Yes, Virginia, fermentation temp control really IS important.

I certainly am not saying that temperature is not important. But the test that started this thread had a fermentation temperature difference of 14f. The beer that rated poorly was fermented outside the published limits of the yeast. Brewers here are justifiably proud of the ability to control temps within one degree. Has anyone done a test with closer parameters? Say, 68 vs 70? Or 72? Numbers within the limits of the yeast? I would be interested to know.

cheezydemon3 said:

Not sure if this is what you are saying, but if you think that the fermentation chamber would have helped at all without more ice, see above.

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Well, not exactly. My thinking was more along the lines of "even though I forgot to make ice, if I had the ferm chamber setup correctly, I could have cooled using my IC to mid 70's, poured my wort into my bucket, and then stuck it in the ferm chamber for a couple hours/overnight and simply pitched at a later time when the wort had been brought down to 64*.

It isn't the *best* solution, but I think it would have worked. And it certainly would have addressed the issues on the after-pitching side of things.

The silver lining here, is that this is my 4th time brewing this particular beer with only minor tweeks each time. So I should be able to use this as an opportunity to refine my palette and compare the differences form this batch to the last few. I even have 12 bottles left from my 3rd time brewing this beer, so I could do a side-by-side. I may be weird, but I actually get a fair amount of enjoyment when I make mistakes with this hobby, because every one so far has helped to further my knowledge of brewing, and especially with regards to refining my own process.

I use an STC-1000 and a chest freezer. I started off using the probe "taped to the side of the fermenter with insulation" and had wild temperature swings. So much so, that the fermwrap would usually kick on after the cool cycle, only to cause the cool cycle to kick back on after that, etc. I tried all kinds of configurations and setting the temp ± higher. Nothing really helped. I bought one of these http://www.brewershardware.com/24-Stainless-Steel-Thermowell-TWS24.html and now the giant swings in temp have disappeared. I highly suggest the thermowell over "tape to the side."

I maintain that a thermowell is the most accurate way of measuring the wort temperature.

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I agree. That doesn’t mean it’s the most accurate way of maintaining a temperature.

The specific heat of water [or wort] is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the specific heat of air, so IMHO the overshoot of allowing the air around a fermenter to get quite a lot cooler than the wort would be significantly less impactful than allowing the water bath to get even a degree or two cooler than the wort. I just don't think the wort temp overshoot will be all that big of an issue from air temp overshoot.

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You miss my point. Since the air temperature changes so much faster than the beer temp, this is the overshoot I’m counting on. Instead of chugging away at the delta T beer temp all at once, we can take little bites at it. Smaller cycles, better regulation.

isleofman said:

I use an STC-1000 and a chest freezer. I started off using the probe "taped to the side of the fermenter with insulation" and had wild temperature swings. So much so, that the fermwrap would usually kick on after the cool cycle, only to cause the cool cycle to kick back on after that, etc. I tried all kinds of configurations and setting the temp ± higher. Nothing really helped. I bought one of these http://www.brewershardware.com/24-Stainless-Steel-Thermowell-TWS24.html and now the giant swings in temp have disappeared. I highly suggest the thermowell over "tape to the side."

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I use the tape to the side method but I had some extra foam insulation left from my keezer build so I made a 5"x5" block of 1" thick foam insulation and I cut a very small recess for the probe right in the center, and then put a 1.5" square piece of aluminum foil over the recess before pressing the probe into place and putting a thin strip of tape over it to hold it in place. Then I take a ridiculous amount of duct tape (in my case gorilla tape) and strap it to the side of my speidel tank so that it is compressed against it somewhat and there is no path for air to enter at all.

I experience no temp swings. As far as I can tell the temp I'm reading is pretty close to the temp of the wort. My fermentor also barely fits, I actually have to squeeze it into the freezer and it's contacting all four walls.

I wouldn't mind a thermowell, though. That is the very best option, imo.

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