Salmonhouse
Well-Known Member
-1 insulating probe.
You might want to tape something over the probe as well to insulate it from the air and make sure it's reading the temp of your fermenter. Something as simple as a wash cloth folded over a couple times would suffice.
I believe that placing your probe in water/ beer is a bad idea unless you are actually heating the liquid via a water heater element or something of this nature. It will take a great deal of heat to bring the fluid up to temp if your using a radiator or fan heater, then it will continue to heat after it is shut off because now your air temp is much greater than the fluid, and vice versa for the cooler.
If you maintain the proper air temperature the fluid temp will follow. I have my probe against the side of my carboy and i dont have any cool mode kicking in because its colder outside than it is inside, but i'm not lagering.
I have the F2 function ie temp differential set to 1 degree. My target is 23C and it heats till it hits 23 shuts off the heater and in turn the temp starts to drop until it hits 22C then heats again to 23... If it was hotter ouside and i was using an airconditioner it would be the opposite.
-1 insulating probe.
Now i understand that your beer is going to give off heat durring fermentation 'cause its 'exothermic' but isn't this kind of trivial when your dealing with a small volume like a carboy? I could see it being an issue with a 1000 gallons of beer, but not a carboy.
Now i understand that your beer is going to give off heat durring fermentation 'cause its 'exothermic' but isn't this kind of trivial when your dealing with a small volume like a carboy? I could see it being an issue with a 1000 gallons of beer, but not a carboy.
This also depends on the area you have for a fermenting chamber. I have a 5 ft chest freezer and my carboy definitely heats that sucker up. In the early stages of fermentation, I drop mine to about 58 ambient. After a few days I bring it up to about 62 for most ales.
Now your air temp is going to be several (if not more) degrees higher than your beer because your beer has a greater thermal mass than that of the air. Now your probe turns off the heater and the air is still hotter than the beer so it will continue to heat your beer until your beer gets to a temp where your set point is to cool, .
In the early stages of fermentation, you can get close to a 10 degree difference between ambient temp and what's going on in your fermenter.
I'd much rather have the thermostat keeping my beer at the proper temp than the air around it. If I have to keep the air temp at 55 to keep the beer at 60, that's what I want it doing. As the ferment slows down and less heat is generated, the freezer will adjust automatically because you're measuring the temp of the beer.
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This also depends on the area you have for a fermenting chamber. I have a 5 ft chest freezer and my carboy definitely heats that sucker up. In the early stages of fermentation, I drop mine to about 58 ambient. After a few days I bring it up to about 62 for most ales.
Eric, are you measuring the air temp or are you trying to probe the fermenter? Seems kind of low for ale so i assume that's your air temperature?
Eric, are you measuring the air temp or are you trying to probe the fermenter? Seems kind of low for ale so i assume that's your air temperature?
Yep, Air Temp. I also Have my controller probe in a jar of water. That way I know what the liquid temp is (not the Wort) which is a more steady temp.
OK i think i'm starting to see how that works now, thanks for the clarifying. Although i feel more questions brewing as a result of this information. Do you set your temp and forget it or adjust it at all during the ferment?
Does using a space heater with a larger thermal mass change anything?
Yep, Air Temp. I also Have my controller probe in a jar of water. That way I know what the liquid temp is (not the Wort) which is a more steady temp.
I am thinking of making a thermowell that gets down into the center of my beer. would making it out of copper be a bad idea? thing is copper is cheaper and more readily available than stainless tubing.
you would be getting a reading of what the internal temp of the fermenting beer is not, air in the fridge/freezer or little cup sitting next to fermenting beer.
-=Jason=-
Do you put the probe in a jar of water so you don't have to hassle with placing it on the fermenter each time you ferment? It seems less precise than putting it on the fermenter. You posted that you compensate for initial ferm temps offsets due to probe placement. If the probe was on the fermenter, you wouldn't have to remember to change the controller temp for various stages of fermentation.
Yes, copper is a bad idea. Contact with copper before the fermentation (wort chiller, etc) is OK because the yeast will consume the trace amounts of copper and the finished beer will have none. Contact with copper after fermentation will leave trace amounts of copper in solution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_toxicity
ok then..
I just found a killer deal on some 3/16" OD tubing on amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00137QJP4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
OMG... free amazon PRIME shipping. this can act double duty as thermowells and a ss bottling wand adapter.
-=Jason=-
Nice find. what are you going to seal it with?
The thermowells offered by brewershardware.com are about the finest on the market. Very high quality construction.
16" thermowell
Couple that with a #6.5 two hole stopper and you can have a combo thermowell and airlock. It would be similar to the one sold by ETC Supply but a much higher quality
I have a temperature controller on order and I plan to use it along with the thermowell/stopper combo to monitor my fermentation temps.
How about Stainless Steel brake line from an auto parts store and some Epoxy?
take a hammer and smash the end flat, drop some flux and solder down the tube and heat the bottom to create a sealed end piece.
-=Jason=-
one of these is on the way to my house. looking forward to a new DIY.
For those using a terminal block instead of wirenuts, how are you mounting the block inside the project box?
Can this be wired directly to the controller with no plug involved?
I am ready to build one of these but don't know which one, and from which seller, I need. Can someone post a link for ebay for the 120V one and from a good seller?
Also, can you set the temp to the decimal point, say 15.4, or can you only set it to 1 degree C?
Thanks
Not understanding your question. Can "what" be wired to the controller?
Yeah, you could wire the hot line from your heater directly to the thing and wirenut the neutral to your incoming power feed or something if you wanted to, I suppose.
The electrons don't care if you use a receptacle and plug. The receptacle is just a convenience.
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