Fridge vs. Chest Freezer for Fermentation?

[AZJ0SH]

I just bought a temp controller, project box, and all the wiring, now I just need to decide on which fermentation chamber to use, a chest freezer or a stand up fridge?

I am new to homebrewing, this will be my first setup of my own but I have brewed with friends in the past so I have little experience. My goal is to have something large enough to have 2 carboys or buckets fermenting at a time.

What would be better, a chest freezer or a stand up fridge? If I go with either what cubic size should I look for?

 

[brewcephus]

I have a Fridge atm because I had an extra one in my shop. It works great and maintains the temps quite well. I also have a standup freezer that I'm going to turn into a lagering Ferm chamber, got my new temp controller in yesterday.

I think either will work just fine; just a matter of what you have, what you want and whats available I guess.

 

[h22lude]

A chest freezer you have to lift your bucket/carboy up maybe 3 feet to go over the side. A fridge you can slide right in.

Chest freezers you will be able to fit more if you get a big size. Fridges are limited.

New chest freezers are cheaper than new fridges. I personally would go new if you can. I bought used. It looks clean but you don't know what is hiding in the cracks. When the fridge is off it starts to stink. That smell could get in my beer.

Also, when not being used as a chamber I feel you would get more use out of a fridge.

I will be looking for a new fridge soon.

 

[JDGator]

A chest freezer you have to lift your bucket/carboy up maybe 3 feet to go over the side. A fridge you can slide right in.

Chest freezers you will be able to fit more if you get a big size. Fridges are limited.

New chest freezers are cheaper than new fridges. I personally would go new if you can. I bought used. It looks clean but you don't know what is hiding in the cracks. When the fridge is off it starts to stink. That smell could get in my beer.

Also, when not being used as a chamber I feel you would get more use out of a fridge.

I will be looking for a new fridge soon.

this pretty much nails down what i was gonna write!!

 

[Begin2Brew]

I just bought a temp controller, project box, and all the wiring, now I just need to decide on which fermentation chamber to use, a chest freezer or a stand up fridge?

I am new to homebrewing, this will be my first setup of my own but I have brewed with friends in the past so I have little experience. My goal is to have something large enough to have 2 carboys or buckets fermenting at a time.

What would be better, a chest freezer or a stand up fridge? If I go with either what cubic size should I look for?

I have a small ~7 cubic foot chest freezer for a fermentation chamber and honestly I would prefer the upright now, especially if it has shelves and can hold two or three 6.5 gallon buckets. An upright would take up less room and is easier to get buckets in and out.

 

[AZJ0SH]

I have a Fridge atm because I had an extra one in my shop. It works great and maintains the temps quite well. I also have a standup freezer that I'm going to turn into a lagering Ferm chamber, got my new temp controller in yesterday.

I think either will work just fine; just a matter of what you have, what you want and whats available I guess.

Do you have a temp controller on the fridge as well or just using the on-board controller?

I have a small ~7 cubic foot chest freezer for a fermentation chamber and honestly I would prefer the upright now, especially if it has shelves and can hold two or three 6.5 gallon buckets. An upright would take up less room and is easier to get buckets in and out.

This make sense, plus I can keep my bottled beers in the door or in the freezer section depending on the temp up there. I never thought about getting the buckets in and out, I imagine a 6.5 full bucket weights a lot.

 

[Homercidal]

I thought I would like a chest freezer, but instead I converted an upright freezer. Now that I've used it, I like it. The nice thing is I can lift the fermentors up into it and then once I'm done fermenting, I can easily siphon the beer right into the keg without having to move it and risk stirring up the yeast cake.

if I had used a chest freezer, I do not doubt that lifting it up and carying it somewhere high enough to get a good siphon would stir it up.

Also, the upright is big enough that if I place my buckets as low as they can go, I can stack 2 buckets high using modified buckets and I can get 4 buckets in there at one time! (Although they likelyhood of this happening is extremely low for me.)

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Get the best of both worlds, get a stand up freezer.

Finding ones that dont have their coolant lines built into their shelves can be challenging but its far from impossible.

I found one on craigslist after setting up an alert to email me every time someone posted into the freezer section with an upright..took about 2 weeks.

After taking everything out and building a cheap stand out of $5-10 in wood i had this...
I can fit two of my Brewcraft 30L(8 Gallon) buckets in there with room on the sides for blowoff vessels no problem.

And this thing is tiny by most stand up freezer standards, which is why i bought it..i just wanted enough to fit two buckets...I dont even have more than two buckets and cant imagine a time where i'd ever have 3 buckets all fermenting at the same time considering fermentation takes like 5-6 days max before i can just store it at room temperature if i wanted and i lager long term in kegs in my keezer.

Overall its maybe 5.5 feet tall by 3 feet wide?

 

[flatlanderHQ]

I have a chest freezer set up. Got the freezer for free... so perfect. Has room for two fermenters plus extra space for bottles if need be. Can't say I have had any issue with disturbing the yeast cake when lifting...doesn't matter anyway as any suspended yeast settles out during bottle conditioning. Plus I can use it as either a fridge or a freezer if, for some weird reason, I'm not making beer!

 

[sroberts]

I don't think you can go wrong either way. I went with a chest freezer because I found it on Craigslist for $40 and it works great, plus it'll make a nice keezer one day.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/basic-stc-1000-freezer-fermentation-chamber-373850/

 

[opiate82]

When I was trying to decide how to build my kegarator I read that freezers with temp controllers use less electricity than just a fridge. So that may or may not factor into the equation.

