Fermenting Lagers next to Ales

[BrewLife1]

I recently purchased a chest freezer with a Johnson A419 and and Ranco ETC 2. I would like to be able to ferment a lager right next to an ale...... has anyone done this?? Im hoping I can use a fermwrap on the ale to keep it at temp. Any thoughts?

 

[eluterio]

Dont see why not, I would attempt to keep the cold temp of the freezer off the carboy of the ale as much as possible. Thought about doing this myself when I pick get something similar. I would use insulation sheets to create a box around the ale carboy just to keep the Fermwrap from burning out from working too hard.

 

[PAjwPhilly]

Seems like a lot of energy to cool a space and at the same time warm another part of it. I would bet this would put more and more pressure on your compressor and possibly more condensation in your freezer.

Temp control is only very important during the first few stages of fermentation. Is there any reason you need to consistently brew lagers and ales at the same time?

I would space them out. Brew lagers. Then brew ales a few days after because you can warm the lager up and the end of fermentation to help clean up diacetyl and finish strong. OR brew ales and then lagers since you can "cold crash" the ale (although lager fermentation temps aren't low enough for long enough to truly cold crash an ale)... But when the lager is finishing up you could just toss it in a room to warm up and drop the freezer down into lower cold crashing conditions.

But both at the same time.... Seems like a waste of energy and very opposing fermentation conditions to do simultaneously.

 

[BrewLife1]

These are some good points. I was thinking I would compartmentalism the freezer with the ale away from the compressor portion of the freezer. I usually have a few weeks to a month between brewing. I'm looking at doing an. October feat so the primary temps I'm not worried about but having to keep it between 35-40 degrees F for a couple months would put a stop to my ale brewing.