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Finally, a purpose-built fermentation chamber! Homebrewers have been repurposing refrigerators for fermentation temperature control since as far back as we can remember—and with good reason. These appliances provide excellent insulation from outside temperatures, are usually large enough to fit a typical fermenter used for 5-gallon batches, and provide incredibly even temperature distribution compared to immersed cooling coils. But to call the RAPT a refrigerator made for brewers would be doing this unit a huge disservice. KegLand has engineered a fermentation chamber that cools, heats, and automatically guides your beer through your very own programmed fermentation profiles which can be monitored and controlled remotely via WiFi or Bluetooth.
Virtually any homemade product can be greatly improved with perfect temperature control. The RAPT Fermentation Chamber gives you an electrically efficient means of setting, monitoring and controlling temperature which is perfect for beer making, wine making, salami making, leavening bread, fermenting yogurt, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, making cheers, spirit washes, germinating seeds, growing sprouts, and much, much more. Accurate temp control is one of the most crucial factors to getting reliable and repeatable results.
The RAPT’s control panel comes complete with an integrated color TFT screen. The 4-button color display conveniently shows a log of historic temperature graphs, allows you to start/set/stop temperature profiles, and gives you access to other critical information for that particular fermentation. An integrated secondary regulator can be used to regulate gas into the fridge with the Duotight In-Line Regulator on one side, and on the other you can install an integrated BlowTie 2 Spunding Valve to regulate residual pressure in your fermenter.
For more accurate readings of the core temperature of your fermenter, we highly recommend using a thermowell and the 6.5 ft. probe extension. If you’re using a FermZilla, check out this thermowell with Duotight bulkhead.
Perfect as a Kegerator too!
This multipurpose fridge can also be used as a kegerator. In particularly cold climates where the ambient temp is below zero, this fridge can warm your kegs and prevent them from freezing. This fridge also has a higher keg storage capacity than a conventional kegerator that takes up the same footprint. This unit can hold 4 x 5-gallon kegs on the floor and has enough headroom that you can also fit another layer of 2.5-gallon half size kegs above. To fit beer taps you can drill your own holes through the door.
What is RAPT?
RAPT is a dedicated Internet of Things (IOT) Hub for fermentation logging and control. It’s a free service whereby any RAPT-enabled product can both log and store data to the hub where you can conveniently access it. The RAPT hub can also allow you to control your devices remotely giving you absolute control of the device irrespective of where you are. The RAPT portal enables you to make complex temperature profiles that involve different temperature settings over time meaning you can start/run a temp profile giving you a set and forget experience. The RAPT portal also controls the alert/notification process for you so you can receive email notifications in the off chance that something doesn’t go to plan.
Specifications:
Integrated Heating: 50W Heating Power
Cooling Capacity: 300W Cooling Power
Max Power Consumption: 225W
Refrigerant: r600a
Connectivity: WiFi (802.11) and Bluetooth
Temperature Accuracy: +/- 0.1°C
Temp Resolution: 0.1°C
Integrated Screen: 2.8″ (diagonal) 320 x 240 Color LCD TFT Active Matrix
External Dimensions:
Width: 21.25″
Depth: 24″
Height: 69.3″
Internal Dimensions:
Width: 17.3″
Depth: 19.6″
Height: 51.2″
Why Buy a Fridge Over a Glycol Chiller?
Although we’ve had great success controlling fermentation temps with an immersed cooling apparatus with a glycol chiller providing the cooling solution, these setups do present several potential issues:
Glycol chillers often require a very cold liquid to enter into a fermenter causing an excessively cold part in the fermenter core which leads to uneven temperature distribution.
Glycol chillers consume significant amounts of power and in most instances more than double what this fridge would consume.
Glycol chillers often result in spilling sticky glycol especially when hoses are connected and disconnected to the fermenter.
Glycol chillers generally require penetrations through the walls/lid of the fermenter making the fermenter less sanitary and requiring more cleaning.
Often fermenters are not made with sufficient insulation, so when using a glycol chiller much of the chilling is lost to the ambient environment. This is not only power inefficient but you can end up with a large temperature gradient. This temperature gradient can result in convection currents in the fermenter that make it difficult for yeast and other solids to settle out of suspension so clarification of the beer takes significantly longer.
Many glycol chillers and fermenter combinations do not have sufficient power or are not well enough insulated to cool to sub-freezing temperatures so cold crashing is not possible. This is a significant compromise to a temperature-controlled solution and also results in less ability to clarify the finished beer.
For these reasons KegLand has developed the world’s first dedicated RAPT-enabled fermentation chamber that can cool down to -2°C (28°F) and heat up to 50°C (122°F) even in hot and cold weather.
KegLand Part Number: KL18258
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