New brewshed build

[JamesF]

Yes, my plan is to varnish the interior. I also need to sort out a "drip tray" and to make up the shelf, but I can work around those just to get up and running again.

I need to do a bit of research on the door and seals and have a look at how other people have done it in case there's something I haven't thought of.

James

[JamesF]

More progress...

The fermentation cabinet is now varnished inside, the greenhouse heater wired up, fan fitted to the top and STC-1000 fitted in the door. I just have to fix the insulation to the inside of the door and work out a suitable place to locate the temperature sensor for the STC-1000 and then I have something usable even if it isn't quite finished yet. I'm so close to my first brew in the shed I can almost taste it





James

[Fil]

Lookin great, You have some top skills there.

you might benefit from boxing in the controller, and venting to the front, they can get quite warm under power and could challenge your tube heater for watt output causing a lil overheating when not wanted..

i have one boxed controlling the kitchen fridge, the box gets quite warm....

[JamesF]

I did notice the vents in the side and arranged things so they'd be clear to allow air to flow, but if it gets that warm I can see the point of venting it outside the box rather than in, so I'll look into that.

James

[Jocky]

Top work!

Does your fermentation cabinet chill too, or does it just have a heater?

[JamesF]

This one just heats. I did have a large upright freezer that I was hoping to convert, but in the end I decided it wasn't going to be possible because of the routing of all of the coolant ducts. I thought about it a bit and decided that actually most of my brewing is likely to need heating rather than cooling as long as I stick to doing low-temperature fermentations in the winter months. And if it does become an issue then I may look at converting the space under the worktop to a cabinet that can be both heated and chilled by moving the fermentation cabinet somewhere else and fitting a fridge onto the end of the bench.

James

[Pinto]

This one just heats. I did have a large upright freezer that I was hoping to convert, but in the end I decided it wasn't going to be possible because of the routing of all of the coolant ducts. I thought about it a bit and decided that actually most of my brewing is likely to need heating rather than cooling as long as I stick to doing low-temperature fermentations in the winter months. And if it does become an issue then I may look at converting the space under the worktop to a cabinet that can be both heated and chilled by moving the fermentation cabinet somewhere else and fitting a fridge onto the end of the bench.

James

Look into Peltier arrays m8 - in theory they should be able to maintain a 15 degree ferment when the exterior temp is around 25-27 degrees, with enough of them (and they are cheap !) - I plan on using them to keep my ales at 12 degrees or so for serving purposes when I get round to the kegerator - meaning I can keep the rest of my brews much colder using the refrigeration.

[JamesF]

Oddly enough Peltier coolers had occurred to me in the past and then I'd forgotten the idea. I'd have to check out the power consumption, but I could perhaps power them from a solar array on the roof of the brewshed.

James

[Pinto]

Quite a few cheap ones in the 75-100W range @ 12v so as long as your solar cell is large enough, should work well. You'd need to do some fag packet calculations on the thermal capacity of a fermenter and the airspace in your brew cupboard to work out how many you'd need

[Fil]

unless your fermenting inside a SS vessel, making a good thermal contact to cool with a peltier may present further problems, an ebay bargain shelf chiller with a python or recirulation pump can be easily adapted (switched on by an stc1000) to pump coollant through a simple coil immersed in the beer, a stainless steel product coil from a larger chest beer chiller makes an ideal thin profile coil which wont catch too much sedimenT and can be cleared of any that will settle on it easily;)

[Pinto]

True Fil, but I was thinking about ambient cooling of the complete cupboard, much like a brewing fridge - so thermal contact isn't necessary. James is running the shed on photovoltaic cells too so he'd struggle to generate enough to run a python chiller.

[Fil]

Ahh i missed that crucial power limitation, my peltier experience is limited to a Morphy Richards party tap machine tho its only 35w (just checked), that uses a big metal contact point to effect only a few degrees change overnight, but thats not a lot of watts, and the insulation is just a 2" air buffer..

[JamesF]

I have mains power too. I was just thinking that the times I'd be likely to need the cooling are when there's the possibility of generating the power from solar, so it might work quite nicely. It's one to research for the future, anyhow.

James

[BenB]

Good luck! Getting peltiers to work well is hard work. Too much of a delta and they don't work. Too little and they don't work. You need to adjust voltage and current accordingly. It can be done but it's far from simple and far from automated.

If on the other hand you want to turn lots of electricity into lots of heat they're great

[JamesF]

Yes An acquaintance is quite into pulling DSLRs apart to fit Peltier coolers for astronomy use. I've been following her trials and tribulations for some time.

James