Fermentation chamber

[fatnhappy]

Hello all. Have always fermented in plastic buckets kept in my 67 degree pantry. Hubby and I just got a large pole barn and I'll be brewing and fermenting out there. Its metal and basically uninsulated. I'm upgrading to the Spike cf15 with the tc100. We live in NJ, so we do get pretty cold winters. My question is, what kind of chamber should I put the cf in? The cf will have the heater, but I'm afraid it won't be enough. I was thinking an old fridge. A friend suggested building an enclosure and insulating. Any thoughts and past experience is appreciated

 

[BeardedBrews]

It's possible to build your own insulated chamber, but buying an upright fridge or freezer is dramatically simpler, faster, generally more efficient, and generally more reliable.

I would go to CL or OfferUp and see what you can find. Lots of options for controllers, inkbird generally has the value option.

 

[chumpsteak]

Build an insulated box with a mini fridge at one end. Put a little ceramic heater in there and some fans. Use a hot/cold switching temp controller and then set it and forget it. Tons of fermentation chamber resources around here. Also I would suggest you make it twice as big as you think you'll need. What if you want to make some high gravity beers or sours that have to sit around for a while?

 

[bgmac]

I built a ferm chamber out of an old mini-fridge/freezer I got free with a broken thermostat so it never would shut off and would freeze in the fridge section (that's what made it free). Using an inkbird temp controller with both cool and heat settings/outlets. Along with a small desk top heater for the winter months. The case was made out of scrap plywood, 2x4 framing and pink fiberglass insulation. Built a simple door in the front that I can slide ferm buckets in and out. Also made the top removable and use an over head block and tackle to drop in a conical fast fermentor from time to time. Fits 2 containers at a time and can keep the temp exactly where I want it. i also mounted a box fan on the fridge coils that kicks on when the controller kicks the fridge on since it gets hot in my garage during the summer months (fan was also free, old one just sitting around). Luckily I had lots of scrap wood, insulation and AC ducting tape(the good stuff). Its not pretty but it was free for all materials and works like a champ. The only things I paid for were the small heater and the ink bird temp controller. I do get a 1/2 inch of water pooled up in the freezer compartment after about 2 weeks of running from condensation. I just open the front door and use a shop vac to suck it out.

So far I have put about 40, 5 gallon batches through it with no issues (knock on wood). The fridge/freezer is old and if it fails on me, I wont build another. Just going to buy a used chest freezer and use the same temp controller and desk top heater.

Honestly, if your fermentor container(s) can fit vertically in a chest freezer with an airlock or blowoff tube, I would just get an old chest freezer. Stand up freezer if my container was tall. Then use a small heater for winter and simple temp controller you can buy on Amazon as suggested before.