|
Fermentation Chambers
Prior to my mother in law spending a week with us after our daughter was born, we discovered that we needed a new air conditioner for the spare room. The one that was in there was older and undersized for the room. What a dilema, I have an extra AC unit and a basement with summertime temperatures approaching 80°F, hmm...what to do???? I have seen web sites describing walk-in coolers built using a room air conditioner to cool it. A tempting idea, but even my very understanding wife probably wouldn't go for taking up half the basement so that I can ferment some beer. I set out for Home Depot with idea of getting the materials to build a small insulated closet that would be my fermentation chamber. What I found instead was one of those ready to assemble utility cabinets. It's made of laminated particle board. I also picked up some of that reflective coated bubble wrap insulation. I already had a sheet of 2 inch foam insulation at home.
I assembled the cabinet and put in front of a window in the basement. The air conditioner was mounted in that window. I measured the AC and cut a hole in the back of the cabinet and pushed the cabinet against the window so that the AC unit was inside the closet. I then installed the 2 inch foam insulation on the sides, back and top of the inside of cabinet. I also stapled 3 layers of the bubble wrap insulation to the inside of the doors and the bottom of the cabinet. Next, I caulked all the joints and installed a wire shelf, which is supported by a two-by-four frame. I used another one of my Ranco controllers to manage the temperature, but since I may be shooting for temperatures as low as 32°F I had to bypass the thermostat in the AC unit. The Ranco unit has a normally open contact and a normally closed one. The normally open one is the one I use to run the AC, so I thought I'd try to run a small fan off the normally closed contact. So when the temperature inside the closet reaches it's set point the AC shuts off and the fan switches on to recirculate the air inside and maintain an even temperature. I don't know whether this is necessary, but I already had the fan, so why not.
Amazingly enough, this unit works pretty well. I've lagered a couple batches at 35°F without any problems. The cabinet holds the temperature pretty well and the air conditioner generally only runs for a few minutes every hour or so.
|
