I currently have a 3.5 cu ft fermentation chamber I built from a Danby chest freezer. It works well. It holds a 6.5-gallon carboy and a 3-gallon carboy at the same time. I have it setup as a ghetto keezer that I can roll out onto my deck for parties too. It has 2 taps.
Recently, I've started brewing with someone. We've been doing 10-gallon batches because we're splitting the beer we make. My current setup got really small, really quick. I've decided to replace my current freezer with an 9 cu ft model. I'll add a collar, 3 taps, a fan, a ceramic reptile heater, and an STC-1000 controller. That's pretty much the same setup I'm using now.
Since I've started doing some warmer fermentations for Belgians, and I'd like to do some lagering in the future, I've been brainstorming about how to make this setup more flexible.
I've come up with the following:
I realize this would cause a little internal havoc with the freezer, but will this work? Anyone tried this already? My additional cost to do this should be less than $50.
Recently, I've started brewing with someone. We've been doing 10-gallon batches because we're splitting the beer we make. My current setup got really small, really quick. I've decided to replace my current freezer with an 9 cu ft model. I'll add a collar, 3 taps, a fan, a ceramic reptile heater, and an STC-1000 controller. That's pretty much the same setup I'm using now.
Since I've started doing some warmer fermentations for Belgians, and I'd like to do some lagering in the future, I've been brainstorming about how to make this setup more flexible.
I've come up with the following:
- Add a second STC-1000 controller along with a second ceramic reptile heater. Each controller/heater would be placed at opposite ends of the freezer.
- Add a movable 'wall' composed of 1" foam sandwiched between some 1/4" plywood for strength. This wall would fit snuggly in the freezer, and would allow me to partitian the freezer. The wall would be removable.
- Under normal conditions one controller would be running. It would power the freezer and one of the heaters. This would be the default configuration. 90% of the time I'd have it running this way.
- When I want to do something special (like brew a beer that requires a slighly higher fermentation temp, or fire up the taps while I'm fermenting at 60F) I'd add the wall to setup a partition and fire up the other controller. This should allow me to keep one section cool, and slightly raise the temp of the other section using the heater.
I realize this would cause a little internal havoc with the freezer, but will this work? Anyone tried this already? My additional cost to do this should be less than $50.
option than the ceramic heaters. If you put a thermowell stopper in your carboy, you can measure and control internal temp with your STC, and if you get a second STC, you could create your "dual zone" situation.
