I have an "almost" keezer - what to do?

[gator_brewer]

So I bought got a chest freezer to turn into a keezer, but due to stupid mistakes by me, I have another week until my temp controller comes in.

However, I have a keg (just filled yesterday) that I was planning on putting in there and tapping. Since I can't get the temp correct, what should I do?
-Wait until the temp controller comes in and let the beer (a wheat) sit in the keg as a secondary for a week or two, add CO2 once controller comes in under correct temps
-Plug in chest freezer, set to "hottest" setting and start adding the CO2 to the keg
-Add CO2 to keg, outside of freezer

Something else I forgot? I'm thinking option 2 as it can also act as a cold crash, but being a new freezer, i'm not sure what the "hottest" temp will be, so I'm afraid of freezing. Will freezing do anything negative to the beer? I mean Natty Ice is "slightly" less worse than normal Natty should I make a Ice-Wheat?

Please help and thanks.

(I am RDWADAHB, so I just want to know what is best, don't want to waste a keg of SWMBO's fav)

 

[JefeTheVol]

Check this thread out...it might help
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/guide-set-internal-chest-freezer-thermostat-32f-eliminate-external-control-249612/

 

[gstrawn]

I would bet the hottest temp for the freezer would still be freezing. I don't know that I would feel comfortable with possibly freezing my keggin setup. But me being very impatient I would definitely be trying to figure out a way to get my keg ready. Maybe set it to the hottest setting and see what your temperature it. Do your best to be the temperature controller and unplug the freezer at night or whatever you may have to do to get your keg ready without freezing it. That's probably what I would do but I'm very impatient and having recently built my own keezer I know exactly what it's like to have to wait! I drank flat beer for a few days!!

 

[Hex]

Put your keg in a muckbucket in your freezer and fill muck bucket with water around keg.
Turn on freezer, when ice forms on top of water in muckbucket, turn off freezer.
Monitor manually.

 

[suds_zville]

You could also try a lamp timer with the selectable on/off hours. Say 1 hour on & 6 hours off in cycles and adjust the timing as needed to get the correct temp.