3 Zone Fermentation/Cheese Chamber

Initially I was using a mini fridge with an ebay temp controller as a fermentation chamber. Once I decided to brew a lager I realized that my nice temperature controlled space was going to be out of commission for way longer than I would like. I decided to build a second chamber off to the side for ales. During the planning stage thought I might want to start making cheese (thanks to a few visits to the cheese making forum) and designed it with another smaller "cheese cellar".

I started by building the frame out of metal studs.



filled the frame with 2" foam board insulation and filled the gaps with spray foam. The top was covered in plywood and sides in luan.



After bolting the mini fridge to the extension I used a 4" hole saw to cut in my supply and return holes. I used 4" draft blockers to keep as much cool air in the places I wanted it as possible. Each zone is controlled by its own ebay controller and the 2 zones in the extension each have a fan powered by an old laptop charger to bring in cool air from the fridge. I also installed a light bulb paint can heater in the ale chamber just in case.



Here is the finished product after a little trim work and caulking around the air vents. The controllers were installed on the top of the extension.



I thought I would share my project. Its not as pretty as I has envisioned it to be but I have to say I am impressed I pulled it off as well as I did with not to much experience with this sort of thing.

 

not to bad of a job there. does the air flow to each section provide a nice stable temp range for the cheese and ales?

 

The draft blockers do a great job of keeping any unwanted air flow from one chamber to another when the fans are not running. Since each chamber is controlled by its own temp controller i can keep temperatures within one degree of the set point. Even with nothing in the ale chamber the fan doesn't cycle that often.

 

very nice build.

 

What is the white circular object in the top right corner of the ale chamber?

 

It is the return for the cheese chamber. In order for the damper to function properly it needed to sit vertically and couldn't be placed directly in the floor of the chamber.

 

Could you post an inside view of the fridge as well? Very nice build.

 

Might have missed it, but are the returns on fans as well? A total of 4 fans, 2 in each chamber?

 

There are only two fans. One on each supply. I mounted them inside each chamber to get them out of the way of any heavy condensation in the fridge.

 

Here is the view of the inside of the fridge. At the moment I am using circular pieces of the 2" foam to block off the vents to the other chambers while they are not in use. I figured it would further reduce cold air transfer out of the fridge until there is something in the other chambers.

 

Did a cheese-log spontaneously combust in the bottom of that fridge? I hate it when that happens; smells for days.

But seriously, I love this project, great job. I am glad to heat it is working well. Multi-area temperature control would be a dream come true.

 

Yeah...that was my first attempt to make a carboy fit in the fridge when i started brewing. I didn't realize i could have simply made a collar and instead cut the hump out and filled the hole with foam then decided to spray it with rubber sealer. Lessons learned but its still working strong!