Do you have two fridge/freezers for brewing?

I do. And I think separate fermention fridges and keezers are very typical. The fermentation temperatures for a lager (or an ale) are higher than you'd normally want to store/serve kegs at.

 

I have my Kegerator fridge that my kegs go in. I haven't made a lager yet, but I have a small 'dorm' fridge that I plan to make into a ferm chamber. It should fit a carboy with a little modification. Theoretically

 

I have two chest freezers, one for fermentation and one set up as a keezer. I have found that most of the other homebrewers I know have similar set ups if they keg their beer.

 

I do as well. I have a small cheap chest freezer that I use as a fermentation chamber (for all types, not just lagers). This also doubles as a lagering/ conditioning/ carb station if open. I then have a kegerator for serving and carbing. 3 would actually be ideal, if I had more space.

 

I have a fridge for fermenting and a chest freezer for kegs.

I do not recommend using a fridge for serving kegs. If you kill a keg that is behind a different keg, then you have to remove the partially full keg to get the empty keg out. This disturbs any sediment that has fallen to the bottom of the partially full keg. Having a chest freezer for serving makes it easier to remove/replace empty kegs without disturbing other kegs. Also much easier to get gas and liquid lines disconnected/reconnected for cleaning/etc. directly from the open top of a chest freezer than reaching back behind one keg to get to the top of another keg. Detecting CO2 leaks on a keg is also much easier... open lid, spray, look, fix... in a fridge it is much more difficult to see the top of the rear kegs.

I prefer the fridge as a fermentation chamber so I don't have to try to lift carboys off the ground to upper chest level, and then back down to ground level over the ledge of the freezer. Too much going on that could lead to dropping the fermenter trying to get it in and out of the freezer. I realize that you can put the fermenter into the freezer empty, fill from the chiller/kettle with a pump, and force transfer from the fermenter to the keg via CO2 (all of which I do), but I find it simpler to open a door and have access to everything directly. I also have a conical type fermenter, so having to reach over the edge of a freezer to get access to the arms, valves, ports, etc would be too much to deal with.

 

There is no such thing as too much refrigeration in brewing. All different temps needed for fermenting ale/lagers, lagering, yeast propagation/storage, hops, and of course serving . . . plus your backups. So space (and occasionally money) drives this.

If you want to streamline operations go straight to a unit that circulates glycol or cold-water through a coil in your fermenter. But this will bypass years of fun tinkering around with old fridges . . .

 

I have a standard fridge/freezer that holds my kegs, hops, yeast, that is also used for lagering. I have a separate chest freezer that is my ferm chamber.

 

See, I don't agree with this... and don't see how it works on a large scale either... While this is great for keeping the temps down when it is needed, it offers nothing for keeping temps up when needed. What if I need the temperature to be higher? Or need to keep a temp up? The way I brew, I control the temp to keep it down with standard ale or lager fermentation, then raise it to finish/clean up. If I am doing a Saison I aim for 80+. Once fermentation slows on any beer the temps naturally fall, and that runs the risk of Diacetyl or a sluggish finish.

 

Huh? You regulate the temp for whatever result you need. If brewing in Arctic conditions this would be circulating hot water (immersible water heater <25 bucks on Amazon) or a heating pad for about the same price. Temp controller can handle hot or cold or hot & cold. Tell me more how your ferm fridge puts out 80+.

As for scale, I believe this is method used by most commercial breweries.

 

I have a chest freezer for hops

 

I have a DIY glycol chiller (used an window unit AC) for my fermenters, a chest freezer that I keep at 35F for lager/cold storage/carbing, and an upright fridge that I use as a 4 tap kegerator... Refrigeration is key for good brewing haha I think most brewers have at least 2 fridges/temp control methods.

 

Sorry, I use a heating pad attached to the side for temp increase, and the fridge cooling cycle for decrease.

What I have seen for glycol chilling systems is that they stand alone and are difficult to splice to heating and cooling options. I would never use the cone heaters they offer for conicles... why heat the yeast?

 

That's my feeling too, i.e. heating the trub doesn't seem like the way to go. But I've seen fermwrap type devices wrapped around the cone on a local brewery's pilot system. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Yeah, that just sounds like a great way to cause autolysis or bake the trub and yeast cake onto the sides. That's why I have my heating pad slapped on the side above the trub line. Heats only the beer, nothing else.

 

I wouldn't worry about that... most of the conical heaters have a cut off. Like the Spike heater wont exceed 95F, which wouldn't be an issue for most yeast (see that most dry yeast is rehydrated with 90 - 110 F water).

The idea of heating from the bottom encourages natural convection through the fermenter. Hotter liquid is less dense and rises, being replaced by colder liquid which then gets heated. Maybe not so much on the homebrew level, but heating large amounts of liquid from the middle could cause some temperature striation, with a cold pocket bellow the heated area.

Been learning a lot about natural convection in my Advanced Heat Transfer courses... a lot of it is surprisingly applicable to brewing.