Fridge vs Freezer

[MrC]

I've noticed a few people mentioned that they would like to get a chest freezer/temp control setup while others are interested in a new fridge.

What are the pros & cons of kegging setups using fridges vs freezers?
What setup do you have and what do you think of it?

[jt]

I love my fridge - great but limited to 4 kegs by the floor space

Freezer ? Great floor space for lots of kegs but takes more space and can involve some lifting / leaning

[Stu McKinlay]

I use a smallish fridge. It can only fit two kegs, which in winter as fine because most of my beers are consumed at cellar temp (my cellar is a little to warm in summer).

It currently has an imperial Stout and a Ginger beer in it. Two Belgian Pales await space, then a Belgian Brown and a Northern Brown aren't far behind. I might need to move chest freezer on the idea soon...


Chest freezers are far more economical to run.

[jt]

Sorry for the off topic question, but is that non or alcoholic Ginger Ale Stu ?
I know there was some discussion about GA's before Christmas, was this a result of one of the recipes or discussions ?
I've had a couple of GA kits and not happy with them plain or doctored up, wouldn't mind a tilt at something tastier

[JoKing]

I'm a fridge man. The only reason being from when I was bottling: you could stand the bottles up un the fridge (as opposed to lying down in my wifes fridge). It still goes down to zero, and you can fit 4 kegs in it. I have 2 shanks in the door with taps on the other side. I'm conditioning 2 kegs at the back and serve the 2 kegs in the front. This system has been working well for me - as the back of the fridge is about 5degrees cooler than the front.

I'm not opposed to the freezer setup though - you can fit more kegs in. I saw Revilleds on Sunday - he had a brand new freezer with the temp controller up and runnung. I cant say I felt jellous - but I noticed there was room for 6 (maybe even 8) kegs in there. Freezers are even better when you consider that the power usage is way less, and they insulate against the heat better - even if you open it, most of the cool air stays in it.

[Ian]

That chest freezer sounds great, but how do you go about regulating the temperature. Our chest freezer is quite old but it only has one temperature - set to freeze stuff - and no thermostat. Do you need to modify most freezers to alter that arrangement to allow you to set, say, 10 degrees?
Cheers,
Ian

[JoKing]

Either a tempmate or a fridgemate will do the job Ian. They are thermostatically controlled and are connected to the power outlet of the freezer. When the temperature drops or rises outside the preset perameters, the unit kicks in and voila - consistent temperature.

[jt]

I'm tempted to take the fourth tap off my fridge to allow one keg to condition before I start drinking it ...

[Mike Neilson]

I have the both and to tell you the honest truth you need both!! One to serve and cellar in and one to ferment in. My prefrance would be 2 chest freezers more space and they double up as a usefully bench for brewing!! try sticking your mash tun on top of your fridge and off that. If you want a look at the pro's and cons and make up your mind pop us an email. to control temp https://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=2592

[Nolen Smith]

Yea, I've been looking at both the Tempmate and Fridgemate. I have a small chest freezer from the Warehouse that can hold 4 19 ltr kegs. I have a two-tap tower I'm planning on mounting on the lid so I can have two kegs tapped and two conditioning. Any views on which controller is better/easier? I like the looks (and price) of the Fridgemate but not really sure which one to go with.

[Mike Neilson]

Tempmate, set it the unit like denimglens (photos) so you can use it on any fridge, heating unit etc. then once you have out growing your freezer you can unplug it and sell it un-adultered, Also you can use it for constant fermentations.

[James P]

Fridgemate is your cheapest and best bet if you are only serving from it. i.e. monitor the temperature to make sure it doesn't go over X, and set the cut out on the tempmate to be the temperature you want.

In my experience the temperature has never gone a degree under what I wanted to serve at.

[denimglen]

Bingo to both the above.

If only serving go fridgemate, build it up in it's own box so its standalone.

If fermenting then go tempmate, will heat and cool and is very well priced for what it does, again build into standalone box.

I would suggest having two seperate freezer/fridges for fermenting/serving, it's not impossible to do in one unit but I don't want warm beer or extremely cold fermentations :-)