I would think regardless of if you use a converted freezer or fridge, you'd still want an external temp controller for accuracy.

 

[AZJ0SH]

Get the best of both worlds, get a stand up freezer.

Finding ones that dont have their coolant lines built into their shelves can be challenging but its far from impossible.

I found one on craigslist after setting up an alert to email me every time someone posted into the freezer section with an upright..took about 2 weeks.

After taking everything out and building a cheap stand out of $5-10 in wood i had this...
I can fit two of my Brewcraft 30L(8 Gallon) buckets in there with room on the sides for blowoff vessels no problem.

And this thing is tiny by most stand up freezer standards, which is why i bought it..i just wanted enough to fit two buckets...I dont even have more than two buckets and cant imagine a time where i'd ever have 3 buckets all fermenting at the same time considering fermentation takes like 5-6 days max before i can just store it at room temperature if i wanted and i lager long term in kegs in my keezer.

Overall its maybe 5.5 feet tall by 3 feet wide?

How did you setup Craigslist alerts? I need to find out!

 

[AZJ0SH]

When I was trying to decide how to build my kegarator I read that freezers with temp controllers use less electricity than just a fridge. So that may or may not factor into the equation.

I would think regardless of if you use a converted freezer or fridge, you'd still want an external temp controller for accuracy.

That might be a plus, I live in Arizona and keeping in this my garage, it gets up to 115-120 out there during mid-day so I need something that will use less energy or cost less to run. Plus I figure freezers should have better insulation than fridges, right?

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

How did you setup Craigslist alerts? I need to find out!

http://www.list-alert.com/

Perform the search you want then signup with your email, and it will email you any time something gets added. Because of the "first come first serve" mode CL goes by, this means you almost always get first dibs if you email them quickly after you see it. And in most cases if you respond fast after they post it(like within the hour) they may be more willing to haggle..a lot of people just want to get rid of these big appliances ASAP so they dont have to pay to take it to the dump.

I messaged for mine within 30 minutes of it getting posted after i realized it could be perfect, told her i'd come that night with $100 and she took it. Granted I could have probably waited and got it for less, but for me this was literally exactly what i wanted...fits two buckets, no more no less...there were quite a few others but they were just too big or people wanted too much money for them...and having a single car garage floor space is at a premium.

 

[BigFloyd]

It really depends on how strong and young your back/arms are. Lifting a full fermenter bucket in and out of the chest freezer isn't my favorite sort of thing to do much any more, so I use an upright freezer and a fridge (both w/ STC-1000) for my fermenting/cold crashing/lagering.

Hefting full 5-gallon cornies into the keezer is bad enough, but at least I only have to do that once for each batch and they're easier to handle than fermenter buckets. Lifting empties out is a piece of cake.

 

[b-boy]

I like a chest freezer. Lots of room. Lifting carboys can be a pain, but it's not that bad.

 

[beowolf1911]

my experience is somewhat limited but I vote use what ever you can get for the least cash (I got a regular old fridge for free) save the cash for more ingredients. With a well built shelf I can run three fermenters, with just the stock ones I can run two.

 

[AZJ0SH]

I setup list alerts for the free section of CL for now, and then setup one for the appliance section as well. My goal is a $50 or under stand up fridge.

 

[BigFloyd]

I setup list alerts for the free section of CL for now, and then setup one for the appliance section as well. My goal is a $50 or under stand up fridge.

If your goal is $50, check out any unit that's $100 or less. My upright freezer was Craiglisted at $100. After checking to be sure it was functional, I offered $50. We settled at $60. Many of the folks selling these sorts of things primarily want to be rid of them.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Man. When ever i get the space for a ferm chamber... ill be stuck with the stand up kind. Ever try lifting a 12 gallon carboy? Itll be a chore just to get it in a fridge. Sadly i dont think more than one 12 carboy could fit in a fridge.

I might have to build a walk in cooler. I have my carboys on rollers.

 

[biestie]

The only thing I have to add, that I don't see mentioned here, is that freezers operating above freezing temps can accumulate a lot of moisture. I've had an 8th of an inch(ish) of standing water in mine at the end of a ferment. Damp rid works to prevent that, but I go through a quite a bit of it.

 

[BigFloyd]

The only thing I have to add, that I don't see mentioned here, is that freezers operating above freezing temps can accumulate a lot of moisture. I've had an 8th of an inch(ish) of standing water in mine at the end of a ferment. Damp rid works to prevent that, but I go through a quite a bit of it.

Ever try one of these? I have one in my keezer and like it. http://www.amazon.com/Eva-dry-E-500-Renewable-Wireless-Dehumidifer/dp/B000H0XFD2/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1384032017&sr=8-12&keywords=dehumidifier

 

[AZJ0SH]

I ended up finding a free fridge on Craigslist, I have no idea why this person was giving it away for free because it's newer, clean, and works really well. Going to wire up the temp controller this weekend and once that is ready then get my equipment and hopefully have a batch in there fermenting by mid-December.

 

[JacquesG]

Thanks for the tip, fuzzewuzze. I just set up an alert for a standup freezer and there is one close by for $50. I hope to get it. I'm anxious to be able to lager and do pilsners to appease my non-IPA lovin' wife.

 

[BigFloyd]

I ended up finding a free fridge on Craigslist, I have no idea why this person was giving it away for free because it's newer, clean, and works really well. Going to wire up the temp controller this weekend and once that is ready then get my equipment and hopefully have a batch in there fermenting by mid-December.

Nice score. Having a fermenter fridge with controller will make your beers and your brew life so much better.