Building my own dry-aging unit

[wcpreston]

After really enjoying the idea of dry-aging, but being a bit disappointed in some of the results from the dry aging bags, I started wondering if I could turn my currently unused beer fermentation chamber into a dry aging unit. And after reading a number of blogs on it, I am making it happen.

Note: I am updating this initial post as the project has progressed.

I already and an old fridge w/a temp control:
- Old small fridge that I bought for $75.
- An Inkbird temp control unit. ($35)
(You plug the fridge into that and it turns it on as necessary to maintain the temp you want.)

Then I bought this for this project:
- An Inkbird humidity control unit ($42).
(You can plug a humidifier and/or dehumidifier into it turns it on/off)
- 3L humidifier ($30)
- (2)120mm computer-style DC fan for circulation. ($13)
(Had a bigger AC fan but it created too much heat in the fridge.)
- Dehumidifying silica gel. 5 lbs for $30. (prob too much)
(Had to use the gel because dehumidifiers don't work below 41F)
- 7" high plastic storage box w/lid ($10)
I built my own dehumidifier by putting the silica gel in the bottom of the box, then
making two doors the size of the 6" fan, then hooking the fan to the dehumidifier
outlet on the hygrometer.
- 5W U/V/C sanitizer light that I can mount to the side of the fridge ($19)
- A Govee wireless temp/humidity sensor ($13). Can you believe that price?
(Talks to my phone via bluetooth and can send alerts.)

Since I already had the fridge and temp controller, I only needed to spend ~$150 or so to turn it into a dry aging fridge. But if you did this from scratch, you'd need an old fridge and the temp control unit as well.

The controllers go outside the unit. The fan, humidifier, dehumidifying gel, temp and humidity sensors go inside the unit. I set the humidifier on its lowest setting to slow the humidity controller's roll. I just run the cables through the gasket for now. I may decide to drill a hole later, but I'm worried about what I might drill through.

I will then thoroughly clean and sanitize the inside of the fridge before I start. But by the end of today I expect to be aging my first brisket in there.

Thoughts?

[glitchy]

I've looked at the SteakAger and Meat Locker (they now have a smaller studio edition) a few times and also thought about building my own. I like what all you've done to set yours up, sounds like it should work really well. The other thing you sometimes see is a UV light to help reduce bacteria growth.

Just curious as to why you chose brisket to start with? From things I've read, brisket seems to gain little from aging and tenderloin is usually lumped into the same class. Rib and strip loins are what people usually talk about. Will be interested to see how this turns out and what you think of the brisket.

[wcpreston]

Not sure I understand the UV light, as the whole point of a dry-aging chamber is to encourage growth of certain bacteria. It's already 39F in there as well.

[glitchy]

I haven’t gotten into the science behind the light. I just know the commercial units seem to have it. It supposedly makes the ‘crust’ safely edible so you don’t have to trim as much off and you can mix what you do trim into things like ground beef.

[wcpreston]

glitchy I decided to add a U/V/C light that was only $13. Thanks for the idea!

https://www.amazon.com/UV-C-Light-Lamp-Bulb-Ozone/dp/B081CMKVHR/

[Attjack]

Sounds like you could make cured meats with it too.

[wcpreston]

Hmmm.... Methinks you may have discovered a new hobby for me

[rickgregory]

That was my thought.

[TripleB]

Kudos to you. Can you attach a pic of the full setup when it's ready? Love to see it. So how did you provide access for the temp and humidity sensors, fan and humidifier cables? did you drill holes??

Regarding the temp sensor. This looks like something I could use on my electric smoker. It's just a dial, no temp settings. I have to keep an eye on it when I'm smoking sausage to keep it around 170 d. Fluctuates greatly.

[wcpreston]

Re: cable access... I just let them run through the gasket. I may drill a hole later, but it's not really required, as the thing seals pretty well around each cable. None of them are terribly big.

Re: your smoker... You need something like the firebox for that. These cables will NOT work in a smoker. They'll melt right away.

[TripleB]

wcpreston - oh no, cables are not going into the smoker. Just commenting that i could use the temp controller on my electric smoker. The temp controller on my smoker is just a dial - low to high, therefore hard to set a temp. Thanks

[wcpreston]

TripleB, right... but the temp controller works by putting a temp probe inside the thing whose temperature you are controlling. When the temp probe in the fridge says the fridge is too warm, it turns on the cooling outlet and turns on the fridge. There's also an outlet that turns on if the fridge is too cold (thin winter in a garage). I had that plugged into a ceramic heating element that you would use in a terarium. I don't need that now, as my garage is never going to get below 39F.

[Henrik]

Sounds very good to me. Please post photos of the device when done, would be great to see!

[Attjack]

I'm interested in seeing photos as well.

[wcpreston]

Oh, trust me. Photos will be forthcoming once I get it all setup.

[Sweaty Paul]

+1

[pkadare]

Too long for a comment. Regarding the bacteria comment, dry aging is not intended to produce bacteria. Here's some of the science behind the process. (Dry aging beef - ScienceDirect).

