bait freezer for fermentation chamber

[paul m]

Hi Guys i might be able to get my hands on an upright bait freezer. If i give it a good clean would it still be ok to use as a fermentation chamber using a temperature controller.

Any sage advise is gratefully recieved, cheers Paul

[Matthew Vincent]

It should be fine. Have you got a temp controller because (as far as I'm aware) you can't beat these for price -

http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/other/auction-605760942.htm

They're not quite as good as a STC-1000, you've got to manually change it from 'Heating' to 'Cooling' but other than that ...

[Peter Smith]

for the extra say $15 go STC-1000  given this cold snap you may well need the heating one day!

One thing I have learned is buy great kit and keep adding to it!

The other thing is , what are you going to ferment in and how many will fit in the thing?  I can get 2 glass carboys into my fridge unit at once , which is handy at times as I often leave stuff 3-4 weeks to clear out a bit.

[Gareth Kerr]

Ebay's a pretty good option for an STC-1000. Mine was about $25 (cheaper than the manual model on trademe) and most have free shipping from China too. I've had a quick search and it seems they're even cheaper now, under 20.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=stc-1000+220v&...

[paul m]

Hi Hear ya,

I've got a stc-1000, got it off alibaba- china for around $28, a couple of years ago. I've got the controller part pretty sussed. My discussion was primarily to get any advise re fish smell and potential for tainting beer. Fishy beer ain't gonna win any prizes! What have folks used to get rid of fish smell? Or should i steer clear of a free bait freezer?

cheers

Paul

[Peter Smith]

use vanilla essence to neutralise the smell, then specialise in vanilla porters.....

or do dogfish head clones

[Chad Keven]

have you tried bleaching the crap out of it? liquid chlorine

[Stu H]

Oh man I have an old bait chest freezer for my kegs. I've tried absolutely everything to get rid of the smell - vanilla, bleach, vinegar, detergent, activated charcoal. It doesn't smell as bad as it once does, but it's still pretty fucking disguisting. However kegs are s/s and the only other thing to really go in there is glass.

 I once put a fermenter in there and it starting stinking a bit, though after a good clean it went away - and fortunately didn't seem to affect the beer either.

I think I'm going to (eventually) sand the thing down on the inside and repaint it with appliance paint. To be honest dude I'd just pay $50 for an upright fridge. I've got 3 of the suckers and they rule. I regret being too poor to buy a cleaner chest freezer, but that's the price I pay for being a cheaparse mature student.

[Stu H]

Oh yeah, just get STC-1000s off ebay, they're super cheap, and rule. I've bought three off this guy: quality link

[paul m]

thanks for that Stu,

[G S]

I scored an upright glass front cocal cola fridge from my regular lunch  supplier, the albert street asian food court (aka rat alley). Cost me nothing, thankyou Wardini, but inside and out was so impregnated with frying grease and dust I just couldn't get the smell out.

Ended up breaking one of the refrigerant tubes trying to clean it, few hundy to get that fixed, so in the end paid $15 to take it to the dump. Not such a bargain...