Finally got my fermenter to the point where I wanted and thought I'd share my success with you guys....
Here's my recirculating water bath fermenter, inside of a chest freezer. I decided to go with a water bath a long time ago because I liked the water mass around the fermentor to keep temps constant.
Here's the outside of the freezer, complete with my STC keeping an eye on everything...
I keep a C to F conversion cheat sheet on the chest freezer. If I moved to one of the newer STC type controllers, I wouldn't need this. But I'm lazy and done with the electrical work of setting up another STC.
Here is the meat of the setup - inside is a tough garbage can that I bought off a Granger type website. I found one that was very thick plastic and used in commercial type applications. I measured the inside measurements of my chest freezer for this. The trash can ended up costing me $50 but honestly I love it. Very very durable - you should NOT use a cheap thin trash can for this. Make sure it's industrial grade.
Here's my heat source - I've found over this project that there are so many similarities between aquarium applications and beer applications. I use an aquarium heater that has a plastic piece of the bottom of it, so it is never in contact with the trash can.
Link to heater - http://www.petsmart.com/supplies/he...36-catid-300076?var_id=36-16561&_t=pfm=search
Here's the STC temp probe. I put the probe into the trash can water, but you could put it into the carboy as well (I usually do it through a blowoff tube).
Here is my recirculation - I use an aquarium pump. You could put in multiple. I only put in one - the water surrounding my carboy is about 3 gallons of water. I would recommend having at least one in there so you can keep the temp around the carboy constant.
Link to a pump - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EWENKXO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Hope you enjoyed my write-up.
Here's my recirculating water bath fermenter, inside of a chest freezer. I decided to go with a water bath a long time ago because I liked the water mass around the fermentor to keep temps constant.
Here's the outside of the freezer, complete with my STC keeping an eye on everything...
I keep a C to F conversion cheat sheet on the chest freezer. If I moved to one of the newer STC type controllers, I wouldn't need this. But I'm lazy and done with the electrical work of setting up another STC.
Here is the meat of the setup - inside is a tough garbage can that I bought off a Granger type website. I found one that was very thick plastic and used in commercial type applications. I measured the inside measurements of my chest freezer for this. The trash can ended up costing me $50 but honestly I love it. Very very durable - you should NOT use a cheap thin trash can for this. Make sure it's industrial grade.
Here's my heat source - I've found over this project that there are so many similarities between aquarium applications and beer applications. I use an aquarium heater that has a plastic piece of the bottom of it, so it is never in contact with the trash can.
Link to heater - http://www.petsmart.com/supplies/he...36-catid-300076?var_id=36-16561&_t=pfm=search
Here's the STC temp probe. I put the probe into the trash can water, but you could put it into the carboy as well (I usually do it through a blowoff tube).
Here is my recirculation - I use an aquarium pump. You could put in multiple. I only put in one - the water surrounding my carboy is about 3 gallons of water. I would recommend having at least one in there so you can keep the temp around the carboy constant.
Link to a pump - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EWENKXO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Hope you enjoyed my write-up.
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