Besides beer, one thing most brewers have in common is their dislike of time spent cleaning. In order to get started, you’ll need to clean your fridge. If you found a fridge in good shape, you may have less work. I on the other hand found a fridge on Craigslist that was in a garage where the dude smoked. Yea, so this fridge smelled of smoke. Two weeks later, it’s subsided considerably.
This project requires a few inexpensive special tools, but will most likely take an entire weekend, lots of improvisation, some thorough cleaning and the cost of the fridge takes it to level 4.
Yes, I’m a father of two girls and I’m man enough to admit that I like the Disney movie Enchanted.
You’ll probably find it easier to clean if you remove the shelves, icemaker, drawers, etc.
The icemaker will have two sheet metal screws that may have a hex head, philips or flat head slot in the top. Use the nut setter for this.
Shelving removed
I mixed up a bleach/water solution at a 1:10 ratio in a spray bottle to clean out the crevices in the disgustingly dirty seals.
I also realized during the cleanup that the biscuit/almond colored fridge I bought was actually white! Nice…
A vinegar/water solution is also pretty handy at removing most residue from the fridge and also seems to do a good job at removing odors.
After it was all cleaned up, I went ahead and put the shelves back in, because I didn’t want to leave them laying around the garage. I also put a few bowls of baking soda in there to let it run for a few days to get rid of any odors (unexpected delay). I also cranked the dials all the way to make sure it would get cold enough.
You know you’re a homebrewer when you have more refrigerators than people living in your house. As of the time of this post, we have a combination of 8 refrigerators and freezers of different sizes to go along with 5 human habitants.
Difficulty:
This project requires a few inexpensive special tools, but will most likely take an entire weekend, lots of improvisation, some thorough cleaning and the cost of the fridge takes it to level 4.
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Cost:
It all depends on what materials, tools and fridge cost is, but I would peg the average cost of this project at about $200 (including a second hand fridge). I scored a fridge on Craigslist for $100. The value for the fridge size I got is typically between $100-150.
Disclaimer / Caution:
If you are using a new-ish refrigerator, just keep in mind that we’ll be permanently be modifying it, so if there is any existing warranty, it will most certainly be voided by this project.
This will be my 5th conversion of a refrigeration appliance into a fermentation support device. I started with my keezer, then converted two dorm fridges, followed by Lagerator III. The last one was taken over by my wife for her cake decorating business Tiffany Takes the Cake. Since I didn’t want to share the cake fridge with my fermenting lagers due to the potential of the cakes absorbing the sulfer odor of fermentation and the fact that I needed to manage the fermentation of seven 5-gallon batches of lager for our Strausstoberfest party, the need arose for yet another…
My initial pipe dream goal was to pull the guts from a cheap fridge and then fit them into a custom built cabinet meant to house many fermentation buckets, corny’s and anything you want to keep cool.
Time and the fact that I realized I could do it another way, convinced me to just find an ideal fridge on Craigslist and tear out the divider between the freezer and the fridge. I also modified the doors to be one large full length door.
As this project sits currently, I can fit seven standard fermentation buckets in there at the same time, or the bottom shelf area is tall enough for a full size keg, corny’s and my large-ish 20# CO2 bottle with the regulator attached.
In this multi-part post, I’ll show you how my build went.
I also have not yet advanced the project to my ultimate goal of two separate temperature zones and some sort of BrewPi/remotely monitored and controlled setup. For now, it’s just a single chamber with one of my homebuilt Arduino based temperature controllers.
Tools Required (or to make the job easier):
I would recommend that any serious DIY’er has every single one of the tools recommended for this project. They are some of my most used tools.
hacksaw
set of assorted drill bits
miter saw
circular saw
handheld jig saw
hand drill
Less common, but equally important and useful tools:
A set of assorted screw, torx, hex, socket and screwdriver bits (all refrigerators are different). The set shown above is the exact set i have and it’s served me well (cars, refrigerators, toys, electronics, etc…)
If you don’t have a pair already, go ahead and get a set of three. I was being cheap and only got one, but they some in sets of three that are optimized for cutting on different sides of material (left, right and center). They are extremely useful. In this project you’ll use them to cut the FRP board and the aluminum. They are made for cutting sheet metal, but I end up finding many uses for them.
I actually got this many years ago during a summer job prepping refrigerators for delivery. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found a use for this little tool. This is a must in any handymans arsonal.
Pulling small nails out where a hammer would be cumbersome
Pulls staples out of the floor when converting from carpet to laminate or tile
Also called “dog dishes” or “dog bowls”. For some reason, I hadn’t ever seen these until I worked in racing. I’ve got several in different shapes and sizes. They are durable metal bowls with a strong padded magnet on the bottom. The magnet serves two purposes. One, to keep steel fasteners contained in the bowl. Two, to serve as an attachment method to metal work surfaces. I get lots of use out of mine. If Ralphie’s Dad had one of these when changing the tire in A Christmas Story, he never would have gotten in trouble for saying “Ohhhhhh, Fuuuuddddggge!” These have saved me many times from chasing screws all over the garage and under shelves.
I can’t even remember where I obtained this, but they come in different sizes and have a magnet in the tip to hold on to screws. Why they insist on calling them “nut” setters is beyond me. This will be used to drive sheet metal screws into the fridge and most likely will be the hex size for most fasteners in the fridge.
