Chest freezer as fermentation control?

[Cake]

Hi all,

I am planning to start kegging soon, however the price tag is a bit high so I am thinking about slowly accumulating the necessary equipment over time. The first purchase I want to make is a 7.0 cu. ft. chest freezer and a temperature controller (from Northern Brewer most likely). My question is am I able to use a chest freezer as a way to control my fermentation temperature? I'd like to ferment my beer at a constant temperature (obviously), but would a chest freezer be able to have that high of a temperature range with the controller? Would it be able to just turn on and chill the beer down to the set temperature and keep it that way basically? I want a chest freezer because of the ability to also cold crash and then eventually convert it into a keezer. Thanks for your help!

 

[grathan]

sure, it works great. "Constant temperature" that might depend on which controller you choose. An analog Johnson controller might swing 8*F. The digital one Northern Brewer sells claims 1*F range. that really works out to be 3*F in reality, but that is fine for fermentation.

 

[b-boy]

Best setup is a temp controller that can heat/cool. That will allow you to use it year-round in a garage or basement. Getting the temperature up is sometimes necessary. A small heater in the unit can be used to do that. there are plenty of examples in the DIY section. A cheap controller is the STC1000. I have 2 of them and they work great.

 

[estricklin]

It will work just fine, I've been using a very large chest freezer to ferment in, (currently 25 gallons in 5 different buckets/carboys in there), with a Johnson controller.

 

[Cake]

Purchased an A419 Temp Controller and going to pick up the chest freezer this weekend. Thanks you guys for your help!