It is well known there are two main factors which affect meat throughout time, flavour and texture. The first factor is reasonably well documented in Harold McGee's (2004) book ‘Food & Cooking’ (2004). In this book, he states that the action of enzymes on the protein changes characteristics, flavour and texture. Once the animal is slaughtered and the control systems in its cells stop functioning, the enzymes begin attacking other cell molecules indiscriminately, turning large flavourless molecules into smaller, flavourful fragments. They break proteins into savoury amino acids and fats and fat like membrane molecules into aromatic fatty acids. All of these breakdown products contribute to the intensely meaty, nutty flavour of aged meat. During cooking, the same products also react with each other to form new molecules that enrich the aroma further.

The second factor affecting meat over time is that the muscle enzymes also diminish toughness. The major candidate to explain tenderisation post-rigour is the enzyme called calpain (Hopkins and Thompson, 2002). This enzyme mainly weakens the supporting proteins that hold the contracting filaments in place. Equally it appears that other enzymes have a role in tenderisation.

In conclusion, it is well known that enzyme activity in meat goes on for about 14 or so days. However, what is happening after that? That is the peculiarity and where does the improvement in flavour come from? This is a little less impressively documented. Traditionally, dry aging would take place for about 28–35 days. At this point the view is that the meat has reached its potential, the balance between tenderness, taste and juiciness is at an optimum. However, there is no information about the quality of the meat after this traditional period of aging time. It is at this point that we did indeed start our beef ageing programme at Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne some 6 years ago.

[wcpreston]

Thanks! You clearly know what you're talking about. Man, I love this forum. I get it.

Can you help me understand, then, why some dry-aging blogs talk about pre-seasoning the unit by rubbing some already-aged meat in it? They said it'll work w/o that, but you won't get the "funk" present in an existing dry-aging compartment.

I was thinking of buying a single dry-aged ribeye and doing this – if it makes any sense to do it. But now I'm thinking not.

[pkadare]

Note that the bulk of what I posted here is from the web site linked in my post.

[wcpreston]

Yea... I figured that out later. quote marks would have helped I thought I was talking to the guy running that restaurant lol

[wcpreston]

Henrik Attjack Here you go!

This fridge is about 5 feet tall and the shelves are 18.75" wide. Unfortunatly, there is a freezer at the top so it takes up a lot of usable space.

Here is the unit with its first brisket. It’s a 20 lb'er that is almost too big for the unit. (There is just enough room for air to flow around it.)

This is still a temporary setup but I wanted to get the brisket in there for 25 day age in time for Christmas.

Humidifier and fan in top shelf. Shelf liner and pan below as temporary liquid catcher.

My plans for the long term:
1. Figure out where the coils are in this sucker, so I can drill into it and run the cables in the side. I THINK I'm OK drilling in the side, but I want to be sure. Going to try and find drawings of this fridge online somewhere.
2. Once I drill the hole, I will run the cables through that hole.
3. Use zip ties to tie the fan to the shelf.
4. Make a long term drip-catching shelf that will slide in the bottom. Not exactly sure what I'll build it out of, but I want to be able to pull it out and clean it easily.
5. Put the wireless temp/humidity monitor and U/V/C light in. I think I'll wait til they both get here and do it at one time.
6. Now I'm thinking about a webcam to check on my meat. LOL. I might not do that but it would be cool, right?

[JimLinebarger]

Yes, the webcam would be cool.

[Henrik]

Re. #6: Yes. Way cool.

[CaliforniaDad]

Cool thread - will be following.

I'm someone who likes dry aged meat, but has never tried to do it at home. Do you mind detailing which of the bags you have tried, and what disappointed you? I was just about to get some bags and start some meat for Christmas.

[wcpreston]

I'd say it's better than nothing, but it gave me a taste for the real thing.

[Henrik]

As for sealing the bag: fold it back about 1 inch, _outwards_. Then do it once again. Now drop the meat in, and roll those edges back. Nice and clean, and seals up perfectly.

[wcpreston]

I did that. And it did seal. And then that seal failed in the fridge.

[wcpreston]

To all who are curious, it has been a ROUGH week. I NEVER should have started this project WITH a piece of meat. I read a few blogs and thought, "He did it. I'll just do what he did. How hard could it be?"

Maybe I looked at things more than the blog author did, but I had a rough freaking week trying to make this work. I think I'm in a good place, but here's what happened.

1. I think my old/cheap fridge is failing

The fridge was climbing to 44F, even though it was on and blowing cold air. I think "Crap. I left this thing turned off too long and now it's faililng." I have to replace it immediately because that brisket is there. (In retrospect, I should have just pulled it and cooked it, but... I didn't). I did some shopping around and, even though this blew the initial budget, I found an extra-wide beverage fridge that was on sale for $349. I bought that and moved the setup over to the new fridge.

It has a stinky smell in it that I figured would go away after running it for a while. It also had glass shelves that I will have to replace w/wire shelving. I bought a 6' long 16" deep wire shelf and cut it to size. I'm feeling golden.

2. The new fridge starts failing in the same way

After some troubleshooting, I found out it was the fan that the blogger told me to buy. I can keep the fridge temp stable, but not once I turn that fan on. Literally within 10 seconds the AC fan would start raising the temp. In five minutes it was up 5 degrees!

