Is there a way to Ferment in a common Fridge?

[pvturakhia]

I bought a mr. Beer, and where i live temps are about close to 30c - 40c. I want to some how use my normal fridge which holds my normal groceries to ferment. How can i make this happen. I dont have much room in my house as i live in a studio apartment. Please help

 

[Krazykripple]

you could try making lagers in your fridge. i think fridges are too cold for most ale yeasts. you could also look into a swamp cooler

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

I have fermented lagers in a side by side by turning the controls to the highest setting. This kept it at 42f, which is quite cool, but worked fine. A long, slow, fermentation however.

I also would not recommend this if it is your only refrigerator. Too warm for food and the ferment takes up too much space.

 

[kwingert]

You could try covering it with a heating pad in the frig. You would really have to watch the temp though and your frig would be working overtime to keep everything else cool.

 

[neosapien]

I'd go with the swamp cooler. I got myself a big thermal bag from Sam's Club and 4 2-liter bottles of soda. Fill the soda bottles about 2/3 full with water, drop 'em in the freezer. Twice a day I swap out the ice bottles with the now melted bottles in the bag and i keep my carboys a fairly constant 66 degrees, which is nice for most ales. If you're going to lager, you'll need a wine fridge or something. I would advise against trying to use your food fridge for fermentation as well. You're going to put a lot of undue stress on the compressor trying to keep it at proper temps, and has already been mentioned food-safe temperature and fermentation-happy temperatures don't really go hand in hand.

 

[HopSong]

Two choices: Fridge too warm to maintain food safety or too cool for most brewing. The other choice is to get a small dorm fridge. They are cheap and you can add a secondary thermostat (tons of discussions on HBT about that). They don't take up much room either. You can find them on Craigslist all the time.