I recently bought a “normal” fridge to replace it because the temp. would only
get down to 45°. Now that I’m getting into brewing I’m also going to kegging.
My thinking is this may be alright for ales. Any ideas about this or other brews?
Does anyone know how I could get this thing to go colder or is it a compressor
thing? I was also wanting to put the CO2 tank into the small fridge. How much will
I have to adjust for carbonation?
Get it colder: How do you know it only goes to 45 deg. now? Did you turn the dial all the way down? If so, you could probably get it colder by using a temperature controller
, but I’m not sure. The temp controller essentially turns the fridge on and allows it to start cooling. Most people set their fridges to the coldest temperature possible then rely on the temperature controller to turn it on or off.
I think 45 degrees would be excellent for fermenting all the way down to lagers- especially ales like you mentioned.
For carbonating, you will want to search for co2 calculation spreadsheets or websites where you can input the temp of your beer and it will tell you how many volumes of CO2 you will need to carbonate to your desired carbonation level. Consider searching to find the common carbonation level, or search for other posts about common carbonation levels for beers. Putting the co2 tank inside the fridge isn’t a problem- UNLESS you leave the tank on it’s side or upside down- the liquid co2 can freeze the connection port, crack the gaskets and cause an explosion on it. As long as some of the co2 is a gas you will still be getting co2 pressure coming out of it, and I don’t believe you need to adjust, but I’m curious what others say.
I don’t believe you would want your beer to get that much colder than 45 (I could be wrong though)- the colder the beer the less CO2 you need to add in order to reach your carbonation level.
I keep my keezer at 45 for serving. But I agree that using a proper temp controller could probably get it go colder than 45. Unless you have a really bad seal on the door or something like that.
Yup, that’s all she’ll do. Was wondering if maybe that
was all the compressor could handle. My budweiser
never seemed cold enough, that’s why the other fridge,
and more room for meats and brining meats for the smoker.
I’m enjoying an amber ale (1st brew) that I have in the little
fridge. Guess it would be nice to have the option to be
able to go colder if I wanted to. It looks like it will hold the
two cornies and CO2 tank that I ordered.
