home brew lager temp control unit needed

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Bachs Brewhaus

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ok so i live in florida and my house doesnt get lower than like 74 .
i need to ferment my beer at 68 degrees . i need some kind of mini fridge or something to keep at that temp. any ideas?
also ik that 68 isnt lager temp. i just used that title as click bait because you need the same thing to lager beer
 
Lots of options, depending on what you want to spend. I live in Louisiana with my fermenter in the garage. So I have an ambient of over 90 degrees most all summer. I use a fermenter with a heat exchanger coil in the lid. There is a thermowell in the lid also. I have a temperature controller that measures the temperature and kicks on a cooling water pump when the termperature rises. I have the chilled water in a reservoir in a 5 cu ft freezer where I have the temperature controls overridden to stay at 35 degrees. With a neoprene jacket on the fermenter, I can maintain the temperature in the fermenter down to about 55 degrees or so in the summer. I also use the converted freezer to store kegs and serve the beer out of the taps mounted on the freezer.

It sounds a little complicated, but it suits my brewing processes pretty well.
 
You can get an Inkbird and chest freezer and use any yeast you want. You can easily ferment at 48 degrees if you want or anything up from there. When it comes time to crash, you just lower the set temp and you have chilled/clear beer for transferring.
There's a new Inkbird that is programmable for several different time/temp settings. You could ferment low for 2 weeks and bring up automatically for diacetyl rest and then crash to lagering temps, all with one program setting.
 
J A said:
You can get an Inkbird and chest freezer and use any yeast you want. You can easily ferment at 48 degrees if you want or anything up from there. When it comes time to crash, you just lower the set temp and you have chilled/clear beer for transferring.
There's a new Inkbird that is programmable for several different time/temp settings. You could ferment low for 2 weeks and bring up automatically for diacetyl rest and then crash to lagering temps, all with one program setting.
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That's how I do it. Chest freezers are pretty cheap. Two problems are lifting fermenter in and out and explaining to SWMBO why you need one.
 
I'm thinking like a wine fridge cause it has an exact temp control. Any chest recommendations. I dont need a big one just one to ferm two carboys max
 
Bachs Brewhaus said:
ok so i live in florida and my house doesnt get lower than like 74 .
i need to ferment my beer at 68 degrees . i need some kind of mini fridge or something to keep at that temp. any ideas?
also ik that 68 isnt lager temp. i just used that title as click bait because you need the same thing to lager beer
Click to expand...
Put it in a tub of water, cover in towels that reach into the water, put a cheap box fan on it. Voila, homemade swamp cooler.
 
oliver said:
104ºF i've pushed it, cleanest and most neutral yeast I've ever tasted. If fermentis or Omega figures out how to sell dry packs of HotHead, i can't see how anyone will ever buy US-05 again.
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I just created 3/4 of a pint of pure slurry, this should last me the rest of the year
 
I've lived in Florida. Humidity approaches 100%. I don't think evaporative cooling will buy you much because nothing evaporates. It mostly condensates.
 
ChicoBrewer said:
Two problems are lifting fermenter in and out and explaining to SWMBO why you need one.
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Since I added a pump to the system a couple of years back, I don't lift nearly as much. Easy going in to the fermenter sitting in the freezer but then racking can be a pain. Carboys will always be hard to pressure transfer once fermented but it can be done. I've got closed stainless vessels now so I can pressure transfer every batch without ever lifting until I put a filled keg in the fridge or keezer.
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
I haven't tried this but people claim it's as clean as US05 at any temp
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I'll have to look into this hothead strain but the Voss strain is pretty bloody clean too .
Just did a quick check yep Voss is a different Kviek strain to Hothead but has similar fermentation profile but has different fermentation character citrus orange I see my last brew I fermented it outside of their recommended range of 37c I fermented at 39c and it's clean as a whistle!
 
Bachs Brewhaus said:
I'm thinking like a wine fridge cause it has an exact temp control. Any chest recommendations. I dont need a big one just one to ferm two carboys max
Click to expand...

I think you're better off using a seperate temp controller than relying on the temp controller in the fridge. Especially if you ever want to brew hotter than ambient temp.
 
Bachs Brewhaus said:
I'm thinking like a wine fridge cause it has an exact temp control. Any chest recommendations. I dont need a big one just one to ferm two carboys max
Click to expand...
If pennies count then keep an eye out for sales at anywhere that sells appliances or check craigslist for cheap used. But buy as big as you have room for. What bubba has sounds like it would work well and give you a keezer. Even though most of us can lift 5gal keep this in mind when designing brew stuff. Back problems suck and no need to push the issue. There are all kinds of controllers out there , but don't expect to run a freezer or frig at 68f with internal controls and hold a steady temp.
 
Agreed. Save money on the unit, spend it on the temperature controller. The Inkbird electronic two-stage model is a good one - you can both cool and put a heat source in there (useful for ramping up temperatures or fermenting hot).
 
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