ranco probe in airlock?

[Teerum]

Curious, anyone put their temperature control probe directly in the airlock? I would think it would get an accurate reading of the temp inside the bucket. The reason I don't want to tape it to the side of the bucket is that there is very little clearance in the refrigerator and this would put the probe within an inch or two of the side wall of the refrigerator which is much colder than the beer and would most likely cause an inaccurate reading.

 

[Sadu]

I like having the probe in the beer, I see it as one less chance of measurement error. I ferment small batches in glass growlers. I use a 3 piece airlock and the probe can fold around inside the airlock and sit in the beer. Works great.
For crash cooling I remove the ptobe and use a S airlock to prevent suckback.

 

[Teerum]

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought it would fit through the hole in the airlock. I imagine space would be tight though and the likely hood of having some gunk come up during high krauzen and end up with a clog would be high. Never have any problems with that?
Thanks for the idea!

 

[Sadu]

Depends on the probe I guess. Mine are maybe 5mm diameter and 25mm long, the wire is discrete. Plenty of room to spare in a 3 piece. In a growler ferment they don't push out as much CO2 but I would use this method on a 5G fermenter as well.

I calculate pitch rates carefully and are yet to have a fermenter boil over. If I thought a fermentation was looking frisky I would install a blowoff tube and do something else with the probe. At this point I have no concerns with this method so long as the probe is sanitised well.

 

[RM-MN]

During the period of fermentation when temperature control is needed an airlock isn't necessary. Go ahead and put your prove right in the beer where you want the temperature controlled. After about 5 days (depends on OG) you can take the probe out and put an airlock in and let the beer come to room temp to finish fermenting.

 

[Teerum]

Thanks for the replys. I think I will try that next time. I had never considered not using an airlock, but suppose the posative pressure once fermentation starts would prevent anything from getting inside.
Just for the record, I have had the probe in the airlock with out the lid piece, and I think it's got to have a temperature close to that of the beer, but, that begs the question, why be close when you can have exact.
Thanks again for the help!