Supplies Needed:
2×4 lumber to create support for shelves
Drywall screws (lots of them)
Plywood of your preference (I happened to have 1/2″ sitting around in just the size I needed)
Stain or some kind of waterproof sealant for the wood
duct tape : MacGyver :: 2×4’s and drywall screws : Me
FRP Board (approx $25 for a 4’x8′ sheet)
If you can find plain plastic sheet, fine. I just chose this because it seemed ideal for this project. It’s easy to clean up and the textured surface has less resistance when sliding my fermenting buckets around in the fridge. It’s just fiberglass and resin, so it won’t mold or mildew. This will be used to replace the inner surface of the doors as well as the covering for the shelf.
Aluminum Angle
You don’t have to get the exact size I purchased, but this happened to work out perfectly for my doors. I used this to connect the freezer door to the refrigerator door and make one giant door.
Sheet Metal Screws
These will be used to secure the aluminum angle to the doors to make a one piece door.
Wire Shelving
I used this on the previous lagering fridge (now used for cakes). It’s lasted over a year with no signs of rust. They are painted or have a thin rubberized coating, so they shoudn’t rust unless you scratch the covering off or possibly on the ends where you cut it. The piece I used was actually the other half of the full span shelving I used to make said prior lagering fridge.
Acetone
You should have this around your garage anyway. It’s great to remove sharpie from glass or metal. It is a prime (if not sole) component of nail polish remover. It’s not lung or skin friendly, so make sure you wear gloves. In this project, you’ll use it to remove your sharpie markings from the FRP board where you cut. But be forewarned, acetone has a tendency to melt many kinds of plastic, so move quickly.
I use these all the time. The link in the title is to the ones I purchase all the time from Harbor Freight. They are a good value and are fairly durable. I prefer the blue gloves, simply because when you do get grease and dirt on your gloves, you can tell and know not to touch anything clean. Use these in this project when cleaning the fridge as well as when you are using the acetone. I also prefer nitrile over latex, because with the latex gloves you are left with hands smelling like balloons. Plus some people have or develop latex allergies.
As long as it takes you to replace a trash bag. Maybe more if you decide to nerd yourself out. Keep reading to the bottom if this is you.
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Cost:
Less than $5 per bucket assembly.
Background:
So if you are serious about brewing and want to save money in the long run, you are most likely buying your most used grains in bulk. If you don’t want those savings to go to waste, you need to store the grains in a way that doesn’t degrade the quality of the grain.
Required:
5 Gallon bucket + lid of your choosing
food safe bag
“Let’s do this”:
Whenever I choose a storage solution, I try to find something readily available where that exact same container can be purchased again at some later point in time. I arbitrarily chose Homer buckets from Home Depot. Maybe I fell for their marketing scheme of having them available everywhere you look in the store for a reasonable price, but hey, they work. So now, I just buy these buckets so everything matches.
What is convenient is that each bucket holds just about 25 pounds of grain. So what I usually do is buy the 50 pound bag of ‘Merican grain when I’m going to use it, then the remainder always fits in two buckets. The same goes for when I get the 55 pound bags of “Ferrin” grain.
So choose your bucket and then decide which lid you will use.
Do not buy these lids! They tempt you with the “easy removal” line, but upon the first or second removal of this lid, this will occur.
This is what I buy. They are a few cents more and in my opinion, worth so much more.
These lids have a rubber seal, which helps keep moisture out.
The lids do have this one time seal feature, but just go ahead and pull it off. If you are just the slightest bit careful, you can remove these lids over and over again.
You might get a crack in the lid where the stress “reliever” is, but as long as it doesn’t go beyond the rubber seal, you should still be ok.
If you want the ultimate in awesomeness, go for the Gamma lids. I personally don’t use these for my grains, because the highest frequency I need to access my grains is every two weeks and I can cope with the standard lids. I do however use them for our bulk dog food storage and hay for our guinea pig, since we store them in the garage and we access them every day.
The Gamma lids are surprisingly decently well priced at Home Depot ($7-8).
Ok, enough about lids already!
Since it is mostly accepted that the plastic used in most 5 gallon buckets is not rated as food safe, lets just add another layer of protection.
Once you have decided on your bucket / lid combo, just place a food safe plastic bag liner in the bucket. Reference my post on food safe bucket liners to get an idea on where to get these bags.
Not much to explain really. Put the bag in the bucket and pour your grains in.
I then twist the top of the bag and tuck it in the side of the bucket. Then just put your lid on.
Labeling
Per my post on Easy Fermenter Labels, I just used gaffers tape to note the grain type and amount of grain in the bucket. See “Nerd Alert” at the end of this post to determine the amount of grain in the bucket.
Moisture control
Ok, so I admit, I had been using muslin bags filled with rice for “moisture control”. After some reading on the internet (so it must be true), I came to the conclusion that rice is a poor desiccant. I fell for the commonly held belief that it absorbed moisture because they use it in salt. Well, it seems that rice is used in salt shakers to prevent clumping. Sodium chloride is actually a better moisture absorber. It all makes sense now, because the container I store our ice melter in always has a pool of water on top. Now I just say (my opinion here) that if you won’t be using the grain within 3-6 months, you probably aren’t making the best of purchasing grain in bulk.
Nerd Alert!
Ok, so if you aren’t using all of your grain at once, you’ll probably want to know how much grain you have left. What I do is weigh the bucket plus the bag liner before pouring the grain in. This is my tare weight. So whenever I need to know how much grain is left, I just weigh the grain bucket with the grain in it and subtract the tare weight.
I also note the date each time I weigh, because I know myself and I know that if I just put the weight on there, I will wonder if it was before or after a certain brew an then end up re-weighing the grain.
So here is “Fermentation Central” in my basement. Two batches of Cream Ale fermenting, next to my stack of grain storage buckets and my two dorm fridges converted to fermentation chambers. The top one is running intermittently (had since college) and the bottom one is facilitating a German Alt.
