Controlled Fermentation Options

[Yevmeister]

I recently upgraded volume of my brewing and need to upgrade controlled fermentation area. i would like some of your input from experience.

Currently i have extended mini fridge chamber

I plan to use Sanke kegs as fermentation vessels 2-3

Option 1 : fermentation chamber with window a/c unit & temperature controller
pros: fairly simple built, could install heater to warm beer
cons: requires a lot of room in the apartment
can't set individual temperature parameters

Option 2: Installing stainless chiller coil into the lids of the fermenters.
making a cold liquid reservoir to re-circulate cool liquid to chill wort
Pros: can setup individual cheap pumps to separate chilling requirements
doesnt nor take as much space as a chamber
Cons: lots of bells in whistles , could be expensive

Could someone provide any input for setting up option 2.

what would be a decent apparatus to chill water?

i was thinking of hacking freezer component and submerging into cooler full of antifreeze. also relocating compressor from mini fridge and filling it up with antifreeze.

thanks a bunch in advance,

Yev

 

[Sanchothe7th]

In our setup we have an old chest freezer with a window AC in the side and a small space heater for the winter. We use one of those 17 dollar controllers from amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KA4Y2P0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

we replaced the standard probe with a 16in stainless probe and put it inside the wort. We have had very good luck with this. and the costs are quite minimal. in fact we spent more on extension cords than we did the microcontroller.

We only had one mishap in the winter when we had am oil heater in the chamber. They stay warm for a long time and really wrecked 2 batches of beer. so we switched to a cheap 750w element based heater.

You can go the crazy route, but this is all easily controlled and well priced.