got fermentation chamber built - now what?

Hey guys, I am trying to "fine tune" my processes and this past weekend I acquired a small chest freezer as well as the ebay "aquarium" controller.

It appears to be working fine but my question is... How do I know where to set the temp? I can only hold two fermenters at one time and obviously they need to beers that ferment at similar temps.

Since I am a new brewer, I have been sticking with Irish Reds and Hope and King Scotch Ale (from NB). These batches have all been made with the Wyeast 1272 or 1056 (both of which say 60-72 degrees F).

I have read that fermentation temps are higher than the sticky thermometer reads. I have also read that there could be 8-10 degrees difference in ambient temp and the temp of the wort being fermented.

So, should I set my chest freezer/ fermentation chamber to 60* F and assume that the fermenting wort is actually near 68*F?

 

Several people conducted experiments a few years back and we all found that the wort temperature and the exterior of the fermenter were almost identical. There is also very little difference in ambient vs fermenter fro small (5g/24L) batches.

With few exceptions, fermenting at the low end of the yeast's range gives the best results. One of those exceptions is Belgians, were you want fruity notes.

 

Ok so set it at 62-63 F and call it good?

I plan on sticking to simple ales that I know I like until I actually make a few good beers. My first 5 gal brew was an Irish red and it has been bottled for 3 weeks but doesn't taste right. I'm thinking my fermentation temps were too high. Summer temps have hit early this year and the room I was fermenting in would go from 68F at night to 76F during the day (maybe a little higher a few days).

I've got 15 gallons on deck (various stages of fermentation) and another 10 gallons bottled so hopefully they aren't all messed up do to inconsistent fermentation temps.

 

I'm a new brewer too and after doing some reading here, my plan is to put the temp probe in a thermowell thru another stopper so I'm getting the temp of the wort versus the ambient temp of the freezer.

I would guess if you put two fermenters in the freezer on different days I would have the thermowell in the newer of the two batches.

Then again I could be completely off base here. lol

 

I'm against adding a probe directly to the wort. For two reasons - 1) I'm lazy and that is just something else to clean 2) most of my fermenters are glass carboys so adding the probe and the airlock in one stopper just seems to difficult to deal with.

As the second poster suggested that they have done the research, and it makes since to me that after initial fermentation (vigorous) the temps of the liquid should equalize with their surroundings.

My chamber only holds two Fermentors so I won't be opening it enough to worry about "warm" air getting in and skewing the readings.