mwill07
Well-Known Member
so it's almost summer time here in SC, and starting to get hot. I've never had any sort of fermentation temp control previously, it's time to tighten up that part of my brewing.
I'm looking for ideas on how to make a fermentation chamber. I'm looking for cheap, but accurate, reliable, and controlled - i.e. no swamp cooler or swapping out ice-packs.
I have a wine cooler similar to this right now that does not work at all. It's a thermo-electric piezo heat pump type of deal, no compressor or anything. It powers up, but no cooling. It fits a 6.5 gallon carboy perfectly and would make a great chamber, just needs cooling somehow.
I'm not married to this though. I'm open to other concepts, including buying a full sized fridge off of craigslist and fixing up the ole STC-1000.
I remember seeing a concept several years ago where someone put a 1 or 2 gallon vessel of anti-freeze in the freezer of a garage fridge, ran that thru a 12V pump into a radiator (PC heat sink, maybe?) in an insulated chamber, and returned back to the vessel in the freezer. The STC1000 powered the pump and a fan as needed - this seems like a great option because this fridge could serve double duty - drinks/overflow fridge in my garage as well as providing cooling for the fermentation chamber. Does anyone recall such a thing?
Thanks!
I'm looking for ideas on how to make a fermentation chamber. I'm looking for cheap, but accurate, reliable, and controlled - i.e. no swamp cooler or swapping out ice-packs.
I have a wine cooler similar to this right now that does not work at all. It's a thermo-electric piezo heat pump type of deal, no compressor or anything. It powers up, but no cooling. It fits a 6.5 gallon carboy perfectly and would make a great chamber, just needs cooling somehow.
I'm not married to this though. I'm open to other concepts, including buying a full sized fridge off of craigslist and fixing up the ole STC-1000.
I remember seeing a concept several years ago where someone put a 1 or 2 gallon vessel of anti-freeze in the freezer of a garage fridge, ran that thru a 12V pump into a radiator (PC heat sink, maybe?) in an insulated chamber, and returned back to the vessel in the freezer. The STC1000 powered the pump and a fan as needed - this seems like a great option because this fridge could serve double duty - drinks/overflow fridge in my garage as well as providing cooling for the fermentation chamber. Does anyone recall such a thing?
Thanks!