Wife wants a downstairs fridge - is it this easy to make it a fermenter?

[AlwaysWaven]

My wife wants a downstairs fridge for drinks. Not sure why but I may as well use it to my advantage. My thought is that if I add an inkbird 308 I can take the drinks out during fermentation and turn off the controller when it is just being used for drinks.

I do not think heat will be a problem since the room stays in the low 70s year round.

Am I off?

 

[jerbrew]

Do it.

 

[Stillraining]

This is exactly how a lot of us that have zero confidence in themselves to reconfigure/bypass an existing fringe thermostat do it. No need to take the drinks out unless you want them colder then ferm temperature when your actually are fermenting either. Not unless you have so many of them they form a huge heat sink. 5 gallons of 70+ degree beer will counter act a couple dozen cold beverages in no time. If your worried about it, Plug the fridge into the controller set to your desired temp the night before and your golden by morning drinks or no drinks.

I promised the wife a new fridge this season myself, so I will soon be in your same shoes adding to my existing wine fridge fermentation chambers..

But once moved to the garage I would like to be able to keep the freezer half frozen on this fridge if thats possible...so I may have to hire the thermostat bypass thing out.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

sounds like a win-win my friend.

 

[AlwaysWaven]

Thanks guys!

Is the 308 my best bet? Is the probe included?

 

[mongoose33]

I have a 308. Actually two of them. Yes, the probe is included. Very nice solution. Takes a couple minutes to read through the instructions and then to get it set to what you want.

Before you do that, figure out what you want for not only the temperature but your high and low temps, so when you're getting it set up you don't have to think about that.

 

[AlwaysWaven]

Thanks everyone!

Last question - would the 310T be a better choice?

 

[Stillraining]

Probably...It has the ability to ramp up and down automatically. Great feature if your busy or away...unnecessary if you like a more hands on approach with your beer.

My question for you is are you going to check it to make sure it correctly did what you wanted it to do? If the answer is yes then why spend the extra 20+ bucks?

 

[brewbama]

Food for thought: I have a side by side I use as a cold crash/lager chamber at 35*F on the freezer side regulated with an Auber controller. I serve on the fridge side unregulated but the freezer side maintains it at a nice 40*~ish F.

 

[Jim311]

Food for thought: I have a side by side I use as a cold crash/lager chamber at 35*F on the freezer side regulated with an Auber controller. I serve on the fridge side unregulated but the freezer side maintains it at a nice 40*~ish F.

Since I use the same fridge to ferment as I do to serve I have a rotation that works sort of like this:


1) Brew an IPA using the fridge as a fermenter, which of course requires ale temps around 60ish degrees. Basically too warm of a temp to serve a beer at. I use yeast I've harvested from previous batches so it can be done fermenting pretty fast, within a week.

2) After that IPA is done, I cold crash and carbonate, and once it's cold and carbonated I'll then brew a lager which can ferment at around 50 degrees which is still plenty cold to serve the ale at.

3) Repeat as necessary.

 

[kpr121]

Another option is the get one of those fermenter warming belts and hook your controller up to that... fridge stays at drink cooling temperature and the fermenter belt warms up the belt to ferm temps.... its more wasteful of energy but much less work.