I've been brewing on-and-off for the past 7 years, and continuously for the past 4. Every beer i've made has fermented in my utility room, which is partially underground. Unfortunately, this room also houses my washer/dryer, which means that the temperature can fluctuate a bit. A bucket of water usually reads anywhere from 68-72 year round, so for a while I thought everything was within reasonable margins.
Point is, most of my beers were fine. My "house strain" is London Ale III, which I think is great for pale ales, IPA's... pretty much anything where the yeast doesn't play a huge role. I always had trouble with any beer using German Ale yeasts, or Hefe yeasts, etc. because of the combination of fluctuating temperatures and being on the high side of the temperature range. So after 4 years in my town house, I decided it was time to build a fermentation chamber so that I wouldn't have to worry anymore about my inconsistent / slightly high temps. Here's the build!
This is the base. I based (heh) my build on that of stratslinger's build: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/another-fermentation-chamber-build-253949/
The main difference in my design and his is that I decided to make my chamber bigger than the outline of the fridge - so big, in fact, that I can easily fit 4 buckets/carboys in there, possibly more (depending on configuration). Anyway. The base is 58" x 33". The posts have a height of 33" as well, giving the entire box a 36" height (not counting the casters I put it on).
Point is, most of my beers were fine. My "house strain" is London Ale III, which I think is great for pale ales, IPA's... pretty much anything where the yeast doesn't play a huge role. I always had trouble with any beer using German Ale yeasts, or Hefe yeasts, etc. because of the combination of fluctuating temperatures and being on the high side of the temperature range. So after 4 years in my town house, I decided it was time to build a fermentation chamber so that I wouldn't have to worry anymore about my inconsistent / slightly high temps. Here's the build!
This is the base. I based (heh) my build on that of stratslinger's build: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/another-fermentation-chamber-build-253949/
The main difference in my design and his is that I decided to make my chamber bigger than the outline of the fridge - so big, in fact, that I can easily fit 4 buckets/carboys in there, possibly more (depending on configuration). Anyway. The base is 58" x 33". The posts have a height of 33" as well, giving the entire box a 36" height (not counting the casters I put it on).
