chest freezer recomendations

[ClarkBar]

Hi All!

Currently the temperature in my basement is pretty good for making ales, but after my recent Oktoberfest trip, I now want to lager some delicious German style beers. I also am bottling right now, and want to start kegging. My questions is how can I do this without buying 3 separate chest freezers? The way I see it is I need 1 for a fermentation chamber, 1 for lagering, and 1 to be turned into a keezer. I realize I could reuse 1 for all three purposes, but then I would have to wait an awful long time between batches as I would need to ferment, lager, and consume all the beer before I could start a new batch. Any advice? Could I maybe get away with 2 chest freezers and use the keezer as a lagering chamber?

Thanks,
Agent Clarkington

 

[chickypad]

I lager my beers in the keezer in kegs. I keep it around 41*, so maybe a little warm for traditional lagering but it seems to do the job fine.

 

[doug293cz]

Getting an oversized freezer for your keezer to allow space for lagering sounds like the best option. I have one 7.2 cu ft chest for fermentation, and am shopping for a keezer chest. I'll probably oversize the keezer chest, and lager in kegs.

Brew on

 

[JayDubWill]

I lager my beers in the keezer in kegs. I keep it around 41*, so maybe a little warm for traditional lagering but it seems to do the job fine.

This is how I do it too. 41~42 is in the realm of good laggering temps. So long as you can dedicate the space to the beer for two or three months you'll be fine. I have to leave my tap disconnected or I end up "sampling" all of my beer away before it's at it's peak.

 

[JayDubWill]

I should add that 2 or 3 months is if you use mostly or all pilsner malt. Laggering time can be shortened if you use 2-row pale malt, or a 50/50 mix, but i'm a traditionalist when it comes to my laggers.

 

[ClarkBar]

Thanks guys, I think the 2 chest freezer setup is right for me. I'll have to do some measurements to determine what sizes to buy. I typically do 10 or 15 gallon batches, so I'm hoping to find a fermentation freezer that will hold 3 big mouths, and I'll get a pretty big one for keezer / laggering.

 

[RLinNH]

Sounds like you want a freezer for ales also. I have for many years used the swamp cooler technique with great success. Need to be anal about it and check it every chance you get for the first week and adjust temps accordingly, but it also cuts down the need for a ale fermentation freezer. I like to ferment most of my ales at 65 degrees, and a swamp cooler has no problems getting, and maintaining those temps.