Beer Forum

I have an old fermenator with the screws and that big bar that runs across the top. I need to buy a fermentation fridge and am wondering what you all use. Will a standard fridge work? Help me out with info. thanks!

Hmmm, old fermentor with the big bar on top. Dude help a brutha out, how many gallons is the conical? I got a 7 and 12 gallon conical and both will fit in a normal fridge no problem. What you trying to do here?

Right! MIght have been a little buzzed when I posted that. Let's try again. I have THIS fermentor in a the standard 7 gallon,

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Before I go out and pick up a fridge, I just want to know that somebody out there has done this already or if I am wasting my time trying to find a fridge that will fit this thing. It is 31 - 32 inches high at my best last buzzed measurement.

Right! MIght have been a little buzzed when I posted that. Let's try again. I have THIS fermentor in a the standard 7 gallon,



Before I go out and pick up a fridge, I just want to know that somebody out there has done this already or if I am wasting my time trying to find a fridge that will fit this thing. It is 31 - 32 inches high at my best last buzzed measurement.

I also have a Blichmann fermenter (14.4 gallon). Check out my website for how I chilled mine using a homemade glycol system:

http://web.me.com/rhomsy

The website is still under construction and I'm in the process of adding instructions on how to build it, but you can see what I did. It's cheap to make and very powerful.

Brew on,
BlankaBrew

blanka,
How much did that hood cost you, how big is it, and where did you get it? I've been looking for such a thing. I found one place that I think gave me a quote of around $400-500 or so, plus about $200 shipping. I've seen Type I hoods on craigslist, but they usually are more expensive than that.

Nice setup there, BTW.

-Eric

foomench wrote:blanka,
How much did that hood cost you, how big is it, and where did you get it? I've been looking for such a thing. I found one place that I think gave me a quote of around $400-500 or so, plus about $200 shipping. I've seen Type I hoods on craigslist, but they usually are more expensive than that.

Nice setup there, BTW.

-Eric

The hood was custom made for brewery. It's essentially just stainless steel fab work. The vent fan is mounted on the outside of the house and pulls the air from under the hood. I also had to have a return air (make-up air) system installed to compensate for the hood. I think in some of the photos you can see the fan-in-the-can return air system that they installed with it. I want to say that the entire thing cost $3,000 to $3,400. I had a deal with my wife on some other things, so she let me buy the hood I always hated brewing in the cold of New England. I had some valves literally freeze on me in the past during a brew session. Now I can brew in the comfort of my basement.

If you do something like this, I recommend having it professionally installed by HVAC professionals. They asked questions about my burners on my brewery and had to get the information about my house's NG furnace, water heater and clothes dryer and calculate the type of fan and make-up air system that I needed for my setup. This is not the kind of thing you want to do on your own to save a few bucks. I also have a bunch of CO detectors throughout the house as a precautionary measure. None of them have ever registered ANY presence of CO during my brewing.

Thanks for the info. I was going to buy the hood from a restaurant supply and have it professionally installed by someone knowledgeable. I've already talked to a plumber about this and figured out I needed an HVAC type person. I'll need to put in a new make-up air line as well. Luckily my installation will be in my basement very close to my hot water heater and furnace. I'll just be adding parallel lines for air in and air out. I have a window a few feet away as well that I'll be able to open, but I plan to build everything to work with that closed.

Besides just CO detectors I was also going to get a gas detector in case of a NG leak or something. It doesn't settle like propane, but I figured this wouldn't hurt.

-Eric