Air vs insulation for Ale cold conditioner
Air vs insulation for Ale cold conditioner
(OP)
I am planning to build a no-electric "passive" cold conditioner for beer brewing with the concept being maintaining a keg at 40-50F by periodic replacement (every few days?) of a portion of the water surrounding the keg with ice. I have attached a sketch of two options...one using insulation board (two layers, each at 4" thick and R26) and the other using just air. I would endeavour to seal the air cavity option to prevent outside air intrusion.
Which option do you think provides better insulation? Would the air cavity geometry (the height of the cavity would be 26") be such that significant convection woukd occur making it less effective than the insulation board? Perhaps a comprimise between the two...2" air cavity plus 2" insulation board?
Which option do you think provides better insulation? Would the air cavity geometry (the height of the cavity would be 26") be such that significant convection woukd occur making it less effective than the insulation board? Perhaps a comprimise between the two...2" air cavity plus 2" insulation board?





RE: Air vs insulation for Ale cold conditioner
Basically any air gap> 50mm is suspect.
Why not use rock wool?
Also think about using freezer blocks instead of ice. Much easier to swap out.
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Air vs insulation for Ale cold conditioner
I might have to stick with ice cubes as the space around the "side" of the keg is small and there won't be much room on top for a block...still designing though. I am hoping one water/ice swap (approx 2 qts) will last me a few days...the beer (5 gallons) temp is to stay between 40-50F and the room ambient could swing up to 80-85F in summer.
This rube-goldberg is the price I pay for not having room for a fridge and being cheap and being an enginerd ;)
RE: Air vs insulation for Ale cold conditioner
https://byo.com/bock/item/1869-controlling-ferment...
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Air vs insulation for Ale cold conditioner
RE: Air vs insulation for Ale cold conditioner
A vacuum...whew, nice thought but too complicated for my build :)