How can I make this into a fermentation cooler?

Thomas, your pic didn't show up. You have to upload the pic to a third party hosting site (I use Photobucket) and then copy the direct link to your clipboard and insert it in your post by using the Image icon on the tool bar (just right of the smiley face).

 

If a 5 gallon carboy or pail doesn't fit get 3 gallon ones. I would rather have 3 gallons of good beer than 5 gallons of ok beer. If down the road 3 gallons isn't cutting it you can pickup a larger fridge on Craigslist for between $50 - $150.

The other question is, after putting the carboy in the fridge how do you plan to control the temp? First you'll need a digital temp controller. You can use it to control the fridge temp but the temp of the wort is usually higher than the ambient temp of the air. For instance, the fridge temp is 62, but the active wort can be as high as 67+.

I use a fridge and wrap my carboy with a heat wrap. Then I connect the heat wrap to my digital temp controller with the probe taped and insulated on the outside of the carboy.

 

Seems like a lot of work for the conversion, just to barely fit a fermenter in there...I'd look at another option personally and keep that as a bottle fridge or sell it and use the money towards a bigger set up. Wouldn't you loose the ability to stabilize temp if there was a hole in the top with an airlock sticking out? Seems to me that it would at least cause the fridge to run excessively and burn the motor out as a result.

 

The pic has to come from a website. If you're trying to link from your desktop it won't work. Get the pic into photobucket, flickr, etc, and right click on the pic after it's uploaded. After right clicking, select "Copy Image URL." You'll get back on this site, click on the "Image" button above and paste the image URL into this site.

Sorry for the poor punctuation and caps. ^^^^ Way too tired right now. It made sense in my head. Lemme know if it doesn't translate.

 

How many taps do you want? If you want multiple you'll need the ability to ferment more than one beer at a time. I would use this fridge to ferment in and as a kegerator.

If you use a fermwrap to control the wort temp you can leave the fridge on cold so you can have beer at 35 and wort at 60. You can start out by using a picnic/cobra tap until you install a tap.

 

There is probably adequate room in this fridge to use it as a fermentation chamber as well as a kegerator as long as you don't want too many kegs, or as long as you aren't brewing one batch of beer after another. You'll still need to get an external thermometer to allow the fridge to maintain a temp around 65 degrees because I don't think any fridge's thermostat will allow a setting at that warmish level. Yeah, your kegged beer will be at 65 degrees for drinking while a beer is fermenting, but if you have stouts, porters, that's an okay drinking temp.

EDIT: I see that I am taking a slightly reverse approach to GetMeAnIPA, but either way, the fridge can do both jobs.

 

I was just about to post the same thing @GetMeAnIPA posted...great advice!

 

The re-purpose concept in these pics must work okay if others have done it and put pics on the internet. I wonder if you'd even need an external thermometer because the little fridge's cooling equipment may put out just enough cool air to keep the big plywood box at 65 degrees.

Regarding external thermostats, usually a unit from Johnson Controls is priced around $50-$75 so the price of the ones that you linked makes me wonder about their reliability. Hopefully someone in this forum will chime in that they have something similar and provide a review of it to help you make a decision.

 

I've been running an Inkbird like the link above for about a year with no issues. Nice little DIY activity.

 

I did something similar to what you've posted above. I ran across someone else's build here and decided to take on a little project. It works great, I can fit 3 fermenters in it and can easily hold at 55 F. It does struggle to get to lager temps, so I've resorted to other methods if needed.