Fermenters in cooler areas through the winter.

[mitchard]

I had a question pop into my mind while discussing running out of space for fermenters to be stored in the pellicle photo thread.

Has anyone had experience with leaving long-term aging mixed fermentation beers in colder areas for months on end? The closet I am storing most of my sours in secondary is getting pretty full, and i'll soon be out of space. I have a 3-4 vessel fermentation chamber, but I have been trying to keep sours out of there while fermenting clean beers for the sake of sanitation. Plus keeping sours in there would also prevent me from lowering/raising temps as needed for different beers. I guess I could always just take them out when fermenting other beers, then put them back in when the coast is clear.

As I don't have a basement and leaving fermenters in various places throughout the house is frowned upon by the wife, my garage is the next logical place for storage. However, the temperature here in the Seattle area is less than ideal during the winter months, and my garage temp reflects that due to bad insulation. I know the bugs would be drastically slowed or put to sleep when the temp is dropping that low, but would they survive the winter? That would be after a temp controlled primary fermentation, of course. What other risks would present for such an idea?

My next step would be building a small insulated room in the corner of the garage that is hooked to the forced air, but I am putting that off for obvious reasons. Reinsulating the garage would be an even bigger task unfortunately. Plus I don't want to cough up the cash for a new garage door either.

 

[iijakii]

If you're worried about it I'd grab a ceramic space heater, Inkbird ITC controller, and build a super simple plywood/foamboard box for the garage.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TKDQ5C/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011296704/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[WI_Wino]

What is "colder" to you? 50F? Last winter my basement got down to low 50s and my aging sours were fine. I did some tasting recently and some of them are super sour, others still have aways to go.

 

[signpost]

What is "colder" to you? 50F? Last winter my basement got down to low 50s and my aging sours were fine. I did some tasting recently and some of them are super sour, others still have aways to go.

I'm in the same boat. Sours in the basement hanging out in the low 50s. Seem to be doing fine.

Much colder than that and I don't know what the effect might be on the bugs.

 

[505-Brewer]

You could find a dead chest freezer on craigslist for (probably) free and put a little space heater in it.

Temp control, thermowell, heating pad and a 10 gal igloo water cooler works great (although not the cheapest option).

Personally I'd just ignore the wife and have carboys laying about the house but thats probably why Im nit married

 

[iijakii]

Yeah, get rid of some of her clothes and now dub it the "sour closet".

 

[mitchard]

Colder by my definition depends on the time of the year really. It drops into the 10-20 range on occasion through the winter, but usually stays in the 30s and above. The garage stays a bit warmer, maybe in the 40s at the lowest. I've never had anything freeze out there. I need to actually log it next year to see the exacts.

I do have a dead chest freezer in there actually. Its my old coffin keezer which died a few months back. I was planning on getting rid of it since the footprint on the unit is huge, but it might be a good option actually. Would just have to make a few tweaks.

 

[WI_Wino]

I would think 40's might be too cold. Chest freezer with a little heater and temp controller should work perfect.

 

[505-Brewer]

Colder by my definition depends on the time of the year really. It drops into the 10-20 range on occasion through the winter, but usually stays in the 30s and above. The garage stays a bit warmer, maybe in the 40s at the lowest. I've never had anything freeze out there. I need to actually log it next year to see the exacts.

I do have a dead chest freezer in there actually. Its my old coffin keezer which died a few months back. I was planning on getting rid of it since the footprint on the unit is huge, but it might be a good option actually. Would just have to make a few tweaks.

Should hold a couple carboys then
Sounds like fast cheap option till you get it sorted.