I, being a cragslist ninja, acquired a nice 7 cu ft chest freezer for free a few weeks ago. So I got a STC1000, project box, and power cord and went to work, and now I've taken one of the real big boy steps in brewing to really being able to dial in my fermentation temperature control.
It turned out to be perfect timing because my first batch, a wit, the air lock blew out which hasn't happened in 2 years.
1) However, with that batch (using WLP400, notoriously slow) after the first night of a blow out I did not see a single bubble in the times that I opened the chamber. I found that very strange and as a result took like 5 samples, way more than I usually do, but in a month it fermented down to 1.008 and is cold crashing now.
2) New beer, a clone of a Loose Cannon (just using S-05 because it's basically WLP001), I made on Saturday, and I will admit I didn't aerate as much as I would like (I have a new elbow in my BK now trying to get it ready to use with my new pump, and it got clogged with some amarillo whole hops, mistake #2), but it was bubbling away happily yesterday evening. I checked it twice today and neither time have I seen visible bubbles.
It is too early to take a reading and I know I shouldn't be impatient, but it brings up a question I was thinking about even before getting the chamber/temp controller. Am I using my fermentation chamber correctly? Is the CO2 that typically would just vanish in the air filling up this relatively small, relatively airtight chamber and "pushing back"? Is this affecting my fermentation? Should I maybe open the drain hole to allow an opportunity for the CO2 gas to escape? If not, where does it go?
EDIT:
3) I took someone's advice and tape the probe against the fermenter wall surrounded by a 2x2" chunk of styrofoam. Short of getting a thermowell and all that crap, is that what everyone pretty much does? What kind of "error" do you estimate when setting your fermentation chamber temperature?
It turned out to be perfect timing because my first batch, a wit, the air lock blew out which hasn't happened in 2 years.
1) However, with that batch (using WLP400, notoriously slow) after the first night of a blow out I did not see a single bubble in the times that I opened the chamber. I found that very strange and as a result took like 5 samples, way more than I usually do, but in a month it fermented down to 1.008 and is cold crashing now.
2) New beer, a clone of a Loose Cannon (just using S-05 because it's basically WLP001), I made on Saturday, and I will admit I didn't aerate as much as I would like (I have a new elbow in my BK now trying to get it ready to use with my new pump, and it got clogged with some amarillo whole hops, mistake #2), but it was bubbling away happily yesterday evening. I checked it twice today and neither time have I seen visible bubbles.
It is too early to take a reading and I know I shouldn't be impatient, but it brings up a question I was thinking about even before getting the chamber/temp controller. Am I using my fermentation chamber correctly? Is the CO2 that typically would just vanish in the air filling up this relatively small, relatively airtight chamber and "pushing back"? Is this affecting my fermentation? Should I maybe open the drain hole to allow an opportunity for the CO2 gas to escape? If not, where does it go?
EDIT:
3) I took someone's advice and tape the probe against the fermenter wall surrounded by a 2x2" chunk of styrofoam. Short of getting a thermowell and all that crap, is that what everyone pretty much does? What kind of "error" do you estimate when setting your fermentation chamber temperature?