DIY heated brewing cupboard

[Polymath]

Not sure if this is the best section to put this, but I think it will get plenty of attention anywhere on the forums. I am currently looking at relocating some of my brewing from my parents living room to my bedroom. Sadly however its getting close to winter, and its not the best time to be brewing. I've had a good look at these heaters for demi-johns ad this seems like a good choice, or is it?

My bedroom has a cupboard set into the wall, which is not used for much. I want to start using this for homebrewing, so im considering how to do this. My current plan is to place a shelving unit inside, allowing me to have my plastic boxes of homebrew stuff in one convient place. However I want part of it to be warm enough to brew wine .... I have two possible approaches to this plan. One have a heater (or two) plugged in and demi johns on there. However the price of running these would put it too high (imo). I've considered boxing in the demi-johns with reflective foil, allowing me to keep the heat in better and drop electricity costs.

My second possible plan is again to enclose it mostly in reflective foil, and then place a lightbulb in there. I know that they push out quite a bit of heat, the issue is that the heat would be constant and likely to spike. It would not be a level amount during the night. This would have the advantage that I could do more demi-johns per equipment. I would be able to do a corridor of reflective foil along a full shelve. That is foil on the bottom, backside, top and end parts. I would also place foil on the door in the correct position to make it quite enclosed. However I still need to leave some gaps to allow air to circulate. Or do I? Suggestions and feedback on this please.

Looking to do this DIY project next weekend, so plenty of time for suggestions. Will provide pictures on construction day

 

[bandit081]

Sounds to me like your almost there with your plan mate, I know from experience, that you can now get some high wattage energy saving light bulbs that throw out a lot of heat, cheap cheap to run, my brother was using them in a hydroponics cupboard that he built last year, and they work fine, with the foil reflecting the heat.

I cant think as to why you would need any air circulation, all that will do is take your heat away from the cupboard. Wine fermentation does not need air dood!

Dont forget the pics, I have been thinking along the same lines as my wife isnt very happy with 15 demijohns in the kitchen any more lol.

 

[31bb3]

a friend of mine 1st time brewer just done a 7 day wine kit in his garage which isnt the warmest place he just wrapped an old sleeping bag round the fermenting barrel and the heat generated from the fermentation kept the brew warm enough it worked perfect and was bottled in 7 days hope this helps :thumb:

 

[lazydog]

you wont get much heat from a CFL energy saving bulb thats why they want us to use them as they produce a better % of light without the heat waste i think for hydro grows they use sodium and metal halide lamps which do produce alot of heat but use a lot of leccy to give a massive light output

 

[Locky]

my brother was using them in a hydroponics cupboard that he built last year, and they work fine, with the foil reflecting the heat.

Just a quickie slightly off topic, but in a grow room sometimes the use of foil can mean bad news as the reflection from the foil doesnt bounce correctly and can burn leaves. Thats if its crinkled. If its nice n smooth then happy days.

As for the cupboard, in the substations we build in work, we fit a heat tube which can be connected to a stat.
We use it to take the damp out of the air.
This could work and safer than leaving lights on.

If you have the space an oil filled radiator could be used or a panel heater which is what i would recommend.
you can get them cheap.

 

[Aleman]

Might I recommend a Tubular Heater as well . . . no exposure to light has to be good for a wine . . . and a gentle warmth as well . . . and not too high a wattage so you can use a simple thermostat

 

[Polymath]

So a big update on this. Been working on it for the last week or two, getting the grand master plan sorted out. Was originally going to do this design :

I did intend on building up the shelves of the unit as more "A" frames. So a piece of wood, supported with 2 legs (one on each side of the cupboard). However it dawned on me that this means everything is solid, but fixed in dimensions. Not able to move things around. Also to explain the boxes. I have measured up some good looking boxes in Wilko's for storage etc. Also the boxes in Tier 3 are actually them little open boxes that stack. So will have 3 stacks of 2 of them for small items such as bungs, bottle caps, corks, corkers, chemicals etc etc.

I also intended on having Tier 4 as empty demi-johns. Just for storage, however having had a think about it for my new plan i'm going to have a larger area for brewing with both Tier 4 and 5 for brewing. So this moves us to the more upto date version of this plan :

So the major changes here are.
Use of 'racking' on the back wall and shelves from that.
2 25litre fermination bins added.
2 heated shelves instead of 1.
No extra space at the top of the cupboard going to waste ...

