So I moved out of my nice climate controlled apartment and now all my brewing will be done in a basement. I live in Northern Cali so in the winter it gets down to about 25F and summers get up to 110F. It will be a little more balanced underneath the house but not by a lot, its pretty open.
I’ve been looking around quite a bit at all the fermentation chambers people have built and I have a few questions:
Window AC unit vs. Mini-fridge? Anyone know the difference in energy consumption?
Will a lamp work for heating up the space or could that be a fire hazard in an enclosed area?
In your experience how stable will the temperature be? I.E. will I have to use a heater at night and a cooler in the day on the same day?
Lastly how do I do this without breaking the bank? It looks like a Ranco or Johnson controller is gonna be 50-70 bucks, plus materials to build the insulated chamber, plus the fridge or ac unit and some sort of heater…what are my options here for saving some money?
The easiest is to purchase a refrigerator or freezer and put a temp controller on it. See my signature line for a controller for less than $30. A new fridge/freezer should be had for under $250. Sears has a 5.1CF chest freezer that should hold 1 fermenter for $170
I prefer a small ceramic space heater vs. a light bulb. The light bulb may burn out and you loose your heat. The heater should last a life time.
I doubt you will need to use the heater and cooler at the same time. But if you think you might, you can wire the controller I linked to, to do both with the wiring diagram I’ve posted.
I have very similar temperature swings as the OP. I used Nighthawks control process and never looked back. Temp control using an old frig and controller was the best step I have taken in improving my beer.
Also, even though your outside temps get down below freezing, the basement likely won’t go below 60. The heat from upstairs and the ground temp will prevent this.
When you put the fermenter inside a fridge, the fermentation will warm this up just fine.
During the summer, the reverse happens. The ground will keep the temps in the upper 60’s.
I built the big pink fermentation chamber and use frozen gallon jugs (2) and a cheapo thermostat off of amazon. Nighthawk has linked to it, here it is again:
It does a great job of keeping the temp down the in 60’s, even in my 100+ degree attic! I do have to change out the ice daily or every other, but that isn’t so bad. All said and done I think it was around $70-80 and a fun little project.
Also, if you like a variety of different beers, be sensitive to the seasons and temps and brew accordingly, i.e., lagers in the winter so you don’t have to work so hard.
If you choose to go the chest freezer route, be sure to go as big as possible because you will probably need to have more than 2-3 carboys fermenting at one time some day.
I chose to use the room under the basement stairs and I did not bother insulating it. The window AC unit works just fine with a Johnson controller and heat is not an issue for me. More pics on my website:
Will a normal thermostat work in place of a Johnson or Ranco? I already have a spare thermostat that is pretty new, could I use that?
And I’m guessing most people don’t use full size fridges because they are pretty big but really can’t hold more than 1-2 carboys right? I would like to have space for 2-3 for now, so I’m considering going with a mini-fridge or window ac unit and building a box and insulating it.
A household thermostat uses 12v or 24v. So unless you want to wire up a bunch of relays, no it wont work.
See my signature line for a temp controller that is under $30.
I would say that “most people” use what is handy for them. If it’s a spare full size fridge they use that. If it doesn’t fully fit their needs, they upgrade later.
Will a normal thermostat work in place of a Johnson or Ranco? I already have a spare thermostat that is pretty new, could I use that?
And I’m guessing most people don’t use full size fridges because they are pretty big but really can’t hold more than 1-2 carboys right? I would like to have space for 2-3 for now, so I’m considering going with a mini-fridge or window ac unit and building a box and insulating it.
Thanks
Jeremy[/quote]
I use a household thermostat for my fermenting fridge. It works well. I took the thermistor off the circuit board and put it on a 6’ lead so 1) the sensor could be insulated against the fermentor and 2) so the thermostat didn’t need to be in the fridge. It uses one solid state relay wired for cooling. It’s not the prettiest but it’s functional and has served me well for the past 3 years.
I know that for during fermentation,we need different temperature. So I recommend ITC-310T,which is a timer and thermostat 2in1. You can set 6 periods of time and temperature.
The unit does not have a condensation line. It is noisy but I don’t use the office all that much. Most of the time now, I ferment in my Bierkeller as it stays cold for free.
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