I've never been able to brew in summer but just dumped a couple $$ into a new 5.1 freezer chest and really nice temp controller. I did a lot of searching for a unit that did not have the shelf over the coils because even the 6.9 cu/ft won't allow for the height of the air lock or bubbler. My new unit can fit a plastic bucket and carboy-except for the height of carboy with air lock. I knew this going into the purchase but figured maybe I could run a 3 gallon batch as well. Any thought on 3 gallon brewing or creating a lower profile on the air lock so I can run two at once I'm phyched to be able to brew in warmer weather but am already y getting greedy and trying to figure out how to run two batches like I can in cooler times. Any hints going forward?
How much space are we talking? Is the carboy too tall, or the added airlock element? You don't really need an airlock per say. A clean hose through a rubber cork/stopper should suffice. And run that into a clean santized bucket of water.. There's your "bubbler" Thats probably only a difference of 2 inches. But that may be what you need. Large 1 gallon apple juice glass jugs can do the trick too. The key is finding a nice rubber stopper/cork and hose to act as your air lock.. Ie, you can pretty much ferment in any sort of vessel (as long as your yeast distribution is even). Most hate divining up precious cargo when they don't really have to. More vessels to clean. More worry. More that can go wrong. I've even seen some really small batch brews done in 64oz/ growlers.
My chest freezer has room for buckets and air locks. Before I would move to smaller batches because of the airlock I would do as Octoberfiesta suggests with the hose and water bucket. Or you could do nothing and take a chance of yeast escaping from your bucket. The worst part of summer brewing is that it's too hot! Good luck.
The other option would be to remove the lid, make a collar out of some 2x6's, and reattach the lid to the wood. Most people do this for installing taps, but no reason it wouldn't work to add a bit of space for a ferm chamber
