Chest freezer ferm chamber

[breweringbeaz]

I know there's a ton of threads on this topic-. I'm looking at building the ferm chamber out of a 5cf chest freezer. Has anyone done this? Any success? Does it require a collar? And how many carboys can it fit?


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[dbrewski]

There are a ton of posts, use the search. 5cf is kind of small so you might need the collar to use the step. I have a 7cf chest freezer ferm chamber and it just fits 2 buckets/carboys without using the step.

 

[passedpawn]

Try this link. Likely contains the answer to your questions:

Chest Freezer Spec Sheets and Layout Drawings

If you can, try to go to a 7. Your life will be much easier that way. I bought a brand new 7 cuft at Home depot for $139.

 

[breweringbeaz]

Looking at the 7 as well trying to fit in an alcove outside my house.


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[breweringbeaz]

How many carboys can you easily fit in the 7


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[passedpawn]

How many carboys can you easily fit in the 7

I use it as a keezer (kegs). I have a 15 cuft in the garage that I ferment in. I get six 6g better bottles in there, without a collar. That's is the way to go; there's nothing cooler than having 6 carboys fermenting at the same time!

 

[Komocabo]

One suggestion: if you only ferment 10 gals at a time, I would suggest an upright freezer. I have a small one (14cf?) that I got on Craigslist for 75 bucks. I removed the shelving, and built a wooden stand for the fermenter (Sanke keg for me) and its great. I liberties method for several reasons:
(1) Smaller footprint in the garage than a chest freezer
(2) Can rack without lifting 10 gals of beer to a higher level, saving my back a few more years

If you're going with buckets/carboys then you'll be good either way. I remember when I was going to go the chest freezer route, and ended up going upright cuz I found a cheap one. Didn't think of these benefits until I got the upright (which I hadn't considered before).

Just food for thought.

 

[dbrewski]

One suggestion: if you only ferment 10 gals at a time, I would suggest an upright freezer. I have a small one (14cf?) that I got on Craigslist for 75 bucks. I removed the shelving, and built a wooden stand for the fermenter (Sanke keg for me) and its great. I liberties method for several reasons:
(1) Smaller footprint in the garage than a chest freezer
(2) Can rack without lifting 10 gals of beer to a higher level, saving my back a few more years

If you're going with buckets/carboys then you'll be good either way. I remember when I was going to go the chest freezer route, and ended up going upright cuz I found a cheap one. Didn't think of these benefits until I got the upright (which I hadn't considered before).

Just food for thought.

I really like this idea but I was never able to find any upright freezer without the built-in non-removable shelves...don't they have cooling built into them? Is that what I'm seeing in yours with that wire on the inside?

 

[Clweed]

Look for a Frigidaire or Kenmore 14 cf

 

[JINKS]

Here is my 7cu Frigidaire not a great pic but plenty of room for 2 carboys. That's a 5 in there now with a og 1.124 barleywine brewed today holding at 64.4 degrees.
I found this stc-1000+ which has all kinds of neat features, as well as Fahrenheit readout.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/temp-controller-flashed-w-stc-1000-fahrenheit-display-476188/

 

[Komocabo]

I really like this idea but I was never able to find any upright freezer without the built-in non-removable shelves...don't they have cooling built into them? Is that what I'm seeing in yours with that wire on the inside?

You just have to find a "newer" one. I had one with the coils and I bent them a little to fold them back against the wall of the freezer. Worked ok, but the whole thing crapped out after a year. Older freezers have the coils built in, newer ones (no frost?) do not have any at all. See other's pictured above).

The wire you see is a reptile heating cord. It is 50' length and controls the heating side. (STC 1000 set up: cooling by freezer, heating by cord mentioned.) It works well.

 

[Komocabo]

A nice thing about the reptile cord is it doesn't get above 90°, so no worries of setting the whole thing on fire... those paintcan lightbulb things freak me out