Recommendations for garage fermentor(s)

[fuzzybee]

I've recently returned to brewing after a 10-ish year hiatus. Unfortunately, I don't have the basement area I've had at our last two houses for fermenting. As a result, I'll be fermenting in the garage - in Atlanta.

I really want to be able to concentrate on fermentation temperature control, but I also can't be throwing thousands of dollars at this (I may be able to get away with $1000). I would like to be able to ultimately have two beers fermenting at the same time, so cost-efficient expansion will need to be considered. I'd also like to try my hand at lagering. I typically brew 5g batches, but my current setup (keggles / cooler MLT) would allow me to go to 10.

I believe I would like to use a conical; I'm definitely intrigued by the benefits of easier yeast harvesting and removing the trub. I have considered building a window-unit glycol chiller. I recently added an upright freezer for serving. I am not positive I have room for another, and most certainly don't have room for two more, but I haven't ruled that out.

I'm looking for y'all's opinions.

Questions I have include:

• I have looked at putting a chiller coil in a SS Brewtech Chronical, but it bothers me that the single top tri-clamp is so small. Is this a valid concern?
• I feel pretty good about setting up the homemade glycol chiller, but should I be concerned about condensation on the outside of the conicals? Is it a necessity to insulate them?
• Would it make the most sense to go all-in and get a jacketed conical? Which manufacturers offer the most bang for the buck?
• I'm not currently concerned with carbonating in the fermentor. As it is, I have plenty of space for that in my keezer. I would like to transfer under pressure, though.
• I'm currently brewing in the back yard - I'd need to find a conical I could roll on wheels. It seems that I'd need a wide base for stability, and that this would limit the ability to put it in an upright freezer, right?
• Should I be concerned about getting CO2 out if I fermented in a freezer?
• Should I just ditch the conical idea altogether and find a way to keep my carboys temperature-controlled? Or should look to ferment in kegs (1/2 barrel or cornys)?
• Or do I just say screw normal fermentation for now and put my carboys in an immersion circulation bath with kveik?
• Are there other options I'm not thinking about?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Section1]

I think your asking the right questions. Not sure of the best solution for your needs.

I can say you will have some condensation on fermenters that are out in open air especially at Lager temps. Insulation helps but it's still there especially when the humidity is up.

I'm glad you decided to get back into brewing again. I'm sure you will find something that will work for you and get back to making some good beer.

 

[Beholder]

Recommend a jacketed conical, both for condensation and allowing your chiller to keep up in a hot garage. The SS and Spike conical have neoprene jackets and internal coils, but some have had issues with them keeping up in hot spaces both due to the low insulation and the small heat transfer area of the coils. I have a jacketed Stout conical unitank, which would kill your budget, but maybe check the price of their non pressure tanks.

 

[passedpawn]

I've recently returned to brewing after a 10-ish year hiatus. Unfortunately, I don't have the basement area I've had at our last two houses for fermenting. As a result, I'll be fermenting in the garage - in Atlanta.

I really want to be able to concentrate on fermentation temperature control, but I also can't be throwing thousands of dollars at this (I may be able to get away with $1000). I would like to be able to ultimately have two beers fermenting at the same time, so cost-efficient expansion will need to be considered. I'd also like to try my hand at lagering. I typically brew 5g batches, but my current setup (keggles / cooler MLT) would allow me to go to 10.

I believe I would like to use a conical; I'm definitely intrigued by the benefits of easier yeast harvesting and removing the trub. I have considered building a window-unit glycol chiller. I recently added an upright freezer for serving. I am not positive I have room for another, and most certainly don't have room for two more, but I haven't ruled that out.

I'm looking for y'all's opinions.

Questions I have include:

• I have looked at putting a chiller coil in a SS Brewtech Chronical, but it bothers me that the single top tri-clamp is so small. Is this a valid concern?
• I feel pretty good about setting up the homemade glycol chiller, but should I be concerned about condensation on the outside of the conicals? Is it a necessity to insulate them?
• Would it make the most sense to go all-in and get a jacketed conical? Which manufacturers offer the most bang for the buck?
• I'm not currently concerned with carbonating in the fermentor. As it is, I have plenty of space for that in my keezer. I would like to transfer under pressure, though.
• I'm currently brewing in the back yard - I'd need to find a conical I could roll on wheels. It seems that I'd need a wide base for stability, and that this would limit the ability to put it in an upright freezer, right?
• Should I be concerned about getting CO2 out if I fermented in a freezer?
• Should I just ditch the conical idea altogether and find a way to keep my carboys temperature-controlled? Or should look to ferment in kegs (1/2 barrel or cornys)?
• Or do I just say screw normal fermentation for now and put my carboys in an immersion circulation bath with kveik?
• Are there other options I'm not thinking about?

Thanks for reading!

The easiest way BY FAR is to just buy a used chest freezer (~200, craigslist) and an inkbird temperature controller. I have a 15 cuft one that will hold six 6.5g fermentors (big mouth bubblers). Obviously, a smaller one will hold less.

It'd be ready to roll 5 minutes after you got it into your garage. I put mine on a couple of those cheap harbor freight 4-wheel furniture movers in case I want to move it around.

