Ferm chamber idea

[SirSpectre]

Hey all,

I had an idea for a temperature controlled ferm chamber. Heating is easy, but cooling seems to be a little more difficult without using a fridge/freezer. Ideally, I'd like to avoid this as I already have a keezer running.

My thought was this: on 1 wall of the chamber have coils of copper alternating directions that has cold brine water through it from a cooler and pump. The chamber would be big enough for 1 5 gallon bucket, and be insulated.

I know it wont get to lagering temps, but I am looking to keep it around 60 to 62 F. I am not sure if that would be effective or accurate.

My basement gets about 64 in winter and 68 in summer.

Thoughts?

 

[IloveWorts]

Go into more depth. how would it cool etc, like automatically? So far sounds normal

 

[SirSpectre]

A cooler full of Ice and water with an aquarium pump would be connected to the coils internally. The temperature controller would control the pump when the probe reaches temp, which would be taped on the bucket or find a sanitary thermowell for it.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I did this with my keezer build, and put two ferm chambers right ontop of the keezer. Works great for 3+ years now but does have trouble pushing enough cooling BTUs to get to lager temps if I dont have the wort to those temps initially. I only have a 2 gallon bucket of water on the hump though.
The system works great at maintaining ferm temps year round in my workshop which goes between 60 and 80 through the year. I can help the system along cooling the wort to lager temps with frozen ice bottles if i'm attempting a lager in july or august.

see the link in my signature and let me know if you have any questions on the build out for your setup if you decide to go this route. I love the compact footprint I have, as i'm space limited.

 

[cegan09]

My only suggestion would be to add a small fan to the chamber. Natural convection is significantly less efficient than forced convection. A small fan will help the chamber air exchange heat with the coils a lot more efficiently and evenly.

 

[etk29321]

This is essentially what I got by taking copper tubing and wrapping it around my conical then insulating the outside. I use an A/C unit glycol chiller and aquarium pump, so I probably get a few more BTUs than a cooler with ice, but I can lager just fine even during the summer. The insulation is the key. It also needs to be sealed tight around the fermenter with aluminum tape to prevent condensation from building up underneath.

 

[SirSpectre]

I did this with my keezer build, and put two ferm chambers right ontop of the keezer. Works great for 3+ years now but does have trouble pushing enough cooling BTUs to get to lager temps if I dont have the wort to those temps initially. I only have a 2 gallon bucket of water on the hump though.
The system works great at maintaining ferm temps year round in my workshop which goes between 60 and 80 through the year. I can help the system along cooling the wort to lager temps with frozen ice bottles if i'm attempting a lager in july or august.

see the link in my signature and let me know if you have any questions on the build out for your setup if you decide to go this route. I love the compact footprint I have, as i'm space limited.

Thats pretty much what I have planned, except without the freezer underneath. One side for colder, and one hot.

My only suggestion would be to add a small fan to the chamber. Natural convection is significantly less efficient than forced convection. A small fan will help the chamber air exchange heat with the coils a lot more efficiently and evenly.

Definitely.

This is essentially what I got by taking copper tubing and wrapping it around my conical then insulating the outside. I use an A/C unit glycol chiller and aquarium pump, so I probably get a few more BTUs than a cooler with ice, but I can lager just fine even during the summer. The insulation is the key. It also needs to be sealed tight around the fermenter with aluminum tape to prevent condensation from building up underneath.

Awesome! I think I'll get to designing and building it then!