to start my lagers fermenting around 60 and slow lower the temp down towards 50 degrees f. I use a stc-1000 for temp control and wired an outlet inside the chamber so I can plug in a carboy heater if I desire a warmer fermentation. I can fit 2- 6 gallon carboys in here. Also not pictured, I later added twist locks that clamp the door on at all 4 corners but also enable complete removal. sorry about the sideways pics. I can't seem to figure out how to rotate them on this site.

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I really like the shipping crate look - very unique! Do you have a keezer to match???

ampsman said:

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Hey Ampsman

What kind of Mini Fridge is that ?

That holds your Conical so nicely ?

Thanks
S

steveoatley said:

Hey Ampsman

What kind of Mini Fridge is that ?

That holds your Conical so nicely ?

Thanks
S

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I'll get the model when I get home tonight. I got it for free from work because they thought it was broken so they ordered a new one. Got it home and worked fine. :rockin:

@ boochuckles - My apologies for not replying sooner, I didn't see this... It is 35" high, 25" deep, and 6' wide... Insulation on the top and bottom is 3" thick. The rest is all 2".
The countertop is just a 6' stock piece from HD.

I ended up lining the inside with fiberglass panel from HD also. It was expensive, but worth it for cleanup.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/4-ft-x-8-ft-White-090-FRP-Wall-Board-MFTF12IXA480009600/100389836.

The AC unit fan runs all the time to circulate air, and I hooked the compressor relay up to the stc1000 to control temps.

Please LMK if you need any other info...

My storage closet and chamber in the garage. Right now I use it for ferment chamber or keezer whichever I need it for at the time

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View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1479568036.981873.jpg. Just an temp controlled old fridge

beerman70 said:

here's some pictures of my fermentation chamber I built. My intent was to make it look like a shipping create. Some fool was throwing away a perfectly good tiny office fridge. To small to fit anything... or was it. When I use it to lager it does take about a day to get it down to temp but I do believe that this is a good thing in that I'm not shocking the yeast with a quick temp change. I like to start my lagers fermenting around 60 and slow lower the temp down towards 50 degrees f. I use a stc-1000 for temp control and wired an outlet inside the chamber so I can plug in a carboy heater if I desire a warmer fermentation. I can fit 2- 6 gallon carboys in here. Also not pictured, I later added twist locks that clamp the door on at all 4 corners but also enable complete removal. sorry about the sideways pics. I can't seem to figure out how to rotate them on this site.

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Love it!

And here's mine - I switched from twin 17 gallon rotomolds to the fermenator which is quite a bit wider and didn't fit my old box. Reused most of the wood from the last one which is why the wood looks patchy.
I was tired of bumping the AC into the wall, so I put it up on top. Seems to work pretty well, has the first batch in it now. Gave it extra height in case I want to upsize the fermentor later. (ignore the paint cans, haven't made the leg extensions yet). The reflectix is there no so much for insulation, but rather it's a cheap covering that I can wipe down or potentially hose out if the fermenator has an accident... (floor is covered in 1/8" plastic left overs from another project). Its 36" square and 77" tall with casters. Walls are r14 rockwool and for the door seal I used cam-locks and 1/8" foam that you buy to put under 2x4s when they are on concrete (it was cheap and forms a good seal.

Calgary, my chamber is just a little bigger than yours. My A/C unit is 120v, I think its 9000BTU. It drops the temp in the chamber to 30-deg. while trying to cool my carboy a few degrees. What size A/C do you have? How do you regulate the temp?

honestly most of the time I am trying to keep things warm and I don't lager. Last summer I had both the ac and the heater plugged in and I found that my stc1000 was cycling between the two - but since it was pretty cool out at the time, I just unplugged the ac. I have an acceptable range of 1.5 degrees Celsius and so far (with the sensor just resting against the fermenter) it seems to hold pretty well. The chamber is in an insulated but unheated garage next to the house and it was fine at -20C.

A question for those more knowledgeable would be whether or not it is better to have the sensor in the liquid or the air - in would have the ac booming when it's out of range for a while (like you describe) the other would have it cycling on and off more often....

I'll report back if the snow ever melts here...

The little one next to the big one:



Room for two fermenters in the big one:




Using bulkhead shanks to pass CO2 into the large ferm chamber, and bring fermentation gases outside the ferm chamber to fill blowoff jars or purge a keg:



Closeup of the bulkhead shanks into the ferm chamber:



Carbing two kegs in the ferm chamber:

calgary222 said:

A question for those more knowledgeable would be whether or not it is better to have the sensor in the liquid or the air - in would have the ac booming when it's out of range for a while (like you describe) the other would have it cycling on and off more often....

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Yes, that is my issue. I have been trying to find the best placement of my temp probe to maintain beer temp without much fluctuation. Lately with the temps in the 10's and 20's my heater has raised ambient way above ferm temp to get a 1 or 2 deg. rise in beer temp.
I'm thinking about placing some 5-gal. buckets of water in there with some aquarium heaters to increase thermal mass and slow the ambient fluctuations. At least during the winter.

Gonefishin said:

Yes, that is my issue. I have been trying to find the best placement of my temp probe to maintain beer temp without much fluctuation. Lately with the temps in the 10's and 20's my heater has raised ambient way above ferm temp to get a 1 or 2 deg. rise in beer temp.
I'm thinking about placing some 5-gal. buckets of water in there with some aquarium heaters to increase thermal mass and slow the ambient fluctuations. At least during the winter.

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I don't do either. I hold the probe against the fermenter or keg using a piece of foam to insulate it from ambient, so it picks up the temp of the beer or wort. You can see that above.

Works well for me.

W/R/T my keezer, I keep the probe in a pint jar of water so the compressor is not constantly cycling on and off.

"W/R/T my keezer, I keep the probe in a pint jar of water so the compressor is not constantly cycling on and off."

That's a great idea @mongoose33, balances the two approaches nicely - especially when fermenting bigger volumes... is the stc1000 probe waterproof? [Edit - yes, it is waterproof]

It’s DIY even though I didn’t build it but I just bought this fermentation chamber/work table off of OfferUp today for $40. I kind of freaked out when I saw it. It’s way too nice to be $40. I’ve seen way crappier chambers going for $500+. It is super solidly built, heavy, has 5” of foam insulation all around, and holds 4 carboys. It’s lager time!!!!

Here's a pic of my fermentation room here in Norway. It's controlled by a thermostat and keeps a cool 19 degrees Celsius.

Some pretty sick designs in this thread.

I'm currently using a chest freezer that's being controlled with an inkbird, but I lost the use of the freezer storage (for other items) so I'm thinking about building a dedicated ferm chamber.

I see many on here that use the guts of either a mini-fridge, a window ac unit, or a freezer. Can someone share the pros and cons of using each as the cooling system?

specialkayme said:

Some pretty sick designs in this thread.

I'm currently using a chest freezer that's being controlled with an inkbird, but I lost the use of the freezer storage (for other items) so I'm thinking about building a dedicated ferm chamber.

I see many on here that use the guts of either a mini-fridge, a window ac unit, or a freezer. Can someone share the pros and cons of using each as the cooling system?

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My minifridge setup is not cold enough to do Lagers. It condensed quite a bit of water, then I got mold. It is presently in storage. I have a 7 cu ft. freezer that can hold two fermenters. I can do ales or lagers. This one is in storage also. In the mean time I have a 5 cu ft chest freezer for one at a time. I will probably use this one for lagers and the large one for ales and retire the minifridge one. I can use the minifridge to keep beer bottles in.