OK, so turn the fan off. I'll buy a smaller DC fan.

3. The new fridge starts failing in a new way!

I read the docs and I see this, "this fridge will not work in high humidity environs, as it will create condensation on the condensor fan." WTF?????

4. So I move back to the old fridge!

I re-clean the old fridge, get it down to temp, and then move everything over. I know all this back and forth is not good for the process, but I'm all in at this point.

5. New fridge has higher humidity, beyond the threshold.

It's consistently running 85-90% humidity, which is beyond the range I'm supposed to be at (85%). I tried a 1L DEhumidifer but they don't work below 41F. So I switched to silica gel.

6. The DC computer fan is running just fine. It's just sitting on the top shelf blowing air around. They're cheap, so I may buy a second one.

And that's where I am at this point. The good news is I can return the expensive fridge, and the fan expended too much heat.

The best money I spent was on the $13 temp and humidity sensor. It connects to my phone via an extended bluetooth connection. (It's inside the fridge in my garage on the first floor. I can reliably connect to it from the upstairs bedroom on the second floor 50 feet away.) It actually stores history in the device until I connect, and then gives me all the history once I do connect. How cool is that for $13?

The attached pic is from that device. The humidity is just too high and the dehumidifier will fix that. The way the temp works is I had the target temp set to 34F, and the upper limit to 39F. The controller would turn the fridge on at 39F and turn it off once it hits 34F. Via this device I can see it continues to cool even after the fridge shuts off, and is dipping below 32. So I decided to set the target at 35 so it will shut off sooner. We'll see how that goes.

I'll take a pic of the current internal setup once the dehumidifier gets here today.

BTW.. if you look at the humidity section, you'll see it spike yesterday, then drop low today. That's because I put in a temporary fix of charcoal briquettes! The moment I put a batch of them in there, the humidity dropped back down. I remembered that just now and just refreshed it with new charcoal. Hopefully it will repeat yesterday's behavior and drop it again while I wait for the dedhumidifier.


Any questions?

[holehogg]

Think by the end of this you can start your own blog and have all the right moves 😊. Reads like you heading in the direction to coming up with a solution. Adimire your perseverance in not giving up.

[jhoskins]

wcpreston ... phew! What a week! What controller are you using for cycling the fridge? That is a pretty significant temp variance you are getting... wondering if you could do better with a Raspberry Pi and a power relay (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14236). Lots of open source code with PID loops for the Pi, and adding a D term might help slow down your oscillations in temp.

Interested to see how it turns out! I'm no food scientist, but would be a little concerned with temps >40F

[wcpreston]

@joskins The temp range I have (from a few sources) for dry aging meat is 30-39F. So I'm pretty safe in that range. The controller I'm using is listed in the original post. It has a temperature probe and the fridge plugs into it. You set the temp, and the distance above and below it's allowed to get. There is a cooling outlet and a heating outlet. I currently have it set to 36F, and the variance at 3F. So when it hits 39F, it starts turns on the fridge until it gets to 36F.

[wcpreston]

I'm actually pretty happy with the temperature range at this point. The average temp stays right at the bottom of the "sweet spot" of 36-39.

The problem I have now is humidity. I'm learning that dehumidifiers don't want to work below 41F.

[wcpreston]

Here's the setup in its current format. Note how big the de-humidifier is. It's only 10" tall, but it looks huge.

Next to the de-humidifier you can see the fan.

Then, of course, the brisket.

Below that is a giant box of "damp-rid," as I await the silica gel I ordered for tomorrow. I can't use a regular dehumidifier below 41F, so I have to use a chemical method. Then on the front of my unit you can see the two controllers. In person, there are digits on the top and bottom. Funny thing when taking the pic, though, only part of the digits show up.

[wcpreston]

Looking a lot better. Temp and humidity stayed solid except when I opened the door.

[wcpreston]

I've learned so much about humidifiers, dehumidifiers, rechargeable silica gel, and hygrometers.

Like how to calibrate a hygrometer by putting in a ziploc bag w/a capful of wet salt. It should read 75% after 6 hours. Who knew? (If it's not 75%, you use the app to adjust the numbers.)

Interesting project. Just wish I started it w/o meat in the fridge.

[barelfly]

Very interesting project! Thanks for sharing the steps and how it goings up to this point.

[texastweeter]

Mine has wire racks for good airflow, temp control (set at 36°) a controllable humidifier with fan (fan at always on and humidity at 80%). I keep 4 jugs of distilled water in the bottom to increase thermal mass and even out temp fluctuations, and make refilling the humidifier easy. Oh and external temperature display with alarms set at 33° & 39%. Have dry aged a lot of meat in there. Christmas Prime rib currently along with an experimental sirloin primal (wife's request).

[texastweeter]

Have done mainly rib primal. Thinking about doing a select or choice (all I have done in the past are prime and wagyu) since they are so cheap this time of year.

[wcpreston]

texastweeter
Are you saying you made your own meat ager as well? I like the thermal mass idea.

[texastweeter]

wcpreston yes, been running it for about a year now. Has paid me back many times over already.