Island_Dan
Well-Known Member
I brew small 2.5 gallon batches of beer on a biweekly basis and thus far, have only brewed Ales with a fermentation temperature of about 72 degrees F. I recently purchased a SS Brewtech brew bucket mini and was elated when I heard that they were producing a small number of FTSs temperature control systems for this fermenter.
I have never had the space luxury of having a fermentation fridge and was not fond of the idea of the ice filled cooler to stabilize my temperatures. I also don't want to splurge on a professional glycol chiller. Luckily I use to be a performance computer hardware reviewer and had a prototype thermoelectric cooler sitting around that I though I may be able to adapt to chill glycol in a small cooler.
The unit is a coolit boreas that I was given to review and consist of 12 Peltiers, 4 water blocks and a large heat sink.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466995928.453951.jpg
I bought a 30A 12v power supply, an inkbird St-1000 and built a small controller box which I screwed the unit on to. Plumbed into a 3 gallon igloo cooler, it took me 20 minutes to drop temps from 69F to 50F and it cycles on and off every couple hours to keep my temps around 50. I hope to put the FTSs pump in the cooler and cycle the cold water to stabilize my fermentation temps and depending on efficiency, I hope to be able to lager in the fermenter. So far I can drop the temps in the cooler reservoir down to 40 degrees without any issue at all and hold it there.
Will keep you all updated when I brew next weekend on how well this works to hold my fermenter at a more efficient temperature.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466996401.999196.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466996422.216582.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466996462.229091.jpg
I have never had the space luxury of having a fermentation fridge and was not fond of the idea of the ice filled cooler to stabilize my temperatures. I also don't want to splurge on a professional glycol chiller. Luckily I use to be a performance computer hardware reviewer and had a prototype thermoelectric cooler sitting around that I though I may be able to adapt to chill glycol in a small cooler.
The unit is a coolit boreas that I was given to review and consist of 12 Peltiers, 4 water blocks and a large heat sink.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466995928.453951.jpg
I bought a 30A 12v power supply, an inkbird St-1000 and built a small controller box which I screwed the unit on to. Plumbed into a 3 gallon igloo cooler, it took me 20 minutes to drop temps from 69F to 50F and it cycles on and off every couple hours to keep my temps around 50. I hope to put the FTSs pump in the cooler and cycle the cold water to stabilize my fermentation temps and depending on efficiency, I hope to be able to lager in the fermenter. So far I can drop the temps in the cooler reservoir down to 40 degrees without any issue at all and hold it there.
Will keep you all updated when I brew next weekend on how well this works to hold my fermenter at a more efficient temperature.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466996401.999196.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466996422.216582.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1466996462.229091.jpg