The Lager Jacket

[Spartan1979]

I'd be interested in something like this. I had a refrigerator for fermenting (and one for my kegs), but my wife filled the freezer with food, and now I have the refrigerator part filled with beer. I'm looking at getting a third refrigerator just for beer (and I've warned my wife it's just for fermenting ) but this might be a better solution. It's starting to warm up, so I have to figure out what I'm going to do this summer.

 

[ghart999]

Aaron if you are looking to patent this idea give me a PM. I believe I may be the only home brewer / patent attorney in the world.

 

[radtad]

Old thread, but I'm wondering what happened. It seems that this product still isn't available. Aaron, any word?

 

[aaronwalls]

So the jacket is still alive, but development is taking a bit longer than expected (especially when you enroll in grad school half way through the process). We have a working prototype developed and have brewed close to 15 batches with it and I'm very happy to report that it works as advertised over a pretty large sample set. Some lagers, some ales, all work real well.

Time frame isn't exact, but expect more news over the coming months. Ideally something in the form of a kickstarter project, but we'll see what ultimately becomes feasible. Keep tuned!

 

[gjb2107]

as a fellow grad student I feel your pain.

I am definitely interested in this idea seeing as I live in an apartment in Miami and its proved difficult/impossible to convince SWMBO to find a place to put a freezer. It would be truly awesome if it could go down to lagering temps, but I would still be strongly interested in it just to stabilize ale temps. I think the current price on the page ($299) is a little too rich for my grad student budget, especially if its only for ales, but its definitely something I will keep my eye on.

Many thanks and keep up the hard work Aaron. Please keep us up to date as this would take a lot of stress out of brewing in south florida.

 

[rawlus]

Looks like this thing has been moved up to a pending kickstarter project.
http://www.brewjacket.com/in-depth/

 

[remthewanderer]

I had no idea these guys have been around since 2011. I met Aaron at this year's homebrew conference. I think it is a great product for someone who has very limited space to ferment and can not use something larger as a fermentation chamber. Or perhaps someone who does not brew often enough to keep a chest freezer around to manage fermentation temps.

The problem is that the initial kickstarter price is probably going to be more expensive than buying a 7cu ft chest freezer and controller. I do not recall the exact price but it was in the neighborhood of $300. This is why I think it will be a product that a very small portion of the homebrew community might want.

 

[pfgonzo]

I can't tell from the diagrams how a blowoff or airlock works with it. Looks like the device itself only works with non-carboy fermentors, and the jacket closes over the lid with no room for either. Any updates?

 

[remthewanderer]

They have no addressed the airlock yet. Right now it is two metal rods that submerge in the beer. It is basically a peltier cooler with a temp controller build in. The plastic bucket lid has two holes cut into the center to accommodate for those rods. Since the airlock hole is usually off centered on the lid, it would not be impacted by this product.

 

[aaronwalls]

We've been around since 2011, but mainly doing development and testing. The project started off as a way to brew lagers in a small hot apartment in Atlanta, GA, but grew into something far more substantial over the next two years. I've brewed around 30 batches of beer with it, and beer quality from temperature stability alone astounded me.

Chest freezers are nice if you're fermenting a barrel or serving and lagering at the same time. The LagerJacket however doesn't use compressors, glycol, pumps, etc, so you don't get the constant on-off-on-off causing mechanical wear and large temp swings. Since it's all TEC based, we can modulate the power so you get a precise temp at 1/4 to 1/8 the wattage. Certainly not for everyone, but I'm excited about opening up the world of lagers for my fellow apartment dwellers, or even a way to get more fermentation stability for commercial brewers doing pilot batches.

 

[hunter_le five]

I'm looking forward to the kickstarter campaign. :rockin:

This sounds like a great product, if it works as advertised. I already have a dedicated fermentation/lagering chest freezer, but it can only hold one vessel at a time, and I don't have any more room for another one, so right now it's kind of a bottle neck in my pipeline. This certainly seems more space-efficient.

 

[remthewanderer]

Even though I'm not sure it is something that will fit into my fermentation system I am very excited for this kickstarter. Every new homebrewing product on the market makes this hobby stronger.

 

[aaronwalls]

Our Kickstarter just went live a few minutes ago!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/433436998/the-lagerjacket

 

[OneFeather]

Does the LagerJacket also heat? It may be a silly question, but in the winter I have challenges getting my Ales up to a good temp.

 

[aaronwalls]

We haven't built heating into the system, but it is something that the tech is capable of. For the first version we are concentrating on cooling without complicating our electronics, but in future versions, this is something we are very interested in including.

 

[harrke]

We haven't built heating into the system, but it is something that the tech is capable of. For the first version we are concentrating on cooling without complicating our electronics, but in future versions, this is something we are very interested in including.