My main problem is that the cupboard door is 26inch wide. If you see the first image and the diagram top left that shows the "Top" view. So I have a smaller section to the left side which is where my heating / timer / controller thing will be. But it also means I should be able to stash empty wine bottles down there as well

I will also be putting reflective foil around the area enclosing the fermentation bins and the demi-johns (Not in diagram!), and considering that if I have the shelving units in place how is the heat from Tier4 going to get to Tier5. So many considerations.

What I'm needing
Please have a good look at the second diagram more than the first. Let me know if there is any other suggestions or improvements you can recommend. I'm getting the shelving materials on Thursday night for construction on Saturday or Sunday. I will deal with the reflective stuff, the heater and other stuff at a later date.

 

[lazydog]

instead of solid shelves how about slats like a airing cupboard to allow circulation of heat but remeber heat rises
so a tubular heater at the bottom and themo at the top and take temps at different levels to find the best place for fermentation which might be at the top?

 

[Polymath]

Cheers for the feedback. Have done some more shopping around. So now the plan is to have 2 pieces of wood, per each shelve. They are going to be 4 inch wide pieces, so a little gap in between. This will be useful for Tier 4 where my Demi-John's will be sitting. Means that my heated air will be able to circulate between both sections for Wine and Beer making

 

[Polymath]

New update, I know its been a month since the last one. Sorry money was a little low this month with christmas. Anyway moving along with the update and some more pictures. Stage 1 is now complete, i had the good fortune of getting some cheap wood from the houses at the end of my road. They are getting knocked down, so the company is removing the wood from the roof frames. Good 2' by 4' stuff. Great for shelving. £2 for a plank about 3 meters long, got 4 :-)

Anyway screws, wallplugs, drilling and swearing later we have batons and shelves. My plan came together quite well as you can see from below :

Just getting the batons in and things in the right place.

And this is how things are looking now :

And you close it ...

Happy days, no one would even know there is a homebrew cupboard just there ....

So the next few stages of this project

Stage 2 : Get all my storage boxes from Wilkinsons, get it tidy and all homebrew equipment into the cupboard.
Stage 3 : Install some way of keeping the heat in the upper sections, im thinking reflective foil but not 100% sure on this one just yet
Stage 4 : Install a tubluar heater and thermostat and then start brewing

Comments and feedback are welcome :-)

 

[tubthumper]

thees guys are cheaper for tubular heaters
ands youmight have one locally
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/ ... index.html

 

thanks for sharing :)

Kitchen Cupboards

 

[babe10]

ive stuck mine in the cubby with the chest freezer gets warm in there but not as hot as the airing cubby

 

[stu9000]

Having recently got the wine bug I needed somewhere to brew that wasnt going to upset the wife.
The garage works, but was getting a little cold. Down to about 16 degrees (dc).
I boxed in a couple of shelves with a wood frame, cardboard and old camp roll mat material. Took less than an hour.
I had an economy fan heater with a thermostat which sits in there and comes on for about 10 secs every half hour ish.
I could be wrong, but im not too worried about temp spikes as the heater isnt on long and the slow change of water temp should smooth out any spikes.

I did toy with the idea of making papier mache sleeves for my demi jons. This would keep in the heat generated in the fermentation process.

Ive also ordered a couple of brew belts for my expanding collection of djs.

Ive only bought Beaverdale 6 bottle wine kits so far and they say keep it as close to 20 dc without going under.
As your cupboard is in the house I would have thought the temp would be above that..?

Im guessing people with more experience than I run it pretty hot at first to kick start the ferm but im going by the book for now.

Good luck.

S

 

[ano]

In terms of beer if you lag FVs too heavily you risk the heat generated in the initial 48 hours overheating the brew, that's why stone/slate used to be used, it acted as a heatsink such that the initial rush of fermentation would warm the stone which would then keep the temperature as activity died down. If you insulate and control the ambient temperature you're insulating the brew from the very temperature you want it to be at.

So either ambient control with uninsulated vessels, or immersion control (with insulated vessels if it spends most of its time heating and you're not crash cooling or lagering) would seem to be the options.