Best sized fridge for fermentation

A bit of a wide open question, but heres a bit more detail

I could do with some fermentation control, but with limitedish space i was wondering what size/combo would be best,

1/ Trying to convince the wife i need a kegerator/freezer keezer.

2/ Limited space, this would go on our enclosed porch, maximum width of space around 43 inch.

What would you do, kegerator and a fridge for fermentation or a chest freezer conversion.

Definatly want to start kegging my beer at some point

What would the smallest sized fridge to fit a 7 gallon glass widemouth carboy in. Would love if i could get 2 in but if not no probs.

thank you all

 

You are going to need about 15" wide for each carboy. A medium refrigerator is about 30 inches wide on the outside so you probably won't find one that will hold 2 side by side. It you went vertical you need 28 inches to allow for an airlock or blow off tube, so for 2 you would need about 56 inches. That would mean you need to find a refrigerator that doesn't have a freezer section and enough room on the bottom for a carboy. The compressor hump may interfere.

If a chest freezer, you will need one about 7 cu.ft. Mine is 37 inches wide, 21 inches deep and 33 inches tall. It holds 2.

For one carboy a 5 cu ft chest freezer of an medium sized refridge would work.

Eventually you are going to want both a fermentation chamber and a kegerator. Start begging now!

 

In terms of space I really think the chest freezers are hard to beat. They're mostly tall enough to hold a fermenter with an airlock, and you can get them wide enough to hold as many fermenters as you want with little wasted space. You're also not really stressing them when you want to cold crash at near freezing temperatures.

Personally I use a mini fridge that holds a single bucket or carboy at a time (after some pretty extensive cutting of the door shelving). It certainly works, but I always feel like I'm pushing it to the limits of it's capability when I'm trying to cold crash. One thing it's got going for it is that it takes up next to no space in my brew shed though.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O2MB7BS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

That's my fridge. It's kind of pricey for a mini fridge, but it was the most reasonably priced, largest freezerless mini fridge I could find at the time. Later I lucked into a deal on a mini fridge for $25 that I think I can also modify to fit a fermenter or keg setup into ( I didn't realize that you could bend the freezer shelf down on some models to make your own freezerless fridge).

It's weird how I never noticed how many people have mini fridges laying around that they aren't using before I was in the market for one. If you keep your eyes open for them you might find one someone is willing to part with. The key is to make sure you ask. They're not going to think about it on their own lol. For instance, my neighbor has a mini fridge that has been sitting under his carport for a few weeks now. Clearly he doesn't really care about it or else he wouldn't leave it exposed to the elements. Next time I see him I need to remember to ask him about it...

I have found that I can push a lot of batches through it by controlling the primary fermentation temperature for the first week, then removing the fermenter for room temperature conditioning for the week after that. That way I could theoretically brew every weekend while using it to control temps for each brew as long as I don't bother with cold crashing. You can get a pretty deep pipeline going if you manage to brew a batch every weekend for a few weeks in a row.

 

I too am in the market for a single mini fridge or freezer that I can use as a fermentation chamber for a single Carboy or Bucket.
Does anyone have any recommendations on a mini freezer? I was thinking I could build a wooden neck to possibly add more height plus it will be useful for adding a temp controller and giving it a place to mount it. I was hoping to spend under $150 on something like this.