chest freezer or mini fridge build?

[Mwhy71]

I already have a johnson controller, swmbo gave me a green light on a new chest freezer. Should I go with the freezer, or find a mini fridge and build a fermentation chamber? I like the idea of being able to cold crash with the freezer, not sure if its overkill though. I live in north florida, and struggle with temp control.

 

[khawk95]

I would say chest freezer. More space typically than a fridge. I use a freezer for fermenting and fridge for kegging. Whatever works for you.


Roed Haus Brewery

 

[BrewWNC]

Chest freezer. Typically more space, easier to work with, and does not dump cold air every time you open the door.

I built my first chest freezer keezer an am very happy with it. Just get one big enough.

 

[govner1]

I use a fridge w/ a ferm chamber built on w/ a fan to circulate the air and a ceramic bulb for heat as needed. I can hold 6-8 carboys. Photo attached.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[erikpete18]

Some depends on how many beers you normally have fermenting at once. I've got a mini fridge build that I basically just extended the door on, but it only fits one carboy. That's fine for me, since I really only need the temp control for a week or two, and if I have a second fermenting beer I need to control I toss it into a swamp cooler. If you build out a chamber like govner1 you can do more than one carboy, but requires at least a small bit of handy work.

Another thing to consider is that a chest freezer is easier to control for lager temps if you'd like to go that route. While my mini fridge works great for ales and for moderate cold crashing (50 degrees or so), I lose a lot of cold air once I start trying to go down colder than that for any extended period. Also, I think it depends on the temp outside the chamber, but I'd imagine that the chest freezer is probably cheaper to run, since its built to get down to low temps fairly easily, where a mini fridge isn't intended to have to go too far.

One last thing, having noticed that you're in Florida, is to consider humidity controls. I know my chest freezer kegerator tends to build up condensation fairly easily, and its a pain to get into the bottom to dry it out. When it happens in my mini fridge its easy to open the door and wipe everything down. Not saying that should be the deciding factor, but you may want to look into some dehumidifiers if you go the chest freezer route.

 

[j1n]

i have a GE 7 cu ft cest freezer from Home depot. i can fit 2x 6 gallon plastic carboys in there at a time. i normally dont have more than 2 batches fermenting at the same time so it works for me. I usually do 1 at a time tho since different yeasts have different optimal temps. Right now i have a blonde ale and a cider both fermenting with notty yeast so temp is set for that yeast.

 

[MX1]

For me, it is the fridge with attached chamber.

I plan on fermenting 3 10 gallon batches at a time, so 1, to darn heavy to lift into a freezer, and the CuFt freezer I would need would be over kill.

Tim

 

[mgr_stl]

My vote is for chest freezer. It's nice being able to look in without disrupting the temp. Plus I like the ability to get the temps down lower for a cold crash.