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Coolbot in Portland Oregon?

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  • Coolbot in Portland Oregon?

    My partner and I are planning on setting up 3 150 gallon plastic fermenters and building a box around them with rigid insulation similar to Jonnymax. http://discussions.probrewer.com/sho...hlight=coolbot We may even just build one box with an AC and Coolbot then move it to each fermenter to keep costs down at first. I feel pretty confident this will work and it is very affordable. About $500 for 5 pieces of 8'x4'x1" rigid insulation, a 5000 btu AC, and a coolbot.

    We are planning on opening with 3 beers and we are going to serve them out of 3 brite tanks. We may not be able to afford jacketed brites and a chiller so we are looking at building a cold room for our three serving vessels and kegs. I would like to build a cold room myself and install an AC with a coolbot. My only concern is that an inspector might not let this fly. Has anyone in the Portland area had success setting up a cold room with a Coolbot and passed the health inspection?

    Thank You,
    Andy

  • #2
    Hey Andy,

    Was curious if you ended up going with a coolbot. Would be curious to hear your results.

    Big fan of GN, by the way!

    -Steve

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    • #3
      we use an a/c and coolbot for our storage room with good success. We did find the fan in the a/c to be weak so with the addition of an aux fan we can keep the room at 37 without problems.

      s

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      • #4
        Coolbots work well, we use one for our serving room. Way more than 1" of insulation is necessary, it is 3" of closed cell expanding foam. As for fermenting in plastic tanks stored in a room that is maintained at a constant temperature, I don't know that I could more strongly recommend against this. Having tried many beers on systems like this, vs many beers on traditional systems, I can say that there are bad beers made on both, but I can't say that I've ever had a great beer off of a plastic fermenter. Temperature control is mediocre at best, oxygen can flow through the plastic pretty easily, and they can scratch and harbor infections very easily. The cost of opening a brewery is high, but don't cut corners on the tanks. Get at least stainless single wall tanks, they are much easier to clean and maintain, and less likely to contribute to the production of off flavors. Don't make the mistakes others are, you will have better beer to sell.

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