Brewfridge
Well my trusty brew cupboard has served me well over the last few years but temperature control was a little dependent on the weather and heat of the house. It wasnt too bad in winter as I was able to keep it warm, but my decision to brew a Helles this month lead me to the realisation that if I wanted to lager it properly and ferment within the traditional parameters I was going to need a brewfridge. I got an Inkbird control unit off Amazon and then appealed to the local facebook advertising group and low and behold a very nice lady in our village had an old fridge that was surplus to requirements. I exchanged a few bottles of homebrew wine and it was dead easy to convert. All I needed to do was unscrew the chiller inside and peel back some of the putty sealant to get the Inkbird sensor in and then fix a sturdy bit of wood at the bottom. A very quick job. So cooling is my priority at the moment but I did add in my fairly lights which I’d used as heating previously just to balance the cool/heat exchange and they seem to do the trick when trying to maintain 9c. I just need to look into calibrating the settings on the Inkbird to see if I can keep it more stable. And when it comes to more excessive heating requirements I’ll probably pick up a tube heater at a later date. So for now I now just need to find some time to start this Helles. It’s going to take about 3 months before it’s ready so the old BrewCupboard will still have to suffice for my other planned brews, but if you have the technology for lagering it’d be silly not to give it a go at least once and the Helles should be ready for mid summer so that’s perfect!
By the way I didn’t ask my daughter to clean the fridge, I just came through to find her sat inside with a wet dishcloth, lol.
