Brett3rThanU

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Professor Frink

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I just hang mine over my CO2 in the air. You can put it in water, however, water is less sensitive to wide temperature changes, as it takes longer for the water to equilibrate, and is therefore less accurate in measuring the freezer temp.

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Primary: Hazelnut Brown Ale
Secondary:Old Bruin
On tap:Oaked Vanilla Bourbon Stout
IPA
Lagering:

http://www.lazydogbrewery.com

Beerthoven

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I tape the probe to the side of the carboy then tape 2-3 layers of bubble wrap over it to insulate.

I like this method because its the temp of the beer that matters, not the air so much.

My freezer works hard the until main fermentation is over, then the beer and the air temp equilibrate.

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Primary/Secondary: #41 Peach Ginger Melomel, #51 Two Hearted Ale Clone
Kegged: #49 Munich Pale Ale, #50 Victory Pale Ale
Bottled: #20 Sweet Mead, #34 Common Cider
Planned: American Wheat, Ramsbottom Best Bitter

Professor Frink

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The only problem with going with the temp. of the beer is that if you have a rapid fluctuation in temperature, by the time the beer changes temp, the freezer may have already gotten too warm. Say you set it at 50 with a 5 degree differential, by the time the beer gets up to 55 degrees, the freezer might be at 60-65 degrees, compared to when the freezer gets up above 55 degrees, the beer will not be that high.

__________________
Primary: Hazelnut Brown Ale
Secondary:Old Bruin
On tap:Oaked Vanilla Bourbon Stout
IPA
Lagering:

http://www.lazydogbrewery.com

Beerthoven

Recipes 

You are right, the air in the freezer changes temp faster than the beer, both heating up and cooling down.

The problem with going with the air temp is that fermentation produces heat, so if the air temp is, say 68º, the beer temp could be 70º or 71º, which might be too warm.

I don't care that much about the air temp inside the fridge, as long as the beer temp is where I want it to be. After main fermentation is over, the air temp and the beer temp become the same.

__________________

Primary/Secondary: #41 Peach Ginger Melomel, #51 Two Hearted Ale Clone
Kegged: #49 Munich Pale Ale, #50 Victory Pale Ale
Bottled: #20 Sweet Mead, #34 Common Cider
Planned: American Wheat, Ramsbottom Best Bitter

Professor Frink

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This is true. As long as there are no dramatic changes in the freezer temp, they should be equalized, and during fermentation the beer temp will always be a little bit higher.

__________________
Primary: Hazelnut Brown Ale
Secondary:Old Bruin
On tap:Oaked Vanilla Bourbon Stout
IPA
Lagering:

http://www.lazydogbrewery.com

Bobby_M

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Agreed on taping the probe to the side of the fermenter. The air temp in a fermentation chiller is irrelevent to the fermentation temp. You want the probe to be as close to the beer temp as possible.

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Bobby
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Brett3rThanU

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I tried leaving the probe in the air and set it for 63F with a 3F differential, but when it reached 63F the temp would drop a few degrees more after a couple of min even though the freezer shut off at 63F. Seems like there's a lag in the temp reading?

CodeRage

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If you have a 3f hysterieses set then it should turn off at 60 when set at 63. Also There is still quite a bit of liquid coolant in the evaporator after the compressor has been turned off. So it will still cool until the pressure in the coolant system has equalized.

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Brett3rThanU

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Makes sense. So I'm looking at 6-8F variance in air temp, should I worry? I'm trying to keep the temp around 65F while conditioning (carboy reads 66F).