fermentation chamber

[ABI Brewery]

Looking to start controlling the temp on my fermentation better, thinking about making a chamber, anyone have any ideas, i cant decide between a dormm fridge or just using bottles of ice to cool, i have warming belt for heat, just not sure what direction to go.............any thoughts

 

[thekraken]

This is a pretty vague question. The forum is loaded with ferm chamber ideas. Search around and look at what others have done. If you have more specific questions I'm sure we can help you better. Also, maybe describe your situation: home many fermenters are you fermenting at once? How much space do you have for it in your home? What's your climate like? What's your budget? How are your DIY skills? etc

 

[johnstod]

Looking to start controlling the temp on my fermentation better, thinking about making a chamber, anyone have any ideas, i cant decide between a dormm fridge or just using bottles of ice to cool, i have warming belt for heat, just not sure what direction to go.............any thoughts

I'm in the process of planning something like this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/diy-fermentation-chamber.html.

You can always scale this up or down to the sizs needed

 

[catdaddy66]

Certainly the ice in the swamp cooler is a viable option and I have used that method successfully for a few years. It is labor intensive vs the dorm fridge but not too bad. I change my ice out every 12 hours and depending on my target ambient temp I use 2-4 frozen 2L bottles each change.

That being said I do have a dorm fridge that needs a little work to make it a fermentation chamber. I do want that but am satisfied currently with the ice water bath system.

 

[balrog]

Kinda depends on what you might have, or be willing to spend also. I was gifted a dorm fridge, little cube, not big enough to put anything in, but built a 2" thick foam board "box" using that and that's what I use.

 

[aprichman]

Just get a small chest freezer and an STC-1000 clone. These are honestly pretty cheap (I think I picked up my chest freezer for $130 new from Best Buy a few years ago and the STC-1000 clone cost me maybe $30 to build buying all parts new as well). Stick that heat belt in the side of the chest freezer and you will have 100% automated temp control that holds within +/- 1°F of the set temperature.

Buy once and you will never have to worry about adding ice or rigging up some modified dorm fridge.

One tip - get a milk crate and put your carboy in it to help transfer it in and out of the chest freezer.

 

[lablover]

The fridge with an Inkbird is a good option. I didn't really have room for another fridge in addition to my kegerator so I recently picked up an Inkbird, a small fountain pump, and a cooling coil for my fermenter. For less than $70 I now have effective control. I do have to change out ice jugs once per day. Technically, for another $70 I could build a second system and do two different temperatures on two brews at one time which I can't do with a dorm fridge.

 

[Jag75]

I purchased a brew jacket and am very pleased . Im fermenting an orangesicle cream ale at 70 degrees. My house doesnt have AC, just a swamp cooler. A closet that i keep my conical in has got up to 80 so far which is too warm . Its not even close to what real summer is here in Ca. yet. Its got up to maybe 93 . With just a brew jacket no ice bottles the temp of my conical is 68-70*. My closet ranges from 72-76*.For every liter of frozen water the temp drops a certain degrees. The hottest day the closet reached about 80* and the conical 78 so i put 2 liters of frozen water and the temp dropped quickly. This thing will allow me to brew in the dead of summer keeping fermenting at 70 when the actual room gets close to 85-90.

 

[ABI Brewery]

after much deliberation i have decided to be a cheep ass about this and use ice and a heater belt I have, first question will one heater belt work when I am fermenting two 5 gal. batches, will warm up the area or shoudl i have a belt on each fermenter, and i use ice blocks and a 12v fan to circulate I have a catalyst and a big mouth bubbler is what I use to ferment, I have an area in the basement that I can back my FC into so that there is no back and I can get most of its cooling fro mthe foundation wall, real nice in the winter because it will cool down to 45 F in that room, so I am looking at a foam box I am guessing, and I have an ink bird temp controler that i can plug into.................any thoughts

 

[El Nino]

Chest freezer works if you want something that doesn't require any DIY at all. Basically just drop the temp probe in. More efficient than a dorm fridge since when you open the top, the temp won't change much (cool air falls). For the same cubic feet, both are around the same price.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Son of Fermentation Chiller:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/images/chiller-plans.pdf