Trying out new fermentation chiller

I got a Mr Beer from my daughter and he husband for Father's Day. Came with two kits. First kit attempt was less than successful. I'm thinking it was because it fermented at 78-80°, because I can't keep my house at 72-74 degrees during a Texas summer.

So I built a fermentation cooler based on Son of a Fermentation cooler with changes, and am trying it out for the first time. I did an STC-1000 controller rather than the thermostat. I also made it slightly smaller because I could not find square edged foam board and had to rip the edged off of tongue and grove foam board.

Beer is in the cooler, and I am really hoping this one works!

Chiller is working fine, BTW, so if this one does not work it's because I am doing something else wrong!

Travis
S

IMHO Mr. Beer kits don't make the best beer to begin with and their yeast is terrible. It is good however for gauging your interest in the hobby and getting some basics down. If you enjoy making your own beer at home I would suggest getting a proper book on the subject. There should be some available at your local library, and looking into getting a proper set up. You can also make small extract or even all grain batches using the Mr. Beer LBK fermenter. If you really want to make quality beer at home I would look into these options.

Having said that you are off to a great start with temperature control, and that will improve your beer. Your beer should defiantly be decent, just be aware if you are just making the kit as is it can be worlds better.

If you decide to do anymore Mr. Beer batches this video should help improve them further.

Good Luck & welcome to the obsession!
Cheers-

Wow, what a great video! Thanks for that.

I brewed a batch of beer a long, long, time ago, when the internet was just a baby and information was much harder to come by. I produced a picture perfect Maibock that tasted like crap! This Mr Beer kit just got me to give it another go.

I have 2 carboys, a brew kettle, racking and siphoning stuff, fermentation locks, bottling stuff, etc. from my previous attempt.

I read Palmer's book after I got the MB kit, but before I brewed the first one. Between that and all the lurking and searching on off flavors and their causes, I determined that my issue from a long time ago was fermentation temperature and sunlight during fermentation most likely. The slight off flavors I got with the first Mr Beer batch I believe were fermentation temps. So I built the chiller.

This is the last Mr. Beer kit I plan to do, since I have all the equipment to do 5 gallon batches already, but it did serve to kick me in the but to brew again.

The chiller is just awesome! I put two frozen gallon jugs in and the Mr Beer 36 hours ago. It is holding to +/- .3 C. It is running the fan for 45 seconds every 10 minutes or so with ambient temperatures in my shop between 80 F in the morning to around 95 F in the evenings, with no additional ice yet!

I'm pretty stoked about the performance

Travis'n'Texas

Mr. Beer is a very good way to see if you're interested in homebrewing before spending a bunch of money. I got my kit in February and after my second batch, moved up to 5 gallon batches with buckets and carboys. I just finished my own fermentation chamber and brewed a new batch of beer this weekend to try it out.

Good luck with yours, sounds like you're on the right track.

It sounds like you're all set, now you just have to get some ingredients and get going on a 5 gallon! Don't be discouraged if your first couple brews don't turn out as with anything practice will help with improvement. If you keep at it trust me, your beer will get better. You can make beer at home that is every bit as good as the stuff you get at the store it just takes practice and patience.

Oh that's another thing PATIENCE don't try and bottle your beer and drink it as fast as possible I think Mr.B recommends 1 week in primary & 2 weeks in bottles in their instructions... Ignore that give the yeast time to clean up after fermentation I usually leave it in primary a minimum of 3 weeks. Then give the flavors a bit of time to mellow and blend in the bottle again I would recommend 3 weeks. Trust me the time is well worth it, it will help improve your final product.

Have fun and enjoy... Let us know how it turns out!

Yeah, I learned the patience thing on my first Mr Beer batch. What tasted poor at first has really gotten much better with time, but it still has off flavors that are not attributable to aging.

I got home from work today, and after almost 48 hours my chiller is maintaining temp with no additional ice despite the Texas heat! :rockin: The fan is running for 1 minute now, as opposed to 45 seconds originally, so I will probably have to switch ice jugs in the morning, but if I can get 60 hours between ice changes in the heat of summer it's amazing!

Travis

I actually still use the LBK's. In my fermentation chamber I can fit two 6 gallon better bottles side by side. I have room above the better bottles that's perfect for 2 LBK's side by side so this lets me ferment right at 15 gallons at a time!

They are also great for doing experiments like adding fruit to a base beer. Example: Brew a 7.5 gallon batch of a Pale Ale and to a fruit addition to portion in the LBK. That way you dont kill the whole batch if it doesn't turnout so good.

I'm a noob and don't know what an LBK is. I tried a search and came up empty, but am searching in the phone app and since it did not even find this thread the chances are good I did the search wrong.
Travis

Okay. I really wanted to determine the maximum time 2 gallons of ice would support this chiller as hot as it is here in north Texas, but, I also wanted to make sure that the MB yeast had kicked! Beer is happily fermenting and I swapped out two new frozen gallons of ice.

Since this is Mr Beer, I don't plan on racking to a secondary for this batch, so it will live in the chiller a couple of more weeks.

Most all of my posts on this thread probably don't belong in the DIY section, and probably would have been more suited to the new brewer thread. Oh well, I'm really happy the chiller is performing so well. Way better than I expected! I will post the cut drawing for using tongue and grove 1" foam and lessons learned when I get a chance, in case somebody in the future needs them.

Travis

Staestc said:

I'm a noob and don't know what an LBK is. I tried a search and came up empty, but am searching in the phone app and since it did not even find this thread the chances are good I did the search wrong.
Travis

Click to expand...

