Fridge Gutting for a Fermentation Chamber

[Justin T. Conroy]

I was thinking about whether or not I could "build my own fridge" to
make a nice fermentation chamber. Looks like I wasn't the first person
to think of this:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=317662

Thoughts? The current design in my head will have a door to open on
the side, for moving carboys in and out, as well as an openable top so
that we can get the racking cane in there easily without having to
make the whole thing super tall just to fit it.

--
Justin T. Conroy

[Ryan Pierce]

That's a really interesting idea. That said....

I think it's a minor miracle that he managed to do this without kinking the tubing or puncturing it and letting all the refrigerant out. That's a huge problem unless someone has the ability to braze the tubing to fix it and can vacuum and recharge refrigerant.

I question whether there will be problems with the evaporator icing up. He alludes to the possibility of moisture problems; he's clearly thinking along these lines.

It seems like all he's doing is building a chest freezer. In that case, why not use a chest freezer with a hacked thermostat? A lot less work IMO....

Ryan

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[Justin T. Conroy]

I'm thinking of my own type of design that's different from his. So
far it's just a thought in my head. No drawings to speak of yet.

I'm considering building something that basically has 2 doors. One on
the side, and one on top. The side door makes it easier to move heavy
carboys in and out. The top door makes it easier to put the racking
cane in without moving the carboy at all. It also means we can build
the whole thing to be shorter (and thus have less internal volume to
cool.

I think moisture/icing problems are important to think about,
especially with this kind of design. I don't think they're
insurmountable problems though. I'm willing to try it out, and if it
fails, try something else.

Oh yeah, and the kinking risk. He mentioned in his forum posts that he
did all his bends around a caulk tube to avoid kinking the tube. I
think we can manage it with very careful tube bending.

[Ryan Pierce]

Understood. It seems like a massive amount of work in comparison,
although I can see the advantage of a front door. But if you intend to
place this in the loading dock by where we brew, then we can use the
peristaltic pump with longer tubing to fill an empty fermenter already
placed in a chest freezer. I don't see any reason in that case to move
full carboys in or out via the top. Heck, in commercial breweries,
fermenters are fixed to the floor, and it's portable hose and pumps that
move the beer around.

In Kyiv, I saw St. Sophia's Cathedral and the Pechersk Lavra, both
UNESCO world heritage sites. It made me think that Beer Church needs
icons, lots of icons, and a really awesome iconostasis....

Speaking of Kyiv, I'm giving some thought to experimenting with making
kvass from dark bread. Would anyone be up for that adventure?

Ryan

[Justin T. Conroy]

that's a really good point about the pumping. I guess I hadn't thought
about that since I'm so accustomed to the need to move carboys and
such... I'm still interested in trying out my idea (building it all
"from scratch" appeals to me still), but perhaps for the sake of
expediency (pretty sure we're no longer welcome in the kitchen), I
should probably start looking at chest freezers.

Can you remind me again what the hose for the peristaltic pump needs
to be made of? I can never seem to remember what it needs, and I was
thinking of getting a new one.

I know some people around the space do some stained glass stuff. We
could probably make some stained glass motifs to put around the
church. ;-)

I have no idea what Kvass or Dark Bread are (I'll look them up later,
I guess), but I'm always willing to try interesting things. :-)

--
Justin T. Conroy

[Ryan Pierce]

Don't forget pumping. We're in a pumping station, after all.... ;-)

Peristaltic pumps generally use Tygon tubing specifically designed for
this purpose. Toba bought some and listed an Amazon link on the wiki.
See https://wiki.pumpingstationone.org/Peristaltic_pump_controller

Note that only the short part that is in the pump body itself needs to
be Tygon. If you are making a longer run, you can join normal food grade
tubing to the Tygon, run it through the pump, and convert it back to
normal tubing afterwards. The critical thing is that you've got to have
Tygon in the pump or there will be an explosion as the pump destroys the
tubing and sprays beer everywhere.

Icons are usually painted. Here's an example, actually in Chicago, of
what I think we need:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconostasis#/media/File:Holy_Trinity_Russian_Orthodox_Church_071215.jpg

Kvass can be fermented from toasted black or rye bread, and is generally
a low alcohol content beverage that is more like a soda pop alternative.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass

Ryan