Ideas for Apartment fermenting ?

[illnastyimpreza]

I just moved to an apartment. Its not super small, but there really isn;t much room to ferment alot of beer now. I have enough room for my Kegerator, and there is a space in my pantry closet big enough for about 2 primaries. I could also use the top of the refrigerator. The ceilings are probably about 7.5'' tall....meaning I have some decent room up there too.

But This means I don't have a basement. So the inside temperature will not be stable, and probably not optimal for brewing beer.

What have you guys done in the past in order to construct a more stable fermenting environment?

I have a couple mini fridges that I could gut and part out to use to cooling control. I would like to build some sort of chamber to ferment in. But I have no idea where to start...... Ideas guys ???

 

[ChshreCat]

Here's a recent post that'd work well for you if you want to keep it simple:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/smaller-son-fermentation-chiller-79556/
If you wanted to go all the way with temp control, I'd recommend a small chest freezer and a temperature controller. Depending on the size of the freezer, you could fit 2 or 3 carboys in it at a time.

Me, I have a 1.5 bath apartment, so I use the .5 bath to ferment in. I put my fermenter in a big tub (the big plastic ones with the rope handles that are sold to hold drinks or kegs at parties), fill it partway with water, toss in a couple frozen water bottles every few hours and it keeps my temps nice and low. I was in the upper 60's in my fermenter while the rest of the apartment was in the upper 80's.

 

[illnastyimpreza]

yeah I'm looking for something as maintenance free as possible. I want to be able to stick a batch in the fermentor, and FORGET about it for months at a time.

I would like a temp controller and whatnot, but I don't know what the easiest way to go about doing something like this would be...

 

[ChshreCat]

The freezer and temp controller would be easiest, I think.

 

[wilserbrewer]

chest freezer or a large refrigerator w/ a Ranco 1100 controller.

 

[Nugu]

I just pitch and when fermentation takes off (usually ~12 hours) I throw it into the bath tub full of freezing ass cold well water for the next 12-24 hours. After that it's to the back of the closet till I keg it. (I wait till fermenting starts going good so it doesn't stall, the water is so cold I actually had yeast go totally dormant)

Really once the big burst at the start is over I find I have no issues just letting it sit with the AC running in the mid to high 70s.