High5Brewing
Member
I've been a member here for a little while, but never really posted. Reading many of the comments and questions on here has been extremely helpful!
Now on to my question...
I have a chest freezer that I use for fermentation temperature control. I use one Johnson temp controller to operate it for cooling, and one connected to a hair dryer to heat it when needed. My problem is that the heating and the cooling seem to overshoot their temperature ranges so the temp is constantly fluctuating between a few degrees. For example, I am currently trying to ferment at 65. The cooling controller is set at 66 with a differential of 1. The heating controller is set at 65, also with a differential of 1. The chest freezer will kick on...stop at 65, but then the temp creeps down to 63 after a bit, so the hair dryer will kick on. It stops at 66 but then the heat will slowing creep up to 67 and the chest freezer comes back on...and the cycle continues.
I have the temp probes taped to the outside of the carboy with a towel taped around it, so the temp reading should be fairly accurate to what is in the carboy.
Will this temp fluctuation affect my beer negatively? I guess I'm looking for suggestions from anyone that either has experience with this or has a chest freezer setup for fermenting. What do you use for a heat source?
Thank you to everyone that posts on here...I wouldn't be brewing as well without all of your input.
Now on to my question...
I have a chest freezer that I use for fermentation temperature control. I use one Johnson temp controller to operate it for cooling, and one connected to a hair dryer to heat it when needed. My problem is that the heating and the cooling seem to overshoot their temperature ranges so the temp is constantly fluctuating between a few degrees. For example, I am currently trying to ferment at 65. The cooling controller is set at 66 with a differential of 1. The heating controller is set at 65, also with a differential of 1. The chest freezer will kick on...stop at 65, but then the temp creeps down to 63 after a bit, so the hair dryer will kick on. It stops at 66 but then the heat will slowing creep up to 67 and the chest freezer comes back on...and the cycle continues.
I have the temp probes taped to the outside of the carboy with a towel taped around it, so the temp reading should be fairly accurate to what is in the carboy.
Will this temp fluctuation affect my beer negatively? I guess I'm looking for suggestions from anyone that either has experience with this or has a chest freezer setup for fermenting. What do you use for a heat source?
Thank you to everyone that posts on here...I wouldn't be brewing as well without all of your input.