No it's not a general homebrewing term LBK stands for Little Brown Keg it's Mr.Beer's own terminology for their fermenter

mkyl428 is right, LBK is "Little Brown Keg". You are on the right track with keeping control of fermentation temps. That's the biggest single thing you can start doing to improve your beer!

I couldn't help mentioning how the LBK's help me make more beer by letting me stuff more in my fermentation chamber!

I'm sure lots of folks on this thread are interested in your drawing and lessons learned!

Well, we went from record high of 101°F Wednesday to 15° below normal last night! Chiller was about 4° below the set point this morning. Beer has been fermenting for 11 days so I am not really concerned, but I really need to add heat already. I figured it would be a few more weeks before I had to fool with that.

I have thought about the light bulb in a paint can idea, but I have an old heating pad around here somewhere that I could put in there. Should I put it under the fermenter or just in the same chamber with the fermenter? The thermocouple is on the side of the LBK with insulation over it.

Recycling from another thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=6361499

"I use a small cheap space heater, this one in fact. And it does get cold enough that you'll want to control this regardless if you're using the chest freezer as a keezer or fermentation chamber. It would really suck if your beer lines were frozen over the holiday's or if your fermenting ale hit lagering temps!"

Thanks. I remember reading that. I don't think I have room for a space heater, but I have not actually shopped for one. There may be tiny ones available. I just stuck the oldest looking heating pad we have in the chamber and it's back to my set point and working for now. Later this year I will need more heat output I think.


Travis'n'Texas

Well, I shopped around, and indeed there are tiny space heaters around. Some smaller than a paint can! One in particular that is under $20 and that based on the question responses has been used (or at least considered) for a keezer build is this one -> http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-100-MyHeat-Personal-Ceramic/dp/B003XDTWN2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1410780340&sr=8-3&keywords=small+space+heater.

If it gets cold enough that the ancient heating pad I threw in there the other day won't keep up I may well buy that thing.

Yep, that Lasko is the same one I pointed you to. Works great!

Of course I completely missed the heater link in your post!

I took my little brown keg out of the fermentation chiller yesterday after 19 days, and bottled it, then returned the bottles to the chiller. I've figured out the primary issue with this chiller design. It's too small!!! I will be able to get a carboy in there since I bottled in 750 ml bottles and it was a 2 gallon Mr Beer batch, but I don't know if I will have room for a container for the blow off tube. I will probably build a little shelf unit tonight to try and free up a little more space. Even with that, I don't believe I could fit in a 5 gallon batch of bottles and a primary carboy, and I am ready to brew again.

The old heating pad I used as a heater for a couple of days when we had a cold snap apparently has a couple of hot spots on it, and it slightly melted a couple of quarter size spots in the foam on the bottom of the chamber I'm going to play with it and see if it needs to be trashed or if it is something I can work around. The foam is fairly soft, and the Mr Beer actually made an imprint in it too, so I'm going to cut some thin sheet stock I have to fit the bottom to protect it.

You shouldn't need to keep your bottled beer in the ferm chamber it should be fine in your house at room temp the beer carbs up much faster above 70F

Thanks,

But I am worried about off flavors at higher fermentation temperatures, which is why I built the chiller in the first place. I figured that bottle conditioning to carbonate is a continuation of fermentation, and should continue at the same temperature the yeast has been working at during the primary/secondary fermentation stages. Given that, and the fact that my first Mr Beer kit had a very low carbonation level and sat at room temperatures after bottling, I thought that conditioning at the same temp I fermented at would lead to a higher carbonation since colder beer can hold more CO2 in solution.

Do I just not understand this stuff? (likely! )

lol you will get it... the most critical time for a beer to stay within the desired temp range is during the fist few days of fermentation this is when the majority of alcohol is produced and when there is a potential for fusel alcohol production. After that it is safe to move your beer to a warmer temperature. Some brewers like to "ramp up" the temp in there ferm chamber after the fist few days to help the yeast finish up.

Once bottled beer should sit around 70F to carbonate and condition you can keep it in the 60s there is no harm in this but it isn't necessary and your beer will take longer to carb up as a result. The amount of sugar added at bottling time is not enough to worry about fusel alcohol. I'm not saying let it sit in a 90F garage or anything, but whatever temp your house is at should be just fine...

Thanks for the follow up. It makes sense. This is Texas, so house temp will seldom be below 76-78 for a while, except of course when it is during the rare OMG cold snaps that may occur. I'm thinking I will take about half of the bottles out of the controlled temp environment, which will make enough space for a primary carboy and blow off container and leave the rest in there and compare after 3 weeks. The ones I take out I will put in the coolest place I can find in the house.

It's a Mr Beer kit after all, and I seriously doubt that there will be a noticeable difference, or that either will be particularly good, but I will do something much better in my 5 gallon batch to follow, and can figure out if I have major problems other than temperature or not! lol

76-78 should be okay, but hey at this way you can test for yourself. Why not, right? All the talk of off flavors and infection can be scary when you get started but RDWHAHB. This is all for fun anyway... and with practice and some research and definitely good cleaning, sanitizing, and temp control making good beer at home is easyyyyyyyyy!!!

Staestc said:

Thanks. I remember reading that. I don't think I have room for a space heater, but I have not actually shopped for one. There may be tiny ones available. I just stuck the oldest looking heating pad we have in the chamber and it's back to my set point and working for now. Later this year I will need more heat output I think.


Travis'n'Texas

Click to expand...

I used to have a small space heater connected to my two stage Love controller. It worked great until it caught on fire! Fortunately my ferm chamber was constructed w / fire retardant ply and foam insulation plus the controller shut off the power.
In my new chamber I use a 150W ceramic bulb. No light plus it screws into a std bulb outlet.


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