First time brewer

I don't think I'll ever need a heater for anything in the south florida weather down here.
But I have been looking at mini fridges and freezers.
I already have a nice chest freezer, but it's dedicated to tobacco products, so I'll need another for brew.

A freezer is suggested over a fridge?
Any good ones with decent temp control?
 
cnash said:
I don't think I'll ever need a heater for anything in the south florida weather down here.
But I have been looking at mini fridges and freezers.
I already have a nice chest freezer, but it's dedicated to tobacco products, so I'll need another for brew.

A freezer is suggested over a fridge?
Any good ones with decent temp control?
Click to expand...
Either or, but a chest freezer gives you more control as you can get to lager temps. Not seen any with a controller built in. But Johnson controls and Inkbird make great temperature controllers. The inkbird is a little more "user friendly" and is a fair bit cheaper.
 
The freezer works a little too well to keep your brew chilled. That’s what the heat belt is for. Use both at the same time during fermentation in order to keep ferm temps as stable as possible.

With a fridge, you’ll only get upper 30s at best. With a freezer, you can easily get to a degree or two below freezing, nice for lagering.
 
you can also change the temp controller to never overshoot high or low, I fiddled with mine to never need heat
 
Go the freezer as ferm chamber the only down side is lifting the beer up out the bottom twice or so every beer. One day I know it'll tweek something:confused:.
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
you can also change the temp controller to never overshoot high or low, I fiddled with mine to never need heat
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So you are using the inkbird and just a freezer?

I work in the mechanical contracting business but not familiar with how the inkbird controller works.
 
all it does is turn the freezer off and on and keeps the temp at your set point
 
J A said:
I think maybe you intended to start a new thread? ^^^ You could delete and put the same post into a new thread and get some input. Otherwise, you're sort of derailing the OP's thread. :)
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cnash said:
Hello!
I am also new and instead of starting a new topic about temperature I figured I would post it here.
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Or...what the heck! We can just post all the questions in one thread. That oughta work! :rolleyes::D:D:D:D:D
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
all it does is turn the freezer off and on and keeps the temp at your set point
Click to expand...
How are you setting the probe? Just through the door seal? If so are you noticing any extra temp/power loss due to this?
Or did you drill a hole through and seal it?
 
Don’t drill a hole through a refrigerator or freezer!! You’ll hit a Freon line.

The probe wire is pretty small, nothing to worry about.
 
all freezers have a very flexible seal around the lid so running the probe under the lid doesn't lose anything
 
my brewing journey has begun! i followed the directions to a "t" with my churchill nut brown ale kit and thankfully the temps have dropped here in se loosiana so keeping the keg at 65-68 won't be a prob.
question about that no rinse cleaner i used. there surely was a couple of ml. left in the keg. if the stuff is so good at killing "bugs" why won't it hurt the yeast? i'm guessing the dilution factor. i'm pretty comfortable with what i have going on but i had to ask. wish me luck and thanks guys for all the good info.
 
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A little star-San (if that's your sanitizer) won't hurt anything. Don't fear the foam! Congrats! You are now officially hooked for life! No turning back now.
 
Mase said:
A little star-San (if that's your sanitizer) won't hurt anything. Don't fear the foam! Congrats! You are now officially hooked for life! No turning back now.
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i used star san when i was growing mushrooms but i was unable to find my bottle. i used the cleaner that came with the kit. i'm confident. i'll be posting more in a couple weeks to let y'all know how the fermentation is going.
 
J A said:
gnore it for at least 2 weeks. Don't plan on cold-crashing and bottling until day 21..
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the directions included said nothing of cold crashing. i think i get it tho.....chill the keg to 40f or so before bottling to settle the sediment. can i bottle at that temp or should it come back up to the temp for the carbonation part of the process once bottled?
 
cheech226 said:
i used star san when i was growing mushrooms but i was unable to find my bottle. i used the cleaner that came with the kit. i'm confident. i'll be posting more in a couple weeks to let y'all know how the fermentation is going.
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The stuff in the kit is the same as One Step no-rinse sanitizer. It works very well. I still keep it around even though I have a pretty big quantity of Star-San for most stuff. I use it when I don't want to deal with the foamy suds from Star San.
Also, though this is a better forum for general brewing questions, Mr Beer has quite an active forum community and they're all very, very into the Mr Beer experience. Any issue that's peculiar to the kit or the LBK fermenter, they'll have a whole thread going on that exact thing at any given time. Check in over there. You'll enjoy it...tell 'em I sent ya. ;)
 
J A said:
The stuff in the kit is the same as One Step no-rinse sanitizer. It works very well. I still keep it around even though I have a pretty big quantity of Star-San for most stuff. I use it when I don't want to deal with the foamy suds from Star San.
Also, though this is a better forum for general brewing questions, Mr Beer has quite an active forum community and they're all very, very into the Mr Beer experience. Any issue that's peculiar to the kit or the LBK fermenter, they'll have a whole thread going on that exact thing at any given time. Check in over there. You'll enjoy it...tell 'em I sent ya. ;)
Click to expand...


i should have thought of that...duh. headed that way now. i was unaware.....they had a forum, checked it out and i'll be back to y'all when i mature. thanks so much for the help and tips.
 
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cheech226 said:
i'll be back to y'all when i mature. thanks so much for the help and tips.
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Stick around... your questions will be welcome here, too and there's not the limiting factor of the kit beer materials. You'll get a lot more varied info here. Trust me, you'll want to be putting together extract/steeped grain recipes before long and then trying your hand at all-grain and this is a great place to be as you figure things out.
 
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