Ever since our friends decided that they liked my Strausstoberfest beer better than the Spaten Oktoberfest, I decided that I could brew all the beer for our annual Strausstoberfest party. Last year I had a total of 25 gallons on tap and it was all gone within 4 hours and 17 minutes.
So this year, I'm taking it to 30. I bought an entire refrigerator last year to handle the job, but it got commandeered by my wife for her cake decorating business. So I had to buy yet another fridge to bring our total to 8 refrigeration appliances.
After much arguing in my head from using an A/C unit, to a dorm fridge attached to a fermentation cabinet, to gutting a refrigerator and using it to cool a cabinet, I decided to compromise and just modify a full size fridge to make it one large fermentation cabinet. The current design will fit up to 7 fermentation buckets, which is acceptable (smiley face).
I went this route, because I didn't think a dorm fridge or A/C unit would have enough capacity to keep that much beer at lagering temps during the Summer in Indiana.
It would take up way to much space here to show the project, so I'll give some preview pictures here. For the detailed info, click on the links to go to my blog. I'll keep this as the master post as I publish more pages.
Finished Lagerator
Ready for Disassembly
Removal of Divider
Guts
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Clean up
Part 3: Disassembly
Part 4: Door modification
Part 5: Shelf building
Part 6: Finishing up and other observations
So this year, I'm taking it to 30. I bought an entire refrigerator last year to handle the job, but it got commandeered by my wife for her cake decorating business. So I had to buy yet another fridge to bring our total to 8 refrigeration appliances.
After much arguing in my head from using an A/C unit, to a dorm fridge attached to a fermentation cabinet, to gutting a refrigerator and using it to cool a cabinet, I decided to compromise and just modify a full size fridge to make it one large fermentation cabinet. The current design will fit up to 7 fermentation buckets, which is acceptable (smiley face).
I went this route, because I didn't think a dorm fridge or A/C unit would have enough capacity to keep that much beer at lagering temps during the Summer in Indiana.
It would take up way to much space here to show the project, so I'll give some preview pictures here. For the detailed info, click on the links to go to my blog. I'll keep this as the master post as I publish more pages.
Finished Lagerator
Ready for Disassembly
Removal of Divider
Guts
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Clean up
Part 3: Disassembly
Part 4: Door modification
Part 5: Shelf building
Part 6: Finishing up and other observations
