Building "secondary" chamber

[coypoo]

I have a cold garage, but am making a lot of sours lately. Im going to build a "fermentation-type" chamber in which I'll build the walls out with insulation board underneath a workbench. My question is, what is the best/most efficient way to keep the box warm? My garage is about 43 right now, and I want the chamber to be closer to the mid 60s. Reptile pad? Light? Fermwrap? Something more awesome?

 

[day_trippr]

The Lasko fan-driven 200 watt "personal heater" has been a popular solution for similar applications described on HBT.

You can run it on it's own thermostat, or wire up an external controller (like an STC-1000) so you can actually use the beer temperature to run the heater when needed...

Cheers!

 

[Transamguy77]

^^This! I have that same heater and use an stc 1000 to control it. Works awesome.

 

[atoughram]

I also have the same heater - but a Brewpi running it - works great!

 

[RM-MN]

You really do need a controller so your heater only runs when the beer temp is too low. If you make an insulated chamber sized for your size of fermenters it won't take much to keep the temperature up. Without a controller, you can easily have the temperature of the enclosure the right temp while the yeast are merrily heating the beer up to high.

 

[coypoo]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help! I'll get cracking on this

 

[timdillon36]

I didn't think I would need heat because I ferment in the basement in a freezer but when I decided to do a kettle sour I needed the warmth. I just borrowed SWMBO'S travel hair dryer and plugged it into the heat side, glad I bought the duel stage.

If you are building from scratch I would measure the FV temp and directly heat that with a wrap, and insulate the vessel and maybe also keep it in a chamber if the desired temp is greatly different than ambient.

 

[coypoo]

I'm hoping to make something with enough room for about 6 carboys to secondary sours. A rock solid temp isn't really necessary, just something somewhat stable and not too cold or too hot

 

[coypoo]

Ok, so I have all the plans drawn up and I'm going to use 1.5" rigid insulation board for the chamber. Should I put some plywood on top of the foam board as a surface for the carboy's to sit on? I.e., will the weight of 5-6 carboys eventually compress/destroy the foam board if there's nothing else supporting the weight aside from the foam board?

Thanks again for the great suggestions on the heater/STC-1000

 

[Steve88W]

I built a workbench / fermentation chamber (called the fart box) in the garage. Small window AC provides the chill, small personal heater provides the heat. Inkbird provides the controls in Fahrenheit. Insulated all around with 1.5" styrofoam insulation boards. (fits perfect between 2x4 studs). Working great so far but I just built it a week ago.

 

[coypoo]

That looks awesome! What did you use to make the "floor"?

Any other build pics?

 

[oceanic_brew]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1484077072.204919.jpg

Wish I had a better shot of mine but it's awesome that the three of us had the same idea.

I have 1" rigid foam on the floor and 1.5" on the walls and ceiling of it. It's a three bay with 2" rigid insulation separating each bay. The way I have mine cooled is in a kind of series type setup.

I have my kegerator on the right hand side which blows are through a duct into the bottom of the right most bay, there is also a return duct. Inside this duct I have a computer fan hooked up to a temp controller which is attached via probe to a whatever I'm fermenting. This bay i use for lagers.

The middle bay has the exact setup as the first but retrieves its air from the right most bay. This bay is for ales.

The left bay I don't have ducted yet, it has a heating plate from mangrove jack, this bay I'm using to either do saisons or i sometimes need to do a sour mash which is done in a keg wrapped in a sleeping bag on top of the heating pad/plate.

On the floor of the chamber i used some material from my cabinetry shop that was purchased bythe previous employee. It is sort of like a white melamine (good to detect spills, and see leaks or whatever instantly) and on the back is a weird black rubbery fiber type stuff. I've never seen it before. It's only about 1/8 thick it has performed very well. Rigid foam can handle a lot of force when it's not applied from the edge of something, some guys tile over it with just a layer of plywood but I don't.

Just a word of caution, you often can't glue rigid foam with regular adhesive. Use PL foam/panel board if you can get it. I think no more nails has some also. When you caulk your joints be careful of what silicone you use also, however the bulk are fine.

 

[coypoo]

View attachment 384073
Just a word of caution, you often can't glue rigid foam with regular adhesive. Use PL foam/panel board if you can get it. I think no more nails has some also. When you caulk your joints be careful of what silicone you use also, however the bulk are fine.

Thanks for the tip on the adhesive, I was just going to buy some generic stuff.

Also, what kind of caulk do you suggest? 100% silicone?

 

[Steve88W]

The shelves and floor are 3/4" Melanine but I made sure to seal the edges with foil tape.

 

[mongoose33]

I have the heat mat shown here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N98CC0B/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It's only 21 watts, but it was enough to keep a fermenter at 66 degrees in a refrigerator in a garage that was 40 degrees. I was surprised it could do that. I wrapped it around the fermenter and put a towel over the outside so it directed most of the heat into the fermenter. I controlled it with an Inkbird whose temperature probe was held against the fermenter with a piece of foam.

If you did something like 2" thick foam, I have no doubt this could keep your temps good in a cold garage like you have.

I also have a fermwrap; it's 40 watts.

If you want a chamber in which you can keep multiple fermenters, you'd probably want something like an infrared reptile heater. Light bulbs would work, but they shed light as well as heat, and if they burn out and you don't know....but then, that's what the alarm on the Inkbird is for.