Son of Fermentation Chiller

So I stumbled across directions on how to make the “Son fo Fermentation Chiller” by Ken Schwartz.

I was wondering how realiable it is for lager? Was looking for some reviews of it.

Seems pretty staright forward. Was thinking I would incorperate the digital temp contoller and the electric fermentaion heater with it to regulate temp and along with the fan just switch which component I need for year around brewing.

I built the Mother of Fermentation Chiller, which is an improvement to the Son model. Go for it. It was a fun build, and works pretty well. I haven’t put the weather stripping into mine yet, so I suspect I could get even better performance out of it.

That said, if I chill my wort down to pitching temp, I can maintain a fermentation of 55 degrees by switching out ice tubs every two days or so. It will eat through the ice pretty quickly once the fermentation starts rocking, so be prepared with a couple changes of ice.

I’ve fermented two batches simultaneously in mine and still maintained ale temps of about 65 degrees. If you don’t keep an eye on the ice, the temp will get out of control and it’s hard to bring it back down with ice alone. So the key is to chill all the way to your pitching temp, and then keep a close eye on the ice and switch it out when you need to.

I plan to trick mine out with weather stripping and better latches soon, and then we’ll see how it does with a lager. However, I’m sure it would only work for a lager as far as primary fermentation. You’d have to have a temp-controlled fridge or freezer for the actual lagering period.

Yeah I am looking hard at the mother as an interim solution I came across another version by Mylofiore that basicly incorperates a fermentation chamber ontop of a chest feezer that he uses for his draft setup.

That’s not a bad idea at all, as long as you don’t need to access the freezer very often. Now you’re talking! 8)

Tap a your kegerator to feed a fermentation chamber up above? Sounds like a great idea to me!

Surely this has been done…

I got the idea from here: http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/The- … n-Chillers
And it is removeable access panels in the bottom. ebtween the two chambers.