Beer Forum

In past years I have limited myself to brewing in the winter months. Enough of that!

So I'm going to buy a fridge or upright freezer for fermentation temperature control.

Does it make a great difference whether I get a fridge or a freezer? If I can use a freezer then I will, because with an upright I'll get enough space to have four 5 gallon carboys in there simultaneously. Or maybe just one or two, and some cases of beer conditioning in the bottom.

Lemmee know,
Charlie

Charlie,

I use a two-stage Ranco controller on a FRIDGE for fermentation. It gets cold enough even in summer to ferment a lager, so no worries there. I taped a fermenwrap heater on the inside for heat during the winter ferments.

No difference on the Ranco, it'll work the exact same way.

If I had a choice for a fermentation chamber, I'd go Fridge, personally.

If you brew enough to have 4 going at once, then obviously you'll have a hard time finding a fridge that large. But the big kicker is the moisture of a freezer.

The Freezer will build up a lot of condensation on the inside and is ultimately a pain in the ass -- I use one for my kegerator and I love it....but if I could avoid the mess of the condensation, I would.

Either way though, you'll get good temps and be happy.

Stevorino wrote:The Freezer will build up a lot of condensation on the inside and is ultimately a pain in the ass

I suspected that there was some difference between a fridge and an upright freezer. But because most fridges have a freezer attached to them I hoped I could get an upright freezer and be home free.

Hmmmm!

So what do the freezers do when you temp-control them in the 50-60 range? Dump condensate everywhere?

Charlie (may have a humidity problem)

Charlie wrote:

Stevorino wrote:The Freezer will build up a lot of condensation on the inside and is ultimately a pain in the ass

I suspected that there was some difference between a fridge and an upright freezer. But because most fridges have a freezer attached to them I hoped I could get an upright freezer and be home free.

Hmmmm!

So what do the freezers do when you temp-control them in the 50-60 range? Dump condensate everywhere?

Charlie (may have a humidity problem)

Yes. You can use things like Damp-Rid which chemically absorb the moisture in the unit...but you have to buy refills every couple months. A product like that will keep it from pooling up at the bottom too bad, but regardless you'll have moisture in there. If you don't use a product like that, you will get mold and a pooling of liquid on the bottom of the vessel.

Stevorino wrote:Yes.

Crap! I was hoping to get by with a cheap used upright freezer.

Lowes has a freezerless Frigidare 17 foot fridge for ~ 500.00. I didn't really want to spend that much, but I'm a lab rat at heart. If that's what it takes I'll bite the bullet.

Charlie

I think the freezer condensation issues are, for the most part, related to where you live. Here in San Diego it's pretty dry all of the time and I might get a little water in mine, but it's not like the beer's floating.

But seeing that you guys live in the south, it sounds like a fridge would be best.

Is there any difference between a frost free freezer and non frost free? From what I've heard the frost free just heats up occasionally and lets the ice melt off the walls. That's not a feature I crave in a fermenter cabinet.

OK. Option 2:

What about the mini fridges? Most of them I've seen have the crappy 2 ice tray freezer (which might be removable), and the big hump in the lower back of the cabinet (compressor?).

It needs to be 28" X 13" X 13" on the inside to get one of my fermenters in it.

I have seen wine fridges that were about that size. I say about because most of them were smaller (and somewhat expensive).

Charlie