Fridge

warrenn · Post by **warrenn** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 10:49 am

Hi All,
I'm looking at converting one of my old fridges into a controlled spot to put my fermenter. I've had a look around but don't know exactly what to do. I know need to put a globe in and wire in a thermostate. Is that it??

cheers

nathaniel

TommyH · Post by **TommyH** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 12:05 pm

Hi Warren
One of these http://craftbrewer.com.au/index.php?pag ... &Itemid=29
will help a lot

warrenn · Post by **warrenn** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 1:37 pm

awesome..does the heating belt / pad get pluged into the back of it and the sensor go in the wort?

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 2:22 pm

Where do you live mate, why on earth would you need a heater pad

TommyH · Post by **TommyH** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 2:23 pm

warrenn wrote:awesome..does the heating belt / pad get pluged into the back of it and the sensor go in the wort?

Hi Warrenn
The fridgemate comes in a kit form and requires a little bit of wiring. There were instructions posted on this site. I can find them if you need them.
I just tape the sensor to the outside of the fermenter. As yet I have only used it for cooling, not heating. It works great.
Let me know if you need any further help.

Cheers

Tommy

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 3:45 pm

I have a beer fridge, and it is used for CCing when needed, and fermenting and lagering lagers in summer. Can't, for the life of me, understand why you would want to heat something up in a fridge. Seems to defeat the purpose.

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 4:01 pm

warra48 wrote:I have a beer fridge, and it is used for CCing when needed, and fermenting and lagering lagers in summer. Can't, for the life of me, understand why you would want to heat something up in a fridge. Seems to defeat the purpose.

Agreed, i have one for all the same purposes and to be honest fridge or not i cant remember the last time i heated a brew at all, as many have already said.....

Lagers in winter- Ales in the warmer months!!

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 5:26 pm

Fridgemate HOWTO

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 6:49 pm

lethaldog wrote:Lagers in winter- Ales in the warmer months!!

Actually, IMHO, that is probably good advice for the majority of brewers, but it may be dependent on where you live. In my case, ales April to September/October, wheats for a couple of months ready for summer, then lagers in the fridge during summer.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 8:34 pm

Same as me- I haven't heated a brew in quite a while.

Rysa · Post by **Rysa** » Sunday Oct 28, 2007 9:30 pm

I heated my last honey porter as the fermenters were banished to the shed and Ballarat winters don't allow the shed to rise much over 12 on even the good days.
And i just had to make another one!!

warrenn · Post by **warrenn** » Monday Oct 29, 2007 10:06 am

Great advice thanks heads. I had a mate that had a 20 watt globe in his that turned on or off when needed. But i'll get the fridgemate and go from there. As i have been banished to the shed as well this may help out. Thanks heaps for the help again.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Oct 29, 2007 10:34 am

The 20 watt light globe thing will work fine for heating. Just make sure it's not a compact fluorescent, as those pump out too much UV. Note that the fridgemate has both a cooling and a heating mode, so you can use it for temperature control in either scenario.

One other thing though I found using the light globe was that the top of the fridge would get a lot hotter than the bottom. If I was going to dabble with heating again, I'd definitely think about rigging up some kind of computer fan to circulate the air, much like this:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i ... opic=18349