Cooling a Room for Lagering

[UsualPickle]

Hey Guys, a buddy and I decided we'd like to try making some lagers instead of our normal regiment of ales so we've built a cooler room thats 5x10x8 (400cuft) at one end of my barn.

Any ideas on the best way to keep the temp down to 35degrees? Our first thought was to tear apart an old freezer and just use the unit from in there. We've also been watching craigslist for used a unit from a walk in freezer.

We're definately not refrigeration specialists so any help is greatly appreciated

 

[abracadabra]

The first thing is insulate the daylights out of it. The next thing is go buy a freezer and put that in your cooler room then install a temp controller in the freezer. I don't see the point in reinventing the wheel or cooling more space than you need unless you just have money to burn.

 

[Photopilot]

thats 5x10x8 (400cuft) at one end of my barn.

Are you doing 600 gallon batches?

As the other poster said insulation is key. A huge room like that will cost you a lot to insulate and refrigerate, or heat, depending on the season. I have been doing some research on fermentation storage today so my suggestion would be to build a bunch of fermenter coolers. Maybe to hold 2 of what ever you ferment in, say two carboys each. That way you could store different things at different temperatures without having to cool a whole room.

You could still make the room for storage of the fermenting chambers but not need to inuslate it that much. You could make a number of fermentation chamber and have some cooled to lager fermentation temps, lagering temps or heated for ales. Thats what I'd do if I had a barn. Man I so wish i had a barn. So does my wife.

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

I'd just use a chest freezer if you're doing 5 - 10 gallon batches. No need for a whole room, unless you'll use it for other things.

 

[UsualPickle]

Are you doing 600 gallon batches?

As the other poster said insulation is key. A huge room like that will cost you a lot to insulate and refrigerate, or heat, depending on the season. I have been doing some research on fermentation storage today so my suggestion would be to build a bunch of fermenter coolers. Maybe to hold 2 of what ever you ferment in, say two carboys each. That way you could store different things at different temperatures without having to cool a whole room.

You could still make the room for storage of the fermenting chambers but not need to inuslate it that much. You could make a number of fermentation chamber and have some cooled to lager fermentation temps, lagering temps or heated for ales. Thats what I'd do if I had a barn. Man I so wish i had a barn. So does my wife.

We're doing 50 gallon batches so I guess this is probably overkill. It would just be soo much nicer to have the carboys sitting on shelves rather than stuffed into chest freezers.

I really like the idea of dividing the room into a few different units each with their own temp control... we'd probably get away with just using refrigeration components from freezers in that case as the sizes would be much smaller.

 

[UsualPickle]

also, we already built another 5x10 room to heat for ales in the winter.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

You are going to need to source a unit from a walk in freezer/cooler for that.

 

[Photopilot]

also, we already built another 5x10 room to heat for ales in the winter.

Man I wish I had a barn.

50 gallons, impressive. You need to start using sankes for fermenting(my other research project today). Or do you have that many carboys?

 

[UsualPickle]

We do primary in 2 large plastic garbage cans and then we have 12 or so smaller carboys (pony keg size) and 3 larger ones that are about sankey size for secondary. We put the beer into cornelius kegs and then have a few different beers on tap in the rec room... works quite well but we've never been able to lager.

 

[Flyin]

I wish I could still find the link.

When I first got into brewing I found a guy that made a walkin in his basement using as window box air conditioner, had a good writeup on it also. From what I remember he could get to serving temps with no problems. Somehow he disconnected the temp sensor in the A/C unit & used a temp controller to regulate. It must be on my old puter, I'll try to fire it up & see if I have a link.

 

[weirdboy]

I wish I could still find the link.

When I first got into brewing I found a guy that made a walkin in his basement using as window box air conditioner, had a good writeup on it also. From what I remember he could get to serving temps with no problems. Somehow he disconnected the temp sensor in the A/C unit & used a temp controller to regulate. It must be on my old puter, I'll try to fire it up & see if I have a link.

Well, John Beere here on HBT did that.

 

[Catt22]

The first thing is insulate the daylights out of it. The next thing is go buy a freezer and put that in your cooler room then install a temp controller in the freezer. I don't see the point in reinventing the wheel or cooling more space than you need unless you just have money to burn.

I don't see the point in putting a freezer inside of a heavily insulated room. The heat extracted from the freezer needs to be vented or the room itself will warm up. The freezer will radiate heat externally from the condenser coils.

 

[Flyin]

Well, John Beere here on HBT did that.

Same Idea but I don't think thats the one. I think he used the blue board foam insulation. it was in a basement & he ran like 12 taps thru the wall.

 

[abracadabra]

I don't see the point in putting a freezer inside of a heavily insulated room. The heat extracted from the freezer needs to be vented or the room itself will warm up. The freezer will radiate heat externally from the condenser coils.

I was attempting to be funny hence the smiley face.

But the point is, as a general rule the better insulated an area is the less work the temp. conditioning unit will have do keeping the heat out in the summer or keeping the cold out in the winter. Because in a barn you will have extremes of both and he has addtional considerations in addtion to cooling so it's not a one sided equation.

Additonally I was attempting to nudge the OP into considering a more economical and efficient setup.

Are there instances in which some ventitaltion might increase efficency? Yes

 

[Cliff897]

Any ideas on the best way to keep the temp down to 35degrees?

One or two cheap window air conditioners should get you pretty cold.
y pass the Temp controlled and thermostat and use a temp control like a Johnson controls unit to turn 'em on and off.

With good insulation you might get by with one.

Breaking down a freezer for parts is of course a viable option too.