 

[Golddiggie]

I have very little condensation on the outside of my Spike conical. The areas with it are not covered by the neoprene jacket. I did add a 'hat' to the fermenters though, to help maintain temperatures. I've fermented two batches in my CF10's so far (one each) and they went a lot easier than the kegmenters I used previously. Before this I was using a fermentation chamber I made. Now I have a BrewBuilt IceMaster Max2 chiller connecting to the chill coils in the CF10's. The coils easily maintain my fermentation temperature target (70F). Once I'm ready to drop below 40F, I set the glycol feed to the correct port on the coil and let it drop (35F is my target to carbonate in conical). Having these on wheels (plus the shorter leg extensions) also makes things a lot easier. Especially when filled with wort/beer.

I've been fermenting in stainless steel since around 2012. Zero desire to ever switch to plastic (or glass) ever again. Conicals, with chill coils, can get you the same temperature control (of not better) than using a chamber with the added benefit of taking up less floor space. Sure, it costs more money, but some things are worth it.

Another benefit of using a setup where you have a glycol chiller setup is the fact that you can have each batch at a different temperature, easily. I can have one fermenting away at 70F while I'm cold crashing and/or carbonating another at 35F. Both within inches of each other. Not to mention never needing to lift a fermenter over a chest freezer/fermentation chamber lip/lid again is worth a LOT more (to me at least). I did make my fermentation chamber with a door at the end, as well as a lifting lid (on gas springs). Still had about a 6" lift to get something in there. A 1/2 barrel kegmenter isn't light.

 

[Sammy86]

I gotta agree with @passedpawn here.

Sure, the big conical fermentors are nice and shiny but when it comes down to it the majority are still fermenting in buckets.

Get yourself some chest freezers and ink birds and some ale pales or BMB with spigots and save yourself some dough for ingredients and more beer!

 

[fuzzybee]

Thanks, y'all. I don't really have room for the footprint of a chest freezer right now, and, having done that before, I'm not too eager to continue to do the lift-over.

After reading up on kveik, I think right now I'm leaning towards starting off with either a conical or a Fermzilla and hot-fermenting.

 

[Golddiggie]

I suggest making sure whichever you pick is rated to at least 15psi. I ferment my stouts and porters at about 10psi and ales at 5-8psi. That's from the start, not after X days with a blowoff hose. I do have a SS BrewTech spunding valve on my CF10's for this. Also make sure you have a PRV on the fermenter that will release either at the listed pressure level, or just under it.

 

[fuzzybee]

I suggest making sure whichever you pick is rated to at least 15psi. I ferment my stouts and porters at about 10psi and ales at 5-8psi. That's from the start, not after X days with a blowoff hose. I do have a SS BrewTech spunding valve on my CF10's for this. Also make sure you have a PRV on the fermenter that will release either at the listed pressure level, or just under it.

I'm new to the fermenting-under-pressure process. Do you not have a blow-off at all?

 

[shoengine]

I'm new to the fermenting-under-pressure process. Do you not have a blow-off at all?

A spunding valve accomplishes the blowoff job by letting gasses out that exceed a set pressure. You just have to make sure to have enough headspace that you won't get foam or liquid blowing out.

 

[fuzzybee]

A spunding valve accomplishes the blowoff job by letting gasses out that exceed a set pressure. You just have to make sure to have enough headspace that you won't get foam or liquid blowing out.

Makes sense. I'd be concerned with foam but I guess fermcap would help with that.

 

[Golddiggie]

I'm new to the fermenting-under-pressure process. Do you not have a blow-off at all?

Zero blowoff hoses needed with fermenting under pressure. I've also had less headspace on some batches than before, and had nothing come through the spunding valve.

I pressurized my fermenter for Monday's batch after I added the yeast (did an O2 purge cycle as well, just because). Left it at 5psi. Yeast went in between 7 and 8pm on Monday. Before noon on Tuesday the pressure was going above that. Once it hit 10psi, I set the spunding valve to release anything over that. Starsan was foaming nicely. Even more bubbles were coming out of it earlier today. I'll check on it again before I go to sleep just because I like to.

Before I added the glycol chiller to my setup (with the change to conicals) I would use temperature as a real indication that things were going on inside the fermenters. I could track the temperature curve to see when things started, when they peaked, when they started to slow and when they were done. The only time I look inside the fermenter is when I'm cleaning it out.

 

[apache_brew]

My vote is stick to a fermentation chamber like a vertical freezer and inkbird controller. The fridge or freezer you use as a ferm chamber will serve double use when you're not brewing, and if you ever get tired of brewing again, still have some secondary purpose. As for the vessel, I'm biased towards sanke kegs. Look for a 1/4 slim (7.75 gallon) for 5 gallon batches, and then 1/2 bbl (15.5 gallon) for 10+ gallon batches. Not that I've used conicals or have any experience yeast harvesting from post fermentation, I find overbuilding starters from fresh yeast packs and harvesting it for futures uses to be very effective. (hence my opinion that needing a conical for yeast harvesting is overhyped) I currently have a single upright freezer for fermentation and contemplated getting a second, however I don't brew enough to have overlapping fermentations. I figure if I really had to have 2 fermentations going, could just use a kveik yeast with a heat mat on the non ferm chamber beer in a different keg.

 

[Beermeister32]

I’m running 6 Sanyo 4.4 cu ft. mini refrigerators here in hot Southern California. Each is separately temperature regulated with a digital temperature control, so I can dial in any temperature from 32F up to ambient temp of about 95F currently.

Mostly I ferment lagers 48-52F. Others are used to lager at 34F or serve at 38F. I also Use some for beer bottle and can storage at 38F. The flexibility is great.