CoolBot – Walk-In Cooler Controller

CoolBot for Brewers
You can build an affordable walk-in cooler for your brewery by using a CoolBot and a standard air conditioning unit. Whether you’re fermenting, lagering, or just keeping your brews cold for drinking, the CoolBot can help you with your cooling needs. Our customers save money on upfront costs, monthly electricity bills and expensive technician visits compared to a traditional walk-in cooler. CoolBots are used by homebrewers, nanobreweries, microbreweries and craft breweries all around the country, as well as the bars, pubs and restaurants that pour their beers.

Fermenting and Lagering
In addition to our Construction Guide and A/C Selection Guide, here are a few tips for how to best use a CoolBot in your brewing:

Fermenting: Many brewers ferment their beer at around 50°F – no problem for a CoolBot.

Lagering: For brewers who needed to lager their beer at ~34°F, we have a few suggestions:

1. Insulate all surfaces (ceiling, walls, floor) to at least an R value of 25. Rigid foam paneling is the best insulation material.
2. Use plenty of caulk and spray foam to seal every gap, crack and seam to prevent air leakages.
3. Install a well-sealed door gasket.
4. Try to limit door opening to less than 4 times per hour.
5. If you’re still having a hard time reaching 34°F consistently, add another A/C unit and CoolBot to increase your cooling power. This will also add some redundancy to the system in the event of an accident.

Fermenting and Lagering: Some of our brewing customers need the ability to switch between higher and lower temperatures (~35°F to ~60°F) for their brewing process, so they need to have larger A/C units to get down to these low temperatures. The issue is that once the cooler reaches the low temperature (~35°F), it becomes difficult to increase the temperature in the cooler to the high temperature (~60°F).

For these cases, we recommend a pass-through thermostat. You can plug the A/C through the pass through thermostat, so that as soon as the room hits the set temperature on the CoolBot, the power is shut off to the A/C. Leave the CoolBot plugged in as usual. If you opt for this set up, you must purchase an A/C that can automatically restart after a power failure (some automatically reset to 70F).