Fermentation Chamber.

[Jay7792]

Hi All,

I have had a busy couple of weekends, since doing my first brew which was a Coopers Australian Lager I found it hard maintaining a constant steady temperature during fermentation.

Since reading loads on this and other Home Brew Forums I have learnt that perhaps the single most important factor in creating good beer is having good temperature control.

So I decided to build this.......

It is 5ft high, 3ft wide and 2.5ft deep, so plenty of room for lots of beer!! It is heated with a 30w tubular heater, and temperature can be controled to within 1 degree.

Just need to make some shelves inside and decide on the outside finish :

 

[Mark1964]

looks nice but what will you do in summer to keep it cool?

 

[Jay7792]

looks nice but what will you do in summer to keep it cool?

Hello mate,

The temperature is controlled with an ATC-800+ Thermistat, this will also control a fan that is yet to be installed :

 

[Mark1964]

i see we have a very similar set up but use a beer chiller to cool

 

[Jay7792]

That sounds like an interesting alternative to a cooling fan, which beer chiller to you use?

 

[Mark1964]

I'm on my mobile at the mo ill post a picture soon

 

[Jay7792]

I'm on my mobile at the mo ill post a picture soon

Thanks very much, that would be appreciated.

 

[BeerEagle]

That sounds like an interesting alternative to a cooling fan, which beer chiller to you use?

Jay, fans don't cool, they just move air around. So to cool your chambers you'll have to blow or suck cold air in from somewhere.

 

[Mark1964]

this is ours it sits on top of the fermenting cupboard and controls cooling by a product coil thats immersed in the fermenting wort

our cupboard has a 60 watt tube heater and that and the chiller are both wired up to a TC10

 

[Jay7792]

That sounds like an interesting alternative to a cooling fan, which beer chiller to you use?

Jay, fans don't cool, they just move air around. So to cool your chambers you'll have to blow or suck cold air in from somewhere.

Hi there,

That is a very good point, thanks for the heads up. Back to the drawing board before the weather warms up to much.

 

[prolix]

Saw a chamber that used frozen 4 pint milk cartons to cool the air, made out of polystyrene.

 

[Jay7792]

this is ours it sits on top of the fermenting cupboard and controls cooling by a product coil thats immersed in the fermenting wort

our cupboard has a 60 watt tube heater and that and the chiller are both wired up to a TC10

Hello,

That looks very impressive indeed, I must admit that I am very tempted to use it myself.
Could you please give me more details on your setup such as model numbers for your chiller, is the wort chiller coil homemade as I cant seem to find any online.

This really does look like something I would love to incorporate into my fermentation chamber.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Mark1964]

you can find the beer coolers on ebay and the stainless steel coil you can get here
http://www.corneliusukonline.com/siteco ... Coils.aspx

 

[mixale]

Your heater would be better at the bottom of the chamber.
Do you have any insulation in there?
Just the thin 25mm kingspan/cellotex sheets will make a huge difference for both heating and cooling.

 

[Mark1964]

In our cupboard we have 60mm kingspan and the heater is 3/4 of the way up the back of the chamber it works fine there but may lower it at some point

 

[Jay7792]

Thanks for the comments guys, I will def look into adding some kingspan.

Just got a Cornelius maxi 210 but it only came with the agitating pump and not the water recirculating pump, just looking into getting a recirc pump and fitting it in place of the agitation pump. That will be the cooling sorted then hopefully.

 

[BlackAddler]

Thanks for the comments guys, I will def look into adding some kingspan.

Just got a Cornelius maxi 210 but it only came with the agitating pump and not the water recirculating pump

I wasn't aware of an agitating pump for the Maxi 210. Only the No.2 or No.4 python pump [which also agitates].

Does it look like this No.2 pump?...

I'm looking for a shaft bearing for one of these pumps, as one of mine has seized. That's how I came across your post.

 

[Jay7792]

Thanks for the comments guys, I will def look into adding some kingspan.

Just got a Cornelius maxi 210 but it only came with the agitating pump and not the water recirculating pump

I wasn't aware of an agitating pump for the Maxi 210. Only the No.2 or No.4 python pump [which also agitates].

Does it look like this No.2 pump?...

I'm looking for a shaft bearing for one of these pumps, as one of mine has seized. That's
how I came across your post.

Hello, yes it looks exactly the same except for the blue cover that goes over the shaft and rotor, on mine there is only a stainless shaft and a rotor on the end, there is no blue cover to connect to a recirculation circuit.

 

[andymacintyre]

Mark,
How does the TC10 work to control the cooling - does it switch the entire cooler on and off or does the cooler run continuously, keeping the ice bank cold and the TC10 switching the pump on and off?
I guess with the latter cooling response would be quicker when required. Is that even possible??

Also, is that coil not a bit of a nightmare to clean after fermentation?

A Maxi 210 is on my shopping list for exactly this purpose (and beer cooling) once funds allow.

 

[Mark1964]

the tc 10 has a probe which is submerged in your fv during fermentation it senses the temp then adjusts to whatever its set at within 0.5 of a degree. The ss coil is easy to clean we just sit it in the fv full of hot water and oxy clean. The cooler switches on automatically whenever the temp gets too high and vice versa with the heater. We can cool to 0 degrees in about 15 mins which is handy for kegging as all the **** drops out.