Personally, I’ve been using Beersmith for around 5 years now, and in that time I’ve often found the need to do things outside of the program.
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The discussion of this idea will carryover for several posts as I work through the details, and as always, comments and suggestions are welcome.Beersmith is probably the most popular software for homebrewers. If I can find a fridge for low enough price, I fully intend on making this idea a reality in my home. I have seen several posts and pictures about this idea, and will share them in due time. Take either a top freezer or a side-by-side refrigerator, remove unnecessary parts, construct shelves, modify the thermostat, and presto! you have a fermentation chamber that easy to control, insulated, came with it’s cooling unit, and best of all….transportable (as well as a fridge can be). This last one is what has best caught my attention, and what I intend to construct once I have the technical details worked out. Others add onto small refrigerators, build freestanding brewshops, and finally modify standard refrigerators.
![beersmith blog beersmith blog](https://52brews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-BeerSmith-Podcast-128-cover-image.jpg)
With this, you may only have to construct two walls, but is built onto the house and thus stays with the house. Some will build a closet-type area in their garage, probably in the corner. Yet, there are MANY other ways to approach this. With this, you also give up some convenience and some cooling efficiencies. With the simple fermentation chamber, you get an easier to construct, cheaper project. Lastly, I will note that you should consider some setup of a thermometer that measures the temperature of a liquid inside the fridge, as discussed here. (Once I have established how I want to do this one and the materials needed, I will give a more detailed how-to.) #2 – internal thermometer connected to a digital readout displayed on the fridge door. #1 – remote thermometer (the ones that you can buy at the hardware store that will tell you them temperature outside on a nice digital readout located inside your house). Two options are available to this inconvenience that will help you greatly down the road. That means the fridge has to cycle its condenser more than normal to keep cooling the fridge back down from when you opened the door. Yet, didn’t your parents tell you that everytime you open the fridge you let cold air out. Stick a thermometer in there and check it from time to time. So we do we start? Well, we need to know what the ambient temperature around the carboy in the fridge before we know what changes we need to make. Is it the most efficient? not yet, but we are getting there, aren’t we…
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Drawbacks? lack of temperature control – Do you know what temperature your fridge is set to be at right now? Do you know how to get it to the ambient temperature in the fridge you need to have a desired fermentation temperature inside your carboy? Is this better than the carboy sitting in your office corner fermenting at 80 degrees when it should be at 68 degrees? Of course. Store hop pellets and other supplies in freezer – pizzas, hot dogs, steaks, etc.
![beersmith blog beersmith blog](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/96/96/d1/9696d1ad25ab745a416304cacca1fafa.png)
Simplest: Buy a freezer-top fridge, take out the shelves, insert fermenting carboy, close doors. Converting a fridge into a fermentation chamber is going to be only as complicated as you make it.