30 replies to this topic

[Mynameisluka]

This is a basement root cellar... it's a far cry better even without the insulation than what most of us have at our disposal. I think this winter could be an excellent brewing season for you Jon. Take an ambient temp reading now. If it's good to go, I'd get a Kolsch underway! You may have perfect temps for that if you are in the mid to high 50s.

without doing anything at all, you can have a nice setup at your disposal simply by learning how the temp varies in the "tiny closet" throughout the year. brew your lagers in the winter and store them until you are ready to serve. if you need a little extra chill in the room during the winter, a 6" inline fan attached to 6" flextubing that runs from outside into the room will certainly get your temps where you need to be. sometimes, it's best to learn how to work with what you have. even if you wanted to brew a lager during the summer, steam beers are nice.

[BrianBrewerKS]

This is the biggest thing for me. I wouldn't want to invest in a permanent installation in a place that isn't my own place. If you could figure out something that is easily moveable to your next residence maybe I'd consider it.

Yeah, like a chest freezer with a temp controller..

[Mexas Joe]

I know this is a brewing forum, but I'd save the money for any unexpected vet bills :wink:

I was thinking more along the lines of kiddo bills, people tell me they get to be expensive. I doubt I could afford one, yo.

[EWW]

I was thinking more along the lines of kiddo bills, people tell me they get to be expensive. I doubt I could afford one, yo.

Ahhh, that must be why I got -2 on the post It's a rental. Save the money or get a craigslist freezer/fridge

[Mexas Joe]

Ahhh, that must be why I got -2 on the post It's a rental. Save the money or get a craigslist freezer/fridge

I did not ding you a -1. Dunno.

[chuck_d]

well i was planning on doing it right. i just figured such it is such a tiny closet. (I cant find my tape measure so i cant actually measure it. but like i said around 1.5-2 feet deep. 3-4 feet wide, and like 6 feet tall. I figure it wouldn't take that much material to do it right. If I were ever to buy a chest freezer that would be for kegeration. I partially wanna do this just for the romanticism of the whole thing. Storing my beer and aging it in a root cellar used for aging things. just seems very neat to me.

The romantic way is the old fashioned way. Start taking temp readings already, every day and 2-3x each day. Use your cellar as it cycles naturally. Get in tune with the rhythms of your home and brew with it. Don't stick a noisy compressor and some fans down there and make it sound & look like a production facility. You don't need any digital therm either, just stick some thermometer down there and look at it morning, day & night. Enter the values into a spreadsheet and then you can easily have several plots to look at and decide what to brew when. If you can't brew a lager in the middle of August, that's awesome. Because you brewed one in the middle of March that is just perfect now, and you'll be itching to brew another come October.

Edited by chuck_d, 26 October 2010 - 09:04 PM.

[Deerslyr]

Ahhh, that must be why I got -2 on the post It's a rental. Save the money or get a craigslist freezer/fridge

I gave you a -1 because this is not the PH. Hiller left the PH to get away from comments about his life. THIS is the brewing forum. Respect the fact that Hiller is looking to discuss beer in here. Keep the asshat comments out of it. I'd give you more -1's for the comment if I could.

[davelew]

The romantic way is the old fashioned way. Start taking temp readings already, every day and 2-3x each day. Use your cellar as it cycles naturally. Get in tune with the rhythms of your home and brew with it. Don't stick a noisy compressor and some fans down there and make it sound & look like a production facility. You don't need any digital therm either, just stick some thermometer down there and look at it morning, day & night. Enter the values into a spreadsheet and then you can easily have several plots to look at and decide what to brew when. If you can't brew a lager in the middle of August, that's awesome. Because you brewed one in the middle of March that is just perfect now, and you'll be itching to brew another come October.

You call that old fashioned? I say just brew a bunch of styles in the root cellar, see what tastes good, and brew more of that. THAT is the old fashioned way. No namby-pamby thermometers required.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Before I got a fridge for temp control I would have a thermometer in the basement and most of the fall/spring it was in the 62-64 range. Then I would make daily observations of the temp strip on the carboy and was surprised at how much it fluctuated.

[chuck_d]

You call that old fashioned? I say just brew a bunch of styles in the root cellar, see what tastes good, and brew more of that. THAT is the old fashioned way. No namby-pamby thermometers required.

Hehe, well, I was only going back to like... 1850. Allowing the use of thermometers, hydrometers and pure yeast cultures. The thermometer in brewing predates pure yeast cultures, and I assume we don't want to give that up, just artificial refrigeration.

[davelew]

Hehe, well, I was only going back to like... 1850. Allowing the use of thermometers, hydrometers and pure yeast cultures. The thermometer in brewing predates pure yeast cultures, and I assume we don't want to give that up, just artificial refrigeration.

You mean you use pure yeast cultures instead of a magic barrel? Wuss.