Would you consider something for small-batch brewers? So far, I'm sticking to 1-gallon brews.

 

[swackattack]

I actually went to your ks page willing to donate about 150 figuring that it would get me one of the units....$399? What are you planning on retailing them for?

 

[aaronwalls]

The current plan is to retail them for $399, as the raw materials alone far exceed $150.

One very important thing to note is The LagerJacket uses 90w of electricity. If you were to run it 24/7 for a year, it would cost you $24 in electricity. If you did the same with a second hand chest freezer, the bill would be close to $200. A new chest freezer, it would be around $100.

 

[aaronwalls]

I wanted to float an idea by the community that we've been discussing internally. We are very interested in splitting the system up and allowing people to purchase individual components, allowing it to become more of an open-source system.

For example if you already had a temperature controller, you don't need to use ours, simply buy the other components and save $50 on that piece. Or if you already had an insulated fermenter, you could just buy the other components and save $75 on the jacket.

Thoughts?

 

[SLI]

I'd drop $400 on this. Sometimes I like to DIY, but other times it's just too much of a hassle to bring all of the components together. This is something that I would much rather pay someone else to put together for me.

 

[amandabab]

$400 is way too much.
I'd rather have a $180 new freezer, 10-20 year known lifespan and a $100 yearly power bill and be able to truly lager, use more than one fermentor, store kegs, dispense, and in a pinch turn it down and freeze things.

 

[rmullins]

If it was triclamp I would have an interest. With the brewhemoth megachiller going for $190, without counting the costs to get the coolant through it, I don't think this outrageously priced

 

[Wynne-R]

I think this thing is going to be seriously underpowered. It sounds like a Peltier device, and they are notoriously inefficient, on the order of 10-15%. 90 watts is just not enough. The only hope it has of actually working is if the insulation is like a Thermos jug. Even then, I don’t see how it could handle the fermentation heat.

Too much money for something marginal at best.

 

[zacster]

This is what I thought would be possible but never seemed to find. $399 though is pretty steep. I just bought a mini fridge for $200 and it is dual purpose, both keg and fermentation, whereas this is fermentation only.

 

[SAMBUCA]

This is what I thought would be possible but never seemed to find. $399 though is pretty steep. I just bought a mini fridge for $200 and it is dual purpose, both keg and fermentation, whereas this is fermentation only.

I think $399 is a good deal. IF IT REALLY WORKS!and will cool 10-12gallons. You guys that think you're going to buy a good "quality" product and expect to pay <$99 are living in a fantacy world. Check out the price difference of the Blichmann hot/cold and the standard - it is $1000.00 diff. I know its apples and oranges but still; simple is better.

My hats off to these guys but I think if it was that simple, it would have been done by now. I hope they prove me wrong and will ship to Canada. LOL

 

[aaronwalls]

I think this thing is going to be seriously underpowered. It sounds like a Peltier device, and they are notoriously inefficient, on the order of 10-15%. 90 watts is just not enough. The only hope it has of actually working is if the insulation is like a Thermos jug. Even then, I don’t see how it could handle the fermentation heat.

Too much money for something marginal at best.

It is peltier-driven, and as such you are correct that the chips do not produce as many BTU/hrs per watt as a compressor system. The system does however consume 90 W, and it does indeed get your fermenting beer to 35F below ambient. Here is how:

1. We're cooling just the beer, not the air surrounding the beer. This system would simply not be possible if we cooled air like compressor systems do.

2. We're heavily insulated, far more so than a thermos. The r-value of the jacket is around to 15, comparable to refrigerators and freezers.

This isn't a device for everyone. If you don't have space for a chest freezer or need precision with your temps, this is for you. Or if you're concerned with the energy consumption associated with alternate cooling methods, The LagerJacket consumes just $24 per year if run 24/7, so its worth investigating if you're on the fence about long term energy consumption.

Our plan isn't to convert people who use and love chest freezers to this device, it's simply to offer an alternative for people who were physically unable or unwilling to go that route but wanted to brew lagers or have additional control over their ferment in an all in one package.

 

[aaronwalls]

Quick update: we've announced a $299 model that uses hard anodized heat transfer rods instead of stainless steel.

We've been experimenting with hard anodized rods for a while now and they hold up very well over a lot of ferments (so far +/- 30 over 2 years). They require a bit more care than stainless, such as only iodine based sanitizers. Check out our updated kickstarter!

 

[nianticcardplayer]

Looked at the kickstarter, and right now still kind of pricey for my blood and I would use something like this, for ales and lagers. 150-199 is what I would be willing to part with....

 

[nianticcardplayer]

Went to kickstarter and saw the funding was over and shown not funded any other information on this ?

 

[stamandster]

It's a neat concept but a freon cooler is always going to be cheaper than peltier.