Remember the fermentation chiller I built about a year ago? I believe it's time for an upgrade. A $10 upgrade to be honest. I'm trying to lager a few beers this year and in order to lager I need the temperature of the fermenting wort to stay around 50 degrees for about a month, maybe more. Try as I may the Wort Hog 5 leaks cold air like a screen-doored submarine. I planned on building a cabinet around it to help seal the seams but w/o the time I needed to make one (did I mention I don't build cabinets? I'm a computer nerd -when I'm working) I bought some duct tape and went to town. I also filled some spare boxes that were lying around with shredded paper and put them inside to kind of fill the void. I built the thing for 2 carboys but since I'm only lagering one 5 gallon batch I wanted to cut down the space the warm air could fill. Oh and I covered it in a few thick blankets for extra protection. I'm not proud of it ok but it works and works well I may add.
On my first run of the upgrade I chilled the ambient air (68 degrees) inside the Hog to 50 degrees in about 3 hours. I was happy but needed to push it to 46. From past experience the wort inside the carboy is about 3 degrees warmer than the ambient air and I need the wort to be as close to 50 as possible. I went to bed hoping it would cool further. It did. I woke up to a 46 degree chiller. Outstanding.
I had to try it with a 68 degree carboy. My thought is it takes a lot more cooling to remove 18 degrees of heat from 5 gallons of wort than the ambient air. I was right. It took almost an entire day to bring the air to 51 degrees. It stopped chilling there. I need faster results and a colder chiller. I'm conducting my next "experiment" today. I'm putting 5 gallons of 68 degree water in a tub full of frozen juice bottles for 12 hours. It should give it a nice jump start. If I can pre-chill the carboy to the desired temperature and then put it in the chiller the unit should hold it there without a problem.
We'll see.
Showing posts with label homebuilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homebuilt. Show all posts
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Chiller
It's ugly but functional. I call it the Wort Hog 5. Not too bad for my first attempt. I
am definitely not a handy-tool type guy. I learned a lot from this adventure so next time it'll be much prettier and have a higher efficiency.
OH. What the hell is it? It's a fermentation chiller. What's it do? It chills the wort (fermenting beer)to a set temperature using blocks of ice and a "hacked" thermostat. Ice (frozen plastic jugs) sit in the bottom chamber and when the temperature gets above a certain range set in the thermostat a small 12v fan (a computer fan I scavenged) starts blowing air across the blocks of ice forcing cold air into the upper chamber until the chamber reaches a set temp. Why do I want to keep fermenting beer at a certain temperature? It tastes better and I get to manage the flavor in each batch. Different temps make the little "Yeastie Boys" (what a cool name for a homebrewing club) produce different flavors.
The example to the left is water only. It was a test run to see what the difference between the ambient air and the actual temperature of a 5 gallon container of liquid is. To my joy it's only 1. I found the plans for this online and after I fix some flaws in my work I plan on building another. The duct tapes gotta go. I'd love to make one out of wood.
I plan on utilizing this the first time come Saturday. The hefewiezen I'm making needs to ferment at 62 degrees. I made the same recipe a couple years ago fermenting at around 70. I can't wait to try this under controlled conditions..
am definitely not a handy-tool type guy. I learned a lot from this adventure so next time it'll be much prettier and have a higher efficiency.OH. What the hell is it? It's a fermentation chiller. What's it do? It chills the wort (fermenting beer)to a set temperature using blocks of ice and a "hacked" thermostat. Ice (frozen plastic jugs) sit in the bottom chamber and when the temperature gets above a certain range set in the thermostat a small 12v fan (a computer fan I scavenged) starts blowing air across the blocks of ice forcing cold air into the upper chamber until the chamber reaches a set temp. Why do I want to keep fermenting beer at a certain temperature? It tastes better and I get to manage the flavor in each batch. Different temps make the little "Yeastie Boys" (what a cool name for a homebrewing club) produce different flavors.
The example to the left is water only. It was a test run to see what the difference between the ambient air and the actual temperature of a 5 gallon container of liquid is. To my joy it's only 1. I found the plans for this online and after I fix some flaws in my work I plan on building another. The duct tapes gotta go. I'd love to make one out of wood.I plan on utilizing this the first time come Saturday. The hefewiezen I'm making needs to ferment at 62 degrees. I made the same recipe a couple years ago fermenting at around 70. I can't wait to try this under controlled conditions..
Friday, February 6, 2009
$108 PC?
Oh my, I believe I just built a $108 PC. It was a very simple upgrade with a processor (AMD 3400+), mother board, and 2 gigs of RAM. The customer already had a hard drive, OS (XP), and other periphreals (keyboard, mouse, monitor) but he's basically using a new PC. I suggested a 640gb hard drive which would've been around $75 but it just wasn't in the budget. Not a shabby deal if you ask me.
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