I had completed my 3rd run with a Kegland Temp Twister kit I installed on my stainless fermenter. I had no other real way to control fermentation temperature, and that meant I needed to do most of my brewing in the fall and spring, but summer brewing in the South was out! (Just when you really want a good cold brew!) This thing worked great, and with a cooler full of ice water supplying the coil, and a low wattage belt around the fermenter , it held right on set point through the warm days and cool night temperature swings. I couldn’t have been more pleased.
Then, I did something stupid, which was not entirely out of character. I unplugged the controller for a couple minutes while I rearranged my setup for convenient access to the cooler where I was switching out frozen jugs of water. At first, I didn’t notice anything wrong, other than the temperature reading always seemed a point off the set point instead of dead on as usual. Then I got to looking a little closer. Instead of reading 67° F, it was reading 68° C!! A quick calculation told me that it was at 154.4 degrees F; 87.4 degrees above my desired fermentation temperature. Evidently, when I briefly unplugged the controller, it reverted back to centigrade instead of Fahrenheit temperature. Honestly, I don’t remember how many days into the fermentation I was; in shock & panic I reset and mourned the high likelihood of a ruined batch.
Today, I pulled a sample and checked gravity. It appears to be right in the target range for this beer. I tasted it, and it seemed fine. I gave some to the wife and asked for an opinion, warning that it was not yet carbonated, and got a positive response.
So, lesson learned; if I monkey with the controller in ANY way, especially when I unplug it, double-check the settings. As I write this, it just occurred to me that any time we have a storm-generated power flash, or longer outtage, I had better check my controller.
Then, I did something stupid, which was not entirely out of character. I unplugged the controller for a couple minutes while I rearranged my setup for convenient access to the cooler where I was switching out frozen jugs of water. At first, I didn’t notice anything wrong, other than the temperature reading always seemed a point off the set point instead of dead on as usual. Then I got to looking a little closer. Instead of reading 67° F, it was reading 68° C!! A quick calculation told me that it was at 154.4 degrees F; 87.4 degrees above my desired fermentation temperature. Evidently, when I briefly unplugged the controller, it reverted back to centigrade instead of Fahrenheit temperature. Honestly, I don’t remember how many days into the fermentation I was; in shock & panic I reset and mourned the high likelihood of a ruined batch.
Today, I pulled a sample and checked gravity. It appears to be right in the target range for this beer. I tasted it, and it seemed fine. I gave some to the wife and asked for an opinion, warning that it was not yet carbonated, and got a positive response.
So, lesson learned; if I monkey with the controller in ANY way, especially when I unplug it, double-check the settings. As I write this, it just occurred to me that any time we have a storm-generated power flash, or longer outtage, I had better check my controller.
