Fridge Help?

[ElCid79]

Hey guys. I need to get a chiller to allow my fermentation to happen in. I was looking at those cooled conicals but they are just too expensive considering I can build a fridge setup for about 100 bucks. Someone on craigs list is selling this WMR04BAPBBB model fridge its a 4.3 cu ft fridge from GE. I had a 4.4 cu ft Magic Chef that I was able to convert into a kegerator. What fridges do your recommend? And what temperature controllers? I only want to have to do this one time.

Thanks,

JE

 

[Dwain]

JE,
I understand you want a fermentation chamber. If so, how many/what kind of vessels will you be fermenting at a time? What are your space limitations. Can you use a used "normal" sized fridge? If you only want to do it once, bigger is usually better. Give us some more parameters and someone will zero in. - Dwain

 

[ElCid79]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have some space in my back yard behind a utility shed that has electrical that I could put a chest freezer at. It would be exposed to the elements, but I think my room mate would kill me if I brought another keg cooler into the house. Unless perhaps it was a smaller one, such as a minifridge setup, that I could stash in a closet somewhere. haha. I just started into this hobby, as my first batch is in the fermenter as we speek. Unfortunatly we had a heatwave here, and the temps sky rocketeded during my primary. Fortunatly they have cooled off a bit now. But I am worried that my first attempt may have failed because of this. I realize that in order to make a good quality brew I need to get this under control. Currently I have a glass carboy and the plastic paint bucket primary setup. That I purchased at the local brew shop. Depending upon how well I enjoy this hobby I think that I may upgrade to better equipment down the road. Or run multiple batches in several carboys. Infact, ever since I was a teenager I wanted my own brew pub, so who knows where this could lead. But the lack of space in my house makes me think that a 1 - 2 carboy max sized cooler. Particularly since I may be moving again in a few months and would hate to drag a full sized fridge with me.

Thanks

 

[ElCid79]

Anyone have any further insight into this? I am kindof leaning toward a chest type freezer.

 

[marcopolo]

I have 2 standard fridges and a large chest freezer. I find that moving the carboys in/out of the fridges is easier than lifting the carboys/buckets in/out of the chest freezer. I use one fridge as a lager fermentor, I use the other fridge for storage, and I use the chest freezer for dispensing kegged beer. I'm currently thinking about investiing in a conical and somehow converting/creating the dedicated lagering fridge into a fermentation chamber for a 14 gal conical. Hope that helps...Good Luck !