Kegarater fermentation chiller

[smitte10]

Hi guys I had an idea and wanted some input in not sure if I should have posted this in here or in the chiller forum so please let me know if I'm wrong.

If been brewing for a little while now and have always used a swamp cooler with frozen 2 liters and bottled. I recently got into kegging and have a bigger chest frezzer then needed and a extra keg (craigslist give you more then you need some times no complaints here&#128516.

I was thinking when I build the frame for the taps drilling to extra holes to run some beer line through and in to my swamp cooler with a pump and a temp controller water gets 2 warm pump kicks on pumps into the gas in on the keg filled with water in the frezzer pressure differences push water out through the beer out back into the cooler thus cooling it back down.

I was looking for some input on this and if it would be worth my time.

Thanks guys 👍👍👍

 

[day_trippr]

I suppose the factor that decides whether this has a prayer is the temperature differential you're trying to solve.

So, how warm would your brew get if you weren't swamping the fermentor?

Cheers!

 

[smitte10]

I have never really let it just go to find out but I'm in Florida so I gess it would really depend on the time of year.

But best gess I suppose in the 70s some were its in a dark room with no windows a\c most of the year set to 76 78.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd say it'll be close to workable. The gating factor is likely the ability for the keg walls to shed the heat, and that's actually not a lot of surface area to work with.

Let's say when you have a beer fermenting you set the AC to 75°F, you're running the yeast at 65°F, and you don't let the yeast run wild and try to catch up. Ie: you have the system running and the water bath is already at 65°F when you pitch.

Presumably you're controlling the keezer with an add-on unit with its own probe(s). I'd think when you have the fermentor running you'd want the critical probe attached to that cooling keg...

Cheers!

 

[DaWhip]

I think it would work well as long as you started ahead of the game on the temps. Start with fermenter at target temp, swamp cooler at/below target temp, and your keg water already cold. I think the system would have a hard time playing catch up.

How would your heat transfer work? a coil in the swampcooler for the cold water to run through? an "in" and an "out" on the swamp cooler itself?

If you have room to put the keg in the freezer inside of another bucket of water, that would help too.

Please try it. I've been thinking about doing something similar, so I'll keep an eye on how you are doing.

 

[smitte10]

Thanks for the response guys. To answer your question about the heat exchange no there will not be a coil in either the cooler or the fridge.

My plan was to have a water pump in the swamp cooler out side of the keezer but right next to it have that pump Plumbing through the collar and have a ball lock disconnect on the gas in on a corny let the pressure from the filling corny push cold water from the keg though the beer dip tube and out the beer out through another line through the collar and back into the swamp cooler.

Verry simple verry low tech and cheap I don't expect this to work as Well as say a glycol chiller but seeing as my temperature swings are not that bad I think it will do what I need.

And as mentioned above about having the temp probe on the keg in the keezer instead of the fermenter I was struggling with the placement I was thinking maby drill the bung to my carboy and having it in the beer itself or in the water of the swamp cooler and maby running that about 5 degrees colder then my target beer temp to allow for fermentions heat or maby on the keg inside the freezer. What's everyone opinion on that.

Just for the sake of more info my keezer is controlled by a ink bird 308 prewired temp conrolle and I will be buying another for the pump to run this new system.

 

[DaWhip]

I think what day trippr was getting at, and I agree, was that the temp controller probe for the keezer goes on the keg that is your heat exchanger. If you have it on a serving keg or in the air, it will take a lot longer to start cooling your heat exchanger.

Your second controller to control the pump should have the temp probe in the beer or at least in the swamp cooler as you describe.

 

[smitte10]

Oh that makes sense would you think it might over cool the beer though I run my keezer a little colder then most down to 35 I like a really cold drink.

 

[day_trippr]

There are too many unquantifiable factors to have an easy answer that has merit.

For instance, while you can set your ambient (room) temperature with your AC system, you don't know how many BTUs a fermentation will produce at its peak.
So the worst-case thermal input to the system is basically unknown.

And at the other end, the thermal resistance from keg wall to cold air is unknown, so you don't know how many BTUs you can sink.

Bottom line, while at least you're only trying to maintain a roughly 10°F delta from ambient in the face of an exothermic element, this would be a science experiment that would hopefully succeed...

Cheers!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/4iq3y8/easy_50_fermentationlager_chamber/

This guy made what I think is of a similar concept. Take a keg, or bucket or whatever, put a pump in it, the pump pumps cold water to a radiator that blows the cold air into your fermentation chamber. He's had good success with in. I'm going to be doing the same once I get my kegerator back from my friend.

 

[smitte10]

Thanks for yet another verry detaild answer day_trippr I gess ill just have to go for it and see what happens and ill come back here with some pics and an update.

Unfortunately I don't even have my collar built yet so it will be a little while but well get there.

And pricelessbrewing thanks for the link that is a great idea I might do something more like that.

What do you guys think about the two systems and which would you guys do?