I have two chest freezers on temperature controllers in my garage that I use as fermentation chambers. In each one, I have a small desk fan at the bottom, always on and blowing upwards. I've found that the fan keeps temperatures relatively even, and as a bonus generates enough heat that I don't need to use a reptile bulb or the like. This set-up has been working fine for 4+ years now.
BUT. When I started, everything was in fermenters with airlocks. After I time, I started fermenting very hoppy beers in kegs. Recently, I moved to fermenting every beer in a keg, jumpered to purge a second keg with fermentation gas, and then using a blowoff tube and switching to a spunding valve some of the way in. This means, as far as I can figure it, two important changes as far as the fermentation chambers go:
It seems like this is too much water to be removed with absorbents like Drierite.
Solutions that I've come up with:
BUT. When I started, everything was in fermenters with airlocks. After I time, I started fermenting very hoppy beers in kegs. Recently, I moved to fermenting every beer in a keg, jumpered to purge a second keg with fermentation gas, and then using a blowoff tube and switching to a spunding valve some of the way in. This means, as far as I can figure it, two important changes as far as the fermentation chambers go:
- the freezer lids now have to accommodate one or more 5/16" plastic tubes running fermentation gas out, so the lids don't close all the way and the seal is compromised.
- CO2 is now being vented to the garage instead of inside the chest freezers (I suspect this is the more important change.)
It seems like this is too much water to be removed with absorbents like Drierite.
Solutions that I've come up with:
- replacing or supplementing the lid seal with foam to accommodate the tubing
- putting in bulkhead gas feedthroughs so I can run fermentation gas out while keeping the lid closed
- purging the chambers with dry gas, either from a tank or by ducting the output of a dehumidifier