Has anyone tried this?

[Brau_Haus]

I saw something online last night and thought it might work for those of us who don't have basements or the luxury of being able to cool the entire house down to 65F (that is without SWMBO going nuts)...anyhow, has anyone tried making something like this, and if so, how well did it work?

 

[arturo7]

Search and ye shall find.

 

[Brau_Haus]

You know, that would be a good idea...if I knew what it was officially called.

 

[ChshreCat]

Well, it appears to be some kind of a chiller for your fermentation...

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Look up, "Son of Fermentation Chiller."

 

[Brau_Haus]

Thank you both.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Apparently it's a Son of Fermentation Chiller with mods...

I'm in the process of making one. I went "overboard" with one modification while eliminating the fan.

I needed a chamber large enough to hold the primary or carboy (in milk crate) so I left the baffle out. This way I can put frozen water jugs on both sides of the fermenter.

I figured I'd take a temp reading and come back an hour later and take another reading while adding more bottles each time to get a handle on what temp ranges I can get out of it.

The white spots are caulk. I'll sand it down tomorrow and paint it in a day or two. Going away for the weekend...so it better be here when I get back...

 

[homebrewer_99]

Notice I also put it on a dolly...now I can move it around without fear of falling apart because of the weight inside...:rockin:...unlike the foam ones...

 

[ChshreCat]

The white spots are caulk.

Nice caulk, man.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

Some of us have also built a similar set up, but instead of ice have used the cooling coils from a fridge (avoids bottle changes). My sig has the build that I did, but I know of many others that have had like projects with minor variations.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I remember seeing a couple pics of fridge coils...

I used caulk to fill in the holes from the screws and other "empty spaces"...

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

I used that expandable foam weather seal.... It may not look pretty on all the cracks in the insulation, but it sure does hold

 

[MMW]

I used a big dehumidifier ($10 on CL) for mine. It's essentially a cooling system on wheels sized between a large fridge and a small AC unit.

I built a big plywood box, cut a hole in the front, slipped the cold side of the dehumidifier through, lined the whole thing with 1.5" of insulation from Lowes, hooked up a Johnson controller and bam--I can lager in my garage in the summer in TX. Total cost was <$100.