New Son of Fermentation Chiller build

[Tidwellc]

Maiden voyage with my new SOFC build:

Not the prettiest, the saw blade we used to cut the foamboard wasn't long enough, so for each cut we had to flip it over and cut the other side... which resulted it some uneven faces where it had been cut.. I used roofing flashing tape as added insurance on all of the seams and joints to further "seal" it and prevent air from escaping (i used foamboard glue to join everything, the tape is just to seal any cracks). The "door" piece is a little bit warped and not perfectly straight, so I'm eventually going to do the whole dowel and grommet thing to get it to mate up properly.

All in all though, it works pretty damned well. I haven't added a remote thermometer yet, but the thermostat is set to the lower sixties and the fan has been running very infrequently once it reached temp. Got a Belgian Tripel bubbling away in there as we speak

 

[JohnSand]

Nice!

 

[Steve Kaplan]

I've been toying with the idea of building one of these. How many gallon jugs do you use to achieve your cooling? I've read that stacking jugs is dangerous because of possible rupture. Would adding some kind of shelf in the smaller jug chambers be a solution? Is it necessary?

 

[Tidwellc]

I've been toying with the idea of building one of these. How many gallon jugs do you use to achieve your cooling? I've read that stacking jugs is dangerous because of possible rupture. Would adding some kind of shelf in the smaller jug chambers be a solution? Is it necessary?

I've got four gallon jugs that I rotate two at a time with. Two in the SOFC while the other two re-freeze in the freezer. If your house is in the mid-70's, two jugs (one in each chamber) is more than enough to keep it in optimum ale range. I swap them out every morning, but I'm pretty sure they'd last two days no problem. I've even been "cold-crashing" a few days before I rack to secondary and it has performed pretty well. Definitely into the upper forties at least (although it goes through the ice a lot faster).

Stacking extra jugs hasn't been necessary for me at all, but again, I'm just doing ales. You could certainly engineer some sort of shelf system if you were so inclined if you wanted to do lagers, but honestly, I think you'd be better off getting a chest freezer for that. Four jugs would probably get it cold enough, but I'd get sick of swapping them out for two months straight. Two jugs a day for a couple of weeks for an ale isn't a big deal though.

 

[Steve Kaplan]

Good point. I'm also happy to hear that you're able to get the temps down into the high 40s! Isn't that a bit too cold for ales?

 

[Tidwellc]

I'll keep it in the mid to upper 60's through primary fermentation, sometimes letting it rise to room temperature once activity dies down to let it clean itself up. I only drop it down to the forties to cold crash it for a day or so and drop everything out of suspension to try and clear it before I rack to secondary. Fermentation is pretty much finished at that point so the temperature drop isn't going to affect flavor, it's only aging after that.

 

[Steve Kaplan]

Gotcha. I'm glad to hear the chamber can reach those temps.