mr_stout
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2017
- Messages
- 122
- Reaction score
- 20
Looking into fermentation cooling I noticed that many options are quite costly.
Brew Bucket = $$$ (Big Money)
Grainfather = $$$ (Expensive)
Glycol chillers = $$$ (Costly and complicated - No way Jose)
Brew Jacket = $$$ (Whoa, I'll have to save up a long time for this one)
Runnig air conditioner all day in an empty house = $$$ (Two Thumbs Down)
Buying a used refrigerator = $$ (Costly and takes up a too much space. Booo!)
(Insulated) Brew bags with 2 litre Frozen Water Bottles = $ (Nice but, there is a cheaper way)
Son of the Fermentation Chiller = $$ (Fun project; Costly due to the price of the foam sheets, big and bulky, only holds one fermenter/carboy.)
I can cool multiple (at least 5) carboys at the same time with this technique.
The trick is to find an enclosed area for cooling like a closet and cool it the
cheapest way possible.
What I did was to use a polystyrene (styrafoam) container with ice bottles and
use a old PC fan to blow the cool air out of it. As air passes through the
chamber from PC fan to cool the entire closet. The closet uses weather
striping from the dollar store to seal in the cool air (Plus, this also blocks light
from coming in through the cracks). My temperature monitor is showing that this method
is able to maintain temperatures lower than 70 Fahrenheit/21 Celcius all day. If you wanted
you can line the walls/floor with foam sheets from the trash, or buy them but that would drive the costs up.
The fan speed is set to low to get the air in the chamber to cool down before it exits the polystyrene container
I may try one large chunk of ice instead of frozen water bottles to increase the cooling power if I need to. I have not tried it yet.
Items needed:
Polystyrene (styrafoam) container from the dollar store $2.94 or less!
Weather Stripping from the dollar store $4.95 or less!
120mm Old Computer fan (The bigger it is the less noise it makes) I had it in the house collecting dust. FREE
12 volt Power Adapter to power the fan. (Found one in my junk pile). FREE
1 Gallon Frozen Water Bottles (Had them in the house. The bigger the block of ice the longer it will last.) FREE
$2.94 + 4.95 = $7.89 !!!!
Brew Bucket = $$$ (Big Money)
Grainfather = $$$ (Expensive)
Glycol chillers = $$$ (Costly and complicated - No way Jose)
Brew Jacket = $$$ (Whoa, I'll have to save up a long time for this one)
Runnig air conditioner all day in an empty house = $$$ (Two Thumbs Down)
Buying a used refrigerator = $$ (Costly and takes up a too much space. Booo!)
(Insulated) Brew bags with 2 litre Frozen Water Bottles = $ (Nice but, there is a cheaper way)
Son of the Fermentation Chiller = $$ (Fun project; Costly due to the price of the foam sheets, big and bulky, only holds one fermenter/carboy.)
I can cool multiple (at least 5) carboys at the same time with this technique.
The trick is to find an enclosed area for cooling like a closet and cool it the
cheapest way possible.
What I did was to use a polystyrene (styrafoam) container with ice bottles and
use a old PC fan to blow the cool air out of it. As air passes through the
chamber from PC fan to cool the entire closet. The closet uses weather
striping from the dollar store to seal in the cool air (Plus, this also blocks light
from coming in through the cracks). My temperature monitor is showing that this method
is able to maintain temperatures lower than 70 Fahrenheit/21 Celcius all day. If you wanted
you can line the walls/floor with foam sheets from the trash, or buy them but that would drive the costs up.
The fan speed is set to low to get the air in the chamber to cool down before it exits the polystyrene container
I may try one large chunk of ice instead of frozen water bottles to increase the cooling power if I need to. I have not tried it yet.
Items needed:
Polystyrene (styrafoam) container from the dollar store $2.94 or less!
Weather Stripping from the dollar store $4.95 or less!
120mm Old Computer fan (The bigger it is the less noise it makes) I had it in the house collecting dust. FREE
12 volt Power Adapter to power the fan. (Found one in my junk pile). FREE
1 Gallon Frozen Water Bottles (Had them in the house. The bigger the block of ice the longer it will last.) FREE
$2.94 + 4.95 = $7.89 !!!!