Quick help, about to pitch yeast but thermometer not showing temp

I cooled it pretty good in the snow for 30 min, mixed with 3 gal of cold water. THe bucket is barely warm, nothing on the stick on therm on the bucket. Not sure what to do.

If it is warm than it is hotter than your body temp. It's too hot.

You need to cool it more. Snow sucks, it actually insulates. That's why eskimos build houses out of it.

Can you place the bucket in a sink with ice water?

No ice in the house . Bucket is barely, barely, barely warm. Do these stupid liquid crystal therms you stick to the bucket break easily or something? It was working fine 10 min ago.

If the temp is too high (off the scale on the therm) would it not say anything at all, or say the max?

No, it is just hotter than the hottest temp reading. You temp is literally Off The Charts.

It won't read anything if beyond the range. Try a sink bath with running cool water or just wait. But it needs to drop in temp and your Fermometer will indicate it when it does.

Snow in the sink with the water? BB is right. Warm to the touch is bad. It should feel cool.

I threw it in cold water in the tub. Room temp is cold so the water is cold too.

Its my 2nd brew. 1ts time i did the cold water in tud it took 35 min to cool the pot so it was warm to the touch and after mixing with cold water it was at 77F right away. I guess the snow didn't work as good as i thought but since i mixed poured it in the bucket already i have that in the tud.

I guess wait is the only thing i can do.

Hermit said:

Snow in the sink with the water? BB is right. Warm to the touch is bad. It should feel cool.

Click to expand...

+1. If it's still warm and you can't get a good temp reading just put the lid and pitch later once it has cooled down enough. Another cool trick for the future is when doing an ice/snow bath, just throw a bunch of salt in and it will cool things down a lot quicker.

Just don't pack it in snow. Add snow to the water in your sink as it melts. The key is BATH. Cold water contacting your bucket not packed snow or ice.

Those stick on therms are a great idea, but in practice they are a bit lacking. Not only can they be confusing when the temp goes over their range, but they don't react well to getting real wet either. Eventually they will stop working if exposed to a lot of water.

Best to get a long stemmed thermometer and keep it sanitized to check your temp when you put it in the carboy, or get some sort of in line thermometer that checks the temp as it goes into the fermentor.

Added a bunch of snow to the tud. Snow bath. Still waiting to see a temp. Bucket is still slightly warm which i guess is a good sign.

Everything was going so much smoother then the 1st time too, till this.

Stir the Bath gently while adding more snow as it melts.

And if you can keep the Fermometer out of the bath. Above the water line.

BendBrewer said:

Stir the Bath gently while adding more snow as it melts.

And if you can keep the Fermometer out of the bath. Above the water line.

Click to expand...

Its been like 30 min. Snow is not melting all that much at all. about 30% snow rest water. Have it in water at about the 2 gal line which is where the therm starts.

Can the temp get too cold for yeast if i leave it in there too long?

Yes it can, but it won't if you leave it. Everything will strive for Room Temp which is what you want. Unless you continue to add snow once it does of course.

Finally temp shows up. 81. Hopefully nothing bad happened to it in all that time.

How did everything work out for you?