Thanks to the help here, I've brewed my first beer (well, HME and DME) and first cider. In order to keep a fairly proper fermentation temperature, I've stored the fermenter in the freezer portion of a non-working refrigerator. I've been having to do the ice-bottle swap on a daily basis. I'd prefer not brew again until I can have a fairly functioning fermentation chamber. And trust me, it's killing me all of the weeks that has gone by since my 2nd batch. I feel like I'm wasting valuable brew time and the opportunity to stock up and hoard bottles of beer!
I was given a very small 1.X cubic foot mini-fridge. It's working based on a 15 minute test. The unfortunate part is that some of the copper lines as well as a terminal contact are rusted. I was going to initially build a wider chamber around the fridge with styrofoam or ply (as I've seen online). However, if this fridge is going to conk out based on the rusted lines then I really don't want to put in the money for materials that would be wasted. I need this to be as cheap as possible, unfortunately.
I brew with a 2 gallon Mr. Beer keg. I've also got a DIY 2 gallon food grade bucket with spigot that I can add an airlock to.
I've taken off the inside portion of the mini-fridge door (where you store milk and such). Unfortunately the Mr. Beer keg does NOT fit inside fridge as it is about 1/2" too wide. My only option would be to take the spigot off and plug the hole (any thoughts on that?). However, the bucket DOES fit inside it.
Questions...
1. This fridge has a little freezer area in the top-right hand portion of the fridge with a little plastic flap door. This (basically the freezer coil area) will sit a few inches above part of the bucket. Will this temp variance (fridge vs freezer area) screw with an added temp controller? On the freezer note, I've read that the freezer will essentially be dripping water all of the time (condensation) because of the lower temperature. Curious if anyone has had experience with correcting that.
2. I've read that the STC-1000 is the cheapest way to obtain/create a temperature controller. I see it's about $16 on Amazon (though I've read it can be found for $10 on ebay). It sounds like I would have to find or buy something to house the unit. Also, I don't think it actually comes with wires to do the wiring. So, I guess the price goes up a bit. Do I "need" to solder the wires or can I simply twist and cap them? I've never soldered before and this would be an additional expense to purchase a solder gun/kit. Granted, if I have to then I will.
Thanks for any advice, hints, tricks and/or info.