Guest guest Posted October 21, 2004 Report Share Posted October 21, 2004 Rose wrote: >-katja wrote, >btw, we're considering getting rid of our refrigerator...woo! > > >Hi Katja, >I've entertained this idea, but am not ready yet. >you should start a discussion group on this subject >and see how it goes!! As someone who lives in a warm climate (NSW, Australia), getting rid of the fridge seems a bit extreme to me. Turn it off, maybe... Lots of ferments do best within a certain temperature range, and fridges are good at helping to maintain that range. The standard home fridge typically keeps things at or under 4°C, but can be turned up to 8-10°C which allows a slow fermentation to occur. Homebrewers often add an additional thermostat to power on / off the fridge, so that they can maintain any given temperature between 0°C and 24°C, to suit the style of beer they are brewing. Even dead fridges can be used. Half of how a fridge maintains temperature is insulation - freeze water in plastic soft drink bottles, and cycle them through the dead fridge to keep ferments at the desired temperature (typically, anything under 24°C). Very useful for brewing or meadmaking in summer, and I dare say I'll be trying it for lactic ferments this summer. (a dead fridge is on my list of things to pick up from the side of the road, when I have organised some space to fit it! Actually I need two, one for brewing and one for kraut/kimchi, to keep lactic bacteria away from the brewing...) I currently have a second (live) fridge where we keep eggs, drinks, kimchi, yoghurt and kefir. I make the kefir on the counter top, then put it into this fridge after straining out the grains. The fridge is set to the warmest setting, which is about 8°C on all but the hottest days, so ferments still proceed but at a much slower rate. As a bonus, drinks are still cool, but not to the point where you can't taste them cheers, Ross. -- " There is more to life than simply increasing its speed. " - Mahatma Gandhi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 22, 2004 Report Share Posted October 22, 2004 So does anyone here have a cold cellar? All the old books deal with cold cellars or caves or " spring houses " ... anywhere in the world, the temp at about 8 feet underground is the same. We got a tractor this year, and my dream is this nice cool underground room ... which would be perfect for kimchi, making kraut, storing wine ... >Lots of ferments do best within a certain temperature range, and fridges >are good at helping to maintain that range. The standard home fridge >typically keeps things at or under 4°C, but can be turned up to 8-10°C >which allows a slow fermentation to occur. Homebrewers often add an >additional thermostat to power on / off the fridge, so that they can >maintain any given temperature between 0°C and 24°C, to suit the style >of beer they are brewing. Heidi Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 22, 2004 Report Share Posted October 22, 2004 At 09:18 PM 10/21/2004, you wrote: > Rose wrote: > > >-katja wrote, > >btw, we're considering getting rid of our refrigerator...woo! > > > > > >Hi Katja, > >I've entertained this idea, but am not ready yet. > >you should start a discussion group on this subject > >and see how it goes!! > >As someone who lives in a warm climate (NSW, Australia), getting rid of >the fridge seems a bit extreme to me. Turn it off, maybe... > >Lots of ferments do best within a certain temperature range, and fridges >are good at helping to maintain that range. The standard home fridge >typically keeps things at or under 4°C, but can be turned up to 8-10°C >which allows a slow fermentation to occur. Homebrewers often add an >additional thermostat to power on / off the fridge, so that they can >maintain any given temperature between 0°C and 24°C, to suit the style >of beer they are brewing. > >Even dead fridges can be used. Half of how a fridge maintains >temperature is insulation - freeze water in plastic soft drink bottles, >and cycle them through the dead fridge to keep ferments at the desired >temperature (typically, anything under 24°C). Very useful for brewing or >meadmaking in summer, and I dare say I'll be trying it for lactic >ferments this summer. (a dead fridge is on my list of things to pick up >from the side of the road, when I have organised some space to fit it! >Actually I need two, one for brewing and one for kraut/kimchi, to keep >lactic bacteria away from the brewing...) > >I currently have a second (live) fridge where we keep eggs, drinks, >kimchi, yoghurt and kefir. I make the kefir on the counter top, then put >it into this fridge after straining out the grains. The fridge is set to >the warmest setting, which is about 8°C on all but the hottest days, so >ferments still proceed but at a much slower rate. As a bonus, drinks are >still cool, but not to the point where you can't taste them > >cheers, >Ross. >-- > " There is more to life than simply increasing its speed. " - Mahatma Gandhi these things are all true. but we have a cold room in our cellar (check out the book root cellaring by nancy rubin, i think). obviously we'll just turn it off first, but it seems we'll easily get by entirely without it. i'm already planning the shelves where the refrige used to be! -katja Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 22, 2004 Report Share Posted October 22, 2004 katja wrote: >these things are all true. but we have a cold room in our cellar (check out >the book root cellaring by nancy rubin, i think). obviously we'll just turn >it off first, but it seems we'll easily get by entirely without it. i'm >already planning the shelves where the refrige used to be! Cool (or at least, cool enough A root cellar is on the plans, but down track a bit for us. I will be partitioning and insulating an area under our house one day, but time is always a problem for me With summer peaks here of 45°C (113°F), we still need our fridges until then. cheers, Ross. -- " There is more to life than simply increasing its speed. " - Mahatma Gandhi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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