My fermentation chamber i started building today

I figured I could turn my existing work bench into I pretty good fermentation chamber. Here are some pics soo far. Im trying to make everything from things I found around my house. So far $0.





Figured instead of buying a temp controller I would do some thinking and took apart a glade plugin and wired it to an extra wall mounted ac controller I had around my house. That way I set a desired temp and the ac controller will trigger the glade plugin heater thingy and fool the window unit sensor. It's not fully set up yet but this is it being tested out. Works great.



I'll post updates when they happen

Looking good so far!

Almost finnished. I have 5 gallons of water with a thermal probe in it checking on the temp


Peeking glass window


Inside


This is a gallon and a half of water o put in my fridge over night to bring the temp to around 40 degrees then stuck the ac probe in it (that way the ac unit would not run the compressor full time and adjust itself slowly to its max temp keeping itself from freezing over) and turned the ac to full power.


I got the fermenter temp to stay at an average temp of 67 to 68.5 after much adjusting of the ac unit after it adjusted itself.

Im all ready for making my first brew! Too bad I live in florida and ordered my first kit with liquid yeast without a cooling pack! Just ordered some dry yeast should be ready to start in about a week! Wish me luck

My yeast starter was a complete failure

twelvelookslikex said:

My yeast starter was a complete failure

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While it is likely that liquid yeast shipped to florida in the current climate is not good for it - why was your starter a complete failure?

I usually don't see krausen for my yeast starters, just over time, I get a thicker layer of white at the bottom of the flask ....

ferment chamber looking good- hope it works well for you! Keep in mind that yeast raises the internal temps of the wort, so you may want to see if you can get the chamber to about 60F.. when the yeast take off, they'll move that wort up to 65 or even 70.

I did see about 1/8th of an inch of yeast at the bottom but I think it was the same as in the vial before. The og is still at 1.040 after almost 3 days. Smells the same and tastes the same.
Oh ok thanks I didn't know the yeast raises the temp. That's good to know.

twelvelookslikex said:

I did see about 1/8th of an inch of yeast at the bottom but I think it was the same as in the vial before. The og is still at 1.040 after almost 3 days. Smells the same and tastes the same.
Oh ok thanks I didn't know the yeast raises the temp. That's good to know.

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hmmm. - sitting in your shoes, I'd toss in a packet of dry yeast... you should have seen some movement along the gravity scale by now..

Hang Glider said:

hmmm. - sitting in your shoes, I'd toss in a packet of dry yeast... you should have seen some movement along the gravity scale by now..

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Yea im making a Brown IPA as my first beer so I think safale US-05 dry yeast should be fine.