Fermenting Fridge

[Anavrin]

Not sure if you guys are using this sort of thing for your wash making but I'm on a few homebrew forums and a lot of guys are quite handy with some hobby electronics, and have modified fridge's with a heater bar in the bottom and a controller to regulate the temperature, switching the heater or the refrigeration on/off as required to keep the fermentation temp as constant as possible.

It certainly makes better beer by keeping a constant temp, however being new to this type of site I'm not sure if it makes much difference because your probably not gonna drink it in its unpure state.

Anyway here's a few pics of mine

It started life as an under bar bottle fridge before I got my hands on it.







You can see I've fitted a temp controller at the bottom and a 65watt heater tube, it will keep well within 1 degree C

[Icefever]

I've got one also for my AG brewing, and if possible I use mine for my wash's. The reason is yeast likes a steady temp....as you know, so I hope I get a better wash, so giving me a better spirit...

This was part of the build..



Making sure the bucket fits.



It works a treat

[Normski]

Yeah me too.
I have a fridge with an ATC 800+ and a tube heater, but prefer to use a heat mat instead of the tube heater. It makes it easier for me to hold the higher temps for a wash.

[Anavrin]

I've been thinking about a heat mat to replace the heater tube but not sure how well it will hold the temp of the air around the wash, at present the thermostat is against the inside wall of the fridge so all I'm controlling is the air temp, I might in fact use both together, this might help speed up the heating and keep everything at a more even temp, though two heaters uses more power, they will be on for a shorter time so it shouldn't be any less efficient.

[Normski]

I've tried a 60w Tube heater, a 30w Heat mat, and a heat belt, (15w I think).
Because the FV is sat directly on the heat mat it works better than heating the air.
So, For me the best is to use a hat mat.
And temprature probe held against the side of th Fv with a block of foam.
The foam help to insulate the probe from air temp a bit.
I have compared the measured temperture and also the temp of the wash or wort and its fairly close.
Norm