Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I wanted to present a "problem" to the forum and see if anyone could help me brainstorm a solution.  The problem is that I often don't have enough temperature-controlled fermenter space, especially in the Spring and early Summer, when I am brewing beer for a friend's party.  I also don't have enough dedicated beer storage space and I regularly get comments from my wife that I have too much beer in the fridge upstairs.  I have been thinking about this for a while, but I can't seem to come up with a solid solution.  So, I figured I would present my "design" criteria and thoughts and see if anyone could think of something I missed.

- I currently only have the one modified dorm room fridge for temp-controlled fermentation and/or lagering.
- I also have a huge chest freezer that we keep only a small percent full with extra meat that we bought on sale, apple sauce in the fall, etc.
- I could probably sell my wife on buying one more fridge-like device, no larger than the size of a standard fridge, that I could find a space for in the basement
- I could definitely use a lot more space for lagering and or long-term cold beer storage
- Having more lagering and storage space would allow me to make and keg double batches of things like bocks that should be aged a long time before consumption
- I would only really need fermentation temp control for up to three things at a time, and most of the year it would only be one or two carboys at any given moment
  - Fermentation of ales only really lasts for two weeks at a shot, so there would be times where my fermenter space could actually be empty completely for weeks at a time.


My current thoughts on the above criteria are:

- I think the freezer would be the ideal long term beer storage and lagering place.  It would have a lot of room and I could keep it pretty well stocked.  I could then rotate out kegs that were partially finished and come back to them later, as we would not have to finish the batch.  I could also use it as a space to store bottled beer that was aging long term, instead of leaving it in the closet at room temperature.
- However, my wife needs more freezer space than what we have upstairs, especially after we go shopping.  She does not need much more space, but she needs some.
- If I were to buy a standard fridge with a freezer compartment, that would fit my wife's freezer needs ok.
  - The standard fridge would be ideal for fermentation temp control, as it would not be as big as the freezer and I could load carboys in and out directly through the door, without having to bend over and pull them out of the chest freezer.
  - The problem with this method is that I can't put the fridge on a temp control and keep the freezer compartment.  Seeing how they are powered together through one cord, the freezer would never get cold enough to freeze, with the main chamber at 68 F.
- If I use the fridge as lagering space, I don't need to buy temp control for it (the normal thermostat would be enough).  However, I would never use most of the space in the chest freezer (one to two carboys at at time).  I also would not have enough room to likely store the bottled beer and extra kegged beer together in the new fridge.
  - This seems very ineffecient to me
  - I have also read that freezers are more likely to mold if kept a higher temperatures for long periods of time.  This can be minimized by using Damp Rid or other moisture absorber, but it introduces additional maintenance.

So, there is the problem in a nut shell.  Any and all ideas are welcome.  Thanks for reading the post.

Bring this up at the meeting on Tuesday.  Your manifesto is overwhelming.

I will be happy to.  I have been thinking about the problem a fair amount lately, so it seemed prudent to jot down all of the criteria surrounding my "need."  Once I had them jotted down, it seemed a good idea to farm the problem out to CAMRA to see if you guys could think of a solution that has escaped me.