Ever build a fermenter the same internal size as a chest freezer?

[Ike]

Anyone doing relatively large batches ever fab up (or have fabbed up) a fermenter that is basically a tank or sleeve that is built to match the internal dimensions of a commercially available chest freezer? Or maybe an array of two or three that would stack side by side with little or no lost space?

I imagine something built just an inch or so shorter than the upper edge of the sides or collar. ...I'd ask for a lipped lid that could be ringed with a gasket to achieve a seal, and a vent suitable for fitting the airlock of my choice.

Temperature control would be amazing, I'd guess. Once complete, you'd have to use a chugger pump to transfer into kegs or a brite tank.

I know square fermenters catch flak for circulation problems and dead spots in the corners. That said... hmmmmm....

Help me brainstorm this!

 

[skidmark]

Maybe a large plastic bag liner? Should be able to find one that is food contact rated. It would conform to the contours of the freezer (assuming that it's big enough). You'd need to siphon out the finished contents until it was light enough to lift. Cleanup is as easy as tossing it in the trash.

 

[Ike]

Maybe a large plastic bag liner? Should be able to find one that is food contact rated. It would conform to the contours of the freezer (assuming that it's big enough). You'd need to siphon out the finished contents until it was light enough to lift. Cleanup is as easy as tossing it in the trash.

Ha HA! Your ghetto-fu matches my ghetto-fu, sir! I know more than a few folks here on HBT will do ~50 gallon batches in the big KitchenAid garbage cans with thick liners in them... why not, eh? I will have to think about that a bit. Maybe double- or triple- 'em up to make sure you have a bit of a safety margin, but the thermal transfer should still be awesome...

You had me at "cleanup is as easy as tossing it in the trash." Now, off to Google "where to buy the world's largest food-grade plastic bag."

 

[bendog15]

This is so great. I had this exact idea a year back and couldn’t come up with a solution! My current small chest freezer only fits two carboys.

I just ended up brewing continuous 10 gal batches til I built up my pipeline. Good on ya for being a mad scientist though.

 

[skidmark]

Ha HA! Your ghetto-fu matches my ghetto-fu, sir! I know more than a few folks here on HBT will do ~50 gallon batches in the big KitchenAid garbage cans with thick liners in them...

I can't take credit for the trash bag idea, but the guy I stole it from now owns several 800 barrel fermenters ...

 

[Br3w4u]

You can fill your chest freezer with glycol. Put a submersible pump inside and run pex out of the freezer from the pump to a length of copper or stainless pipe that can be submerged in any size fermentation vessel that you can come up with. Return the glycol out the other end back to the freezer. Put a thermowell in your vessel to keep a thermostat hooked up and you can control the internal temperature of your fermenting beer. The food safe liner option would be cheaper and easier though. I heard an episode of basic brewing radio where a guy put those in his brew buckets so he would never have to worry about sanitation. The liners are supposed to be sanitary right out of the package.

 

[mongoose33]

Forgive me, but what problem does this solve? Even a 7-cu-foot freezer has a 50-gallon capacity, or 10 times a normal 5-gallon batch.

If you're going to go to larger batches, you can buy a conical that can do a 1-barrel batch. You can also buy smaller conicals with temperature control kits to deal with temp issues.

I just took delivery on a Spike 10-gallon conical with temp control; they have a 30-gallon model. If you're talking a huge fermenter, then at that point wouldn't it be better to simply buy something engineered to handle the issues?

Or is this just a muse?

 

[Br3w4u]

I agree with mongoose33 that buying a system made for this purpose would be the best option. It could be a little cheaper to build something to fit your needs but I would think the extra cost would be worth the time savings and the frustration of failing designs. Although some people enjoy creating things and dealing with all the trial and error so I guess it depends on the person.

 

[skidmark]

"If you can solve a problem by writing a check, you didn't have a problem."

 

[Lax coach]

I prefer the full quote:

"If you can solve a problem by writing a check, it's not a problem. It's an expense."

 

[homebrewer_99]

Ever consider building a Son of Ferment Chiller?

 

[Ike]

I agree that the volumes get big pretty quickly. In part, that was what led me to the idea of a few separate tanks that, when joined Voltron-style, would fill the volume of the chamber.

Why I think this idea intrigues me: I think I'm just gravitating toward what I know, and feeling the lightness of my checkbook. I use chest freezers as my kegerator and ferm chamber now. It feels easiest to stick to what I know. I've been cruising around looking at jacketed conicals, and even the smaller ones are quite pricey, and that's before you buy (or design, as suggested above) the glycol chiller to control it. But I do agree that, in a perfect world with the right resources, a purpose-built conical (dare I even dream: unitank) would be the way to go.

I had also bandied about the idea mentioned by Br3w4u about a submersible probe that would fit into just about anything. Based on my recent mullings and thoughts advanced here in this thread, I may be leaning more in this direction. A small chest freezer becomes a simple glycol chiller easily enough. I wouldn't have guessed that a submersible pump would be OK for glycol: that said, searching on HBT proves that lots of people do it that way. Diaphragm and magnetic pumps also get high marks. Interesting.

To Mongoose's point, this is basically what Spike and SSBrewtech are offering: dual-mode temp control where their cooling is controlled by a submersible coil. It just becomes a matter of sourcing the coil in dimensions I'm looking for. I think I'd prefer something longer and thinner to be able to be used in typical Better Bottles or Fermonsters, since I prefer to age my cider for a while and prefer the seal they offer over my usual Big Mouth Bubblers. Like a BrewJacket, only beefier. Hmmm....

So... maybe that IS the direction to go. Quit considering massive batches or custom fabrication jobs to make a vessel to fit your chiller, and instead build a chiller that will fit whatever vessel you choose.

You know what: you folks are all right, no matter what everyone else says about you! Really, good food for thought. THANKS!

 

[Br3w4u]

Check out the basic brewing radio podcast episode from 4-12-18 titled crisis brewing. The owner/brewer uses a submersible glycol coil that he designed for his brewery.

 

[Ike]

Spooled up right now, thanks!