My Fermentation Chamber Build

I am just starting out with Homebrewing and needed a space to properly control the temperatures for fermentation. I cannot store any of my equipment in the house so the garage is the only option. My garage reached 100+ temps this week alone...

I studied the builds on the site quite a lot and as usual I started really complicated, casters, a monster sized chamber, etc... Then after calculating the space available and internal measurements, I made it more realistic and came up with the following.

I have two layers of insulation, the first layer is 1/2" foam board which leaves a 1/2" airspace gap and then I have a second layer of 3/4" foam board.

For the door I wanted to install some of the "whiteboard" material for a dry erase surface. This would allow me to track which beers were fermenting with dates and information as needed.

I installed this same whiteboard material, which I found in my local HD, on the inside of the fermentor so that I could seal it and clean up would be easy. It is essentially a dense fiber board with a white paint on one side, nearly an enameled on finish.

At this point I am still needing to setup a temp control. I have fan control using an Arduino and some relays but decided to that I would bite the bullet and get a Love controller. I ordered the TSS2-2100 and a temperature probe. I would still like to get my Arduino working but I was nervous about the relay type and specs for properly controlling the compressor. This is something I can work on later. I want to brew some beer!!

Apparently Picasa doesn't share so nice... I'll get some pics uploaded properly in a bit.

Great job. I too went a little complicated but not with the structure. I built my temp controller from scratch. I used 3 thermistors and a FEZ Panda with an ARM processor.

Someone recommended using a temperature sensor instead of thermistors for a smaller circuit. http://www.sparkfun.com/products/245

Just make sure you use an MOV (metal oxide varistor) across the output of your relay to prevent the inductive load of the compressor from arcing. The arcs pit the relay contacts and wear them out faster.

You'll also want to insulate your temp sensor from the air temp... I put my sensor against the carboy and duct tape a piece of folded paper towel to it. You want the beer to be at your setpoint and this will give your compressor a break. The internal air temp will fluctuate by 10 degrees or so but it takes a while for 5 gallons to change temp.

All of the insulation attached and ready for the whiteboard.





Here you can see the final enclosed chamber. On the left side will be the control panel and on the right I will create a cabinet for storing my brewing gear.


I guess technically my daughter made the first beer...

I setup dual fans to pull the coolest air from the fridge and create some airflow in the chamber.


Here is a shot showing the size, I should be able to comfortably fit 3 bottles in here

Update on build....

I've installed the Love Temperature controller, I purchased the TSS2 and have wired it into a old External CD-ROM case. (I knew I saved those things for a good reason).



Thanks to several threads on this site, wiring and programming the controller was a snap. There are some extra wires in there which control the fans inside the chamber. I will be adding an Arduino for data collection and eventual http posting of images inside the chamber.


I will eventually install a heating element so that I can heat the chamber when temps do drop during the winter. I should have several months of warmer temps left this year though.

Here is the front of the device, next to the controller will be LEDs for fan status and other indicators as needed.

That's a nice build. Clean and makes good use of space.

Dude! great simple idea! thats the kind of nice DIY git er done we need to do to get things done here in El Salvador!:rockin:

thanks for the inspiration!

Thank you guys.

do you have details on how to hook up the fans? i think i need to do the same in mine

Sure,

These are two CPU fans that I had laying around. They both operate at 12V so I soldered both of their power wires together and soldered that to a pair of wires that led to my enclosure. Currently they operate off of the 12V supply provided by the enclosure. They operate independent of the LOVE controller.

For wiring purposes I ran two CAT5 cables into the chamber before installing the insulation. I ran one on each side so that I could tap into either one when needed. One of the pairs in the CAT5 cable was what I used to connect the fans to the PSU.

so do you just have these connected to a standard computer power supply or something else? i dont know much about the wiring side of things, but it sounds like i can handle this one.

My fermentation chamber is having a hard time getting below 40 degrees. i feel like having some circulation inside may help this.

You are correct, the enclosure that I used was an old external CD-ROM housing. Computer components are designed to run off of 12V DC and 5V DC so the enclosure had the appropriate power built in. If you dont have one handy you can purchase a variable "Wall-wart" from your local big box store. While it is unplugged, set it to 12V DC, cut the end of the cable and wire the power lead from the fans directly to that. Please be careful with modifying the power supply as you can be electrocuted.

I love the construction. But I gotta wonder, is that refrigerator running continuously since it's cooling a space 3 times the size it was designed for? Unless you super insulate that I'm thinking that you're sucking a lot of juice.

I'm sitting beside it as we type, and it is off and remains off for quite a while. I have my temp difference set to 4 degrees so it will fluctuate 4 degrees to the hot side before kicking on. I insulated it with double layers and left an air-gap between layers and it seems to maintain great cooling with out running all the time. The fridge isn't hot to the touch which is also a good sign.

I've seen some other builds where they use a Kill-a-Watt to measure actual power consumption but I haven't measured mine yet.

What temperature do you have yours set to? I'm having trouble getting mine below 40. It will hold 50 and up temps and not cut on that much. When I try to run temps 45 or below it's on quite a bit and the sides of the fridge get pretty warm

I'm not running it below 64 at the moment, as I have an ale in there percolating away.

When I first built the chamber I had it at 45, but didn't get it any lower and I hadn't considered testing for cold crash capabilities.