Something I didn't think about with my ferm chamber

Hey all,
Just thought I would post this on here in case anyone else gets stumped by it. I put my second wort into the converted chest freezer, set the stc-1000 to 15 deg C. The probe was in a bottle of water so I was expecting the fermenter to end up a little above the "ambient" temp. Now fermentation didn't seem to take off at all (Ok I admit I was just looking at airlock activity but it is a sign and it was going back and forward with the temp changes), after 2 days I decidied to move the probe to the fermenting bucket wall taped under a folded paper towel. To my supprise the STC-1000 display droped to ~12 deg C. So I think I put my yeast to sleep. I had also just thrown in another packet of yeast so I set the STC to 18 deg C and after only an hour or so the airlock was bubling away.
So just be careful with where and how you place your temp probe

This the perfect example of why it doesn't work well to put the probe in a container of water. Your freezer likely undershot the target substantially. There's nothing wrong with observing air lock activity for an indication of yeast activity level. I do it all the time and have found it to be a reliable tool. Your fermenter definitely got too cold and the yeast activity slowed to a near halt. The yeast have awakened now and they are hungry. Start cooling it down some as the activity increases.

Catt22 said:

This the perfect example of why it doesn't work well to put the probe in a container of water. Your freezer likely undershot the target substantially. There's nothing wrong with observing air lock activity for an indication of yeast activity level. I do it all the time and have found it to be a reliable tool. Your fermenter definitely got too cold and the yeast activity slowed to a near halt. The yeast have awakened now and they are hungry. Start cooling it down some as the activity increases.

Click to expand...

Thanks Catt22, Yeah thats what I expected happen. Just thought I would put it on here for anyone else that might be tripped up by it, after all I was following what most on here do (well at least what most do for keezers). I'll have to think about it a bit more when I get 2 fermenters going in there!
Cheers