431brew
Well-Known Member
I have been wanting to build a keezer, but my wife and I needed a little extra freezer space and that was the priority. So a few months ago we bought a second refrigerator to keep kegs and bottled beer in, and used the freezer above for food.
I started experimenting with the refrigerator settings and learned that I could adjust the thermostat and vary the temp from 35 to about 65 degrees. So I decided to brew my first lager.
I hit all of my marks, put the fermenter in the refrigerator, set the dial to the 55 degree mark I had made, and checked it 24 hours later to find some action in the air lock. I turned the light out in the room, shut the door and let it go for a little over a week. Think "set it and forget it"!
I went back Wednesday, air lock was dead, I raised the temp to about 65 degrees, light out, room door closed. "Things are going well," I said to myself. "This is going to be a good beer."
When I came home for lunch Friday, I smelled something that stunk as soon as I walked into the house. I thought my son had forgotten to take out the trash and was about to get pissed at him when I recognized the smell: venison sausage.
In all of my experimenting with the temp in the refrigerator, I never looked in the freezer to see if there was a separate thermostat for it. I assumed there was because our kitchen refrigerator has separate controls for frig and freezer, but I never considered confirming this. The funny part, or stupid part, is that I tinkered with the thermostat for about three weeks marking all of the temps at different settings, but never considered the freezer!
Luckily, I never left the temp at any setting very long while experimenting and always returned it back to normal. The meat that we took out of this freezer during this time was always frozen solid, so we never suspected I was about to screw it up.
About 25 pounds of sausage and ground venison, a couple of pizzas, a pack of pork chops, and I do not know what else were thawed.
Fortunately, the remaining 25-30 pounds of venison was still firm, although soft on the surface.
So...guess what we are eating until further notice?
Guys, I really am smarter than this. At the risk of being called an idiot, I thought I would share this with you because it is a funny, rookie mistake. Looking back, I was only about one mark away from turning that bastard off!
We may not have any food around here, but we are going to have some good beer!
I started experimenting with the refrigerator settings and learned that I could adjust the thermostat and vary the temp from 35 to about 65 degrees. So I decided to brew my first lager.
I hit all of my marks, put the fermenter in the refrigerator, set the dial to the 55 degree mark I had made, and checked it 24 hours later to find some action in the air lock. I turned the light out in the room, shut the door and let it go for a little over a week. Think "set it and forget it"!
I went back Wednesday, air lock was dead, I raised the temp to about 65 degrees, light out, room door closed. "Things are going well," I said to myself. "This is going to be a good beer."
When I came home for lunch Friday, I smelled something that stunk as soon as I walked into the house. I thought my son had forgotten to take out the trash and was about to get pissed at him when I recognized the smell: venison sausage.
In all of my experimenting with the temp in the refrigerator, I never looked in the freezer to see if there was a separate thermostat for it. I assumed there was because our kitchen refrigerator has separate controls for frig and freezer, but I never considered confirming this. The funny part, or stupid part, is that I tinkered with the thermostat for about three weeks marking all of the temps at different settings, but never considered the freezer!
Luckily, I never left the temp at any setting very long while experimenting and always returned it back to normal. The meat that we took out of this freezer during this time was always frozen solid, so we never suspected I was about to screw it up.
About 25 pounds of sausage and ground venison, a couple of pizzas, a pack of pork chops, and I do not know what else were thawed.
Fortunately, the remaining 25-30 pounds of venison was still firm, although soft on the surface. So...guess what we are eating until further notice?
Guys, I really am smarter than this. At the risk of being called an idiot, I thought I would share this with you because it is a funny, rookie mistake. Looking back, I was only about one mark away from turning that bastard off!
We may not have any food around here, but we are going to have some good beer!
