Fridge for fermenting

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tellish33

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Here is my situation, my corner of the house that I use for fermenting stays a constant 68 degrees. In the summer my house stays kinda warm. I dont want to stop brewing in the summer because its too hot. I also would like to do a couple beers where you need colder ferment temps.

I was wandering if you can use a mini fridge for fermenting? If so, how would you be able to control the temp so you can ferment at 66-68 but also be able to drop the temp for colder brew?

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
Look up fermentation chambers. I built one last year with a mini fridge and temp controller. Went a little crazy. : )
 
There are various temperature controllers out there that will fit your need. I use a Ranco, but there are several others that may be better suited for your situation. I also found an upright freezer on craigslist for $100, and that works perfectly.

One caveat though, if you find an upright freezer, make sure the shelves don't have the coolant running through them. If you can take the shelves out, you're good to go. Otherwise, I suppose a fridge will work. I decided on the freezer, because I wanted the ability to go down to just above freezing to cold crash my beer before kegging.
 
In my area, we've almost skipped spring and are almost at early summer temps.
I just brewed 5 gallons if a black ipa and have it sitting in a closet in a 6.5 gallon Pale Ale fermenter and that's in an ice chest. I've purchased a few reuseable ice packs of varying sizes at Kmart on sale and keep some frozen at all times and change out about once every 18 hours or so and once the ice chest gets cool, it stays cool even with the lid open.
I've been able to keep a house that's 79 during the day when no one is home to 63 degrees successfully. 2 friends have had similar luck.
But, if you can afford a small fridge, I'd go for it.
 
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