Magic8Ball
Well-Known Member
Necessity is the mother of my build. I lost a basement in a move halfway across the country from the NE to the South. Previously I brewed to the season, making use of ambient temps in my basement. Now I need to control fermentation temps or be left brewing Saisons from June till September. First a tip of the hat to TwoHeadsBrewing for his original build .
Design criteria: 1) I have 10 thumbs. Keeping this simple may just save me a trip to the ER and a digit or two. 2) Needs to accommodate four 5 & 6 gallon Better Bottles and a stir plate. 3) needs to maintain fermentation temps for lagers and ales (but not necessarily lagering temps) in my garage, year round. 4) As little mess and work as possible.
Temperature Control: Needs to be set it and forget it. I dont want to call SWMBO from the road and ask her to change a dip switch setting to move it from heat to cool. Solution: a Dual Stage Ranco controller from More Beer for $140. Simple to program, it was all prewired and ready to go out of the box. Nothing for me to mess up here.
Housing/Chamber: Looking at the many HBT builds I saw twoheaadsbrewing build and the light bulb went off in my head. Next thing you know I am at Lowes. I found insulation sheets with foil backing (4 x 8 x ¾). Got home and started cutting. I found that a keyhole saw makes fast work of the cuts needed and really makes a big mess. (tiny white foam balls everywhere). Try a hack saw its cleaner or see postmortem notes below. I used duct tape for all the seams and any cut ends to seal in the evil white foam balls. Used some Great Stuff where the fridge and the chamber meet. The chambers door is just a sheet of the polystyrene sheathing cut to size and two duct tape pulls to remove it. No hinge needed. Drilled two holes in the top of the work bench. One hole for the ceramic heater mount, (a large carriage bolt hung down from the top and the heater clamps to it), and one for the Ranco temperature probe. It gets painters taped to the side of whatever carboy I am primary fermenting. All the other carboys are along for the ride. I found this workbench/shelf unit already in my garage buried under clutter. Got the dorm fridge from Walmart on sale $120. Its was a Danby 3.2 cu Ft . I got one with a fridge/freezer thinking it would handle cooling the volume of the chamber better. Took the front door off (6 screws no problem). The Fridge was lower than the chamber, so I got some scrap lumber from the construction site across the street and stacked it up. It worked out great.
Does it hold temperature? Installed February 2013. Unless the door is off it holds temps to within the offset of 3 deg. Its been in the 90's last week no problems. The only issue I am having is with condensation in the fridge portion when it gets really humid out and the fridge is barely in use. So I used a thick plastic garbage bag cut into a sheet and duct taped it to make a funnel that drains into a collection bucket. Might make a drain tube for it but it needs emptying once a week at most.
Postmortem: 1)Lowes will cut the sheeting to size for free! But what about those exposed fresh cut edges that seem to leak white foam balls? Use Packing or duct tape on the fresh cut edges BEFORE you load them up in your car. That way the mess stays at Lowes! 2) I also used a electric drill for the two holes in the top of the chamber.
I might change: 1) The single layer of insulation on the door. I might need to double that up if it doesn't prove to be enough for the summer heat. 2) some kind of floor to keep the carboys from crushing the foam board and making any cleanup from blow off tubes easier. 3) I should have done this sooner.
My first attempt for cooling mechanism was to a window ac unit. It would never cool the chamber down enough. I have seen other builds here on HBT that have good luck with Window AC units. This particular AC unit used a digital controller, not sure if that made a difference or not.
Design criteria: 1) I have 10 thumbs. Keeping this simple may just save me a trip to the ER and a digit or two. 2) Needs to accommodate four 5 & 6 gallon Better Bottles and a stir plate. 3) needs to maintain fermentation temps for lagers and ales (but not necessarily lagering temps) in my garage, year round. 4) As little mess and work as possible.
Temperature Control: Needs to be set it and forget it. I dont want to call SWMBO from the road and ask her to change a dip switch setting to move it from heat to cool. Solution: a Dual Stage Ranco controller from More Beer for $140. Simple to program, it was all prewired and ready to go out of the box. Nothing for me to mess up here.
Housing/Chamber: Looking at the many HBT builds I saw twoheaadsbrewing build and the light bulb went off in my head. Next thing you know I am at Lowes. I found insulation sheets with foil backing (4 x 8 x ¾). Got home and started cutting. I found that a keyhole saw makes fast work of the cuts needed and really makes a big mess. (tiny white foam balls everywhere). Try a hack saw its cleaner or see postmortem notes below. I used duct tape for all the seams and any cut ends to seal in the evil white foam balls. Used some Great Stuff where the fridge and the chamber meet. The chambers door is just a sheet of the polystyrene sheathing cut to size and two duct tape pulls to remove it. No hinge needed. Drilled two holes in the top of the work bench. One hole for the ceramic heater mount, (a large carriage bolt hung down from the top and the heater clamps to it), and one for the Ranco temperature probe. It gets painters taped to the side of whatever carboy I am primary fermenting. All the other carboys are along for the ride. I found this workbench/shelf unit already in my garage buried under clutter. Got the dorm fridge from Walmart on sale $120. Its was a Danby 3.2 cu Ft . I got one with a fridge/freezer thinking it would handle cooling the volume of the chamber better. Took the front door off (6 screws no problem). The Fridge was lower than the chamber, so I got some scrap lumber from the construction site across the street and stacked it up. It worked out great.
Does it hold temperature? Installed February 2013. Unless the door is off it holds temps to within the offset of 3 deg. Its been in the 90's last week no problems. The only issue I am having is with condensation in the fridge portion when it gets really humid out and the fridge is barely in use. So I used a thick plastic garbage bag cut into a sheet and duct taped it to make a funnel that drains into a collection bucket. Might make a drain tube for it but it needs emptying once a week at most.
Postmortem: 1)Lowes will cut the sheeting to size for free! But what about those exposed fresh cut edges that seem to leak white foam balls? Use Packing or duct tape on the fresh cut edges BEFORE you load them up in your car. That way the mess stays at Lowes! 2) I also used a electric drill for the two holes in the top of the chamber.
I might change: 1) The single layer of insulation on the door. I might need to double that up if it doesn't prove to be enough for the summer heat. 2) some kind of floor to keep the carboys from crushing the foam board and making any cleanup from blow off tubes easier. 3) I should have done this sooner.
My first attempt for cooling mechanism was to a window ac unit. It would never cool the chamber down enough. I have seen other builds here on HBT that have good luck with Window AC units. This particular AC unit used a digital controller, not sure if that made a difference or not.
