The idea of a brew fridge is fairly simple. You take an old, but working fridge, and a electronic control of some kind, and then have an insulated cupboard that your FV can sit in at whatever constant temperature suits the style you are brewing. Very useful for brewing ales in winter or lager in the summer, cold crashing, etc.
What had always put me off a bit was the amount of mains voltage wiring required. Nothing complicated, but you were working with 240v. Then, I learnt about the inkbird 308. This is a pre-built controller that allows you to set a few temperature conditions, and had a mains plug, a hot socket and a cold socket. You plug your heating device into the hot socket, cooling device into the cold socket and off you go. No messing with wires, perhaps maybe putting a plug on.
Happily, and without any hints being dropped by me whatsoever, I received an inkbird and a tube heater from my partner and the kids for my birthday. We had a spare under counter Beko fridge after switching to an integrated type in the new kitchen, so a brew fridge was made. Construction (what there is of it) involved enlarging the drain hole with a drill to allow the heater power cable to pass through, and screwing in the self tapping screws for the heater mount. The Inkbird temperature probe has a fairly thin wire so it just fits through the door seal. Then you plug it all in and go.
First brew in will be a Rose Wine Kit - more on that later.
Oh, and my better half would probably like me to point out that the dead spider in the photo of the rear of the fridge isn't an indication of our general household cleanliness, but due to the fridge sitting unused in the (presently) unused conservatory!
