1 ferm chamber, 10 Gallo a beer, 2 yeast

[sorefingers23]

I'm gonna brew 10 gallons orange cascade pale ale on the weekend, and woukd like to put safale 04 in one and Burlington ale yeast in the other. How would I control ferm temps on 2 carboys in the sane ferm chamber. Should I just set the chamber to a specific temp and put the Probe in a jug of water or tape prove to one carboy and hope for the best?

 

[day_trippr]

I expect Fermentis S04 would be the more aggressive strain, so I would tape and insulate the probe to the S04 batch and run it at 65-66°F beer temperature for three days to keep The Beast from running amuck. Then ramp up to 68-69°F over a couple of days for clean-up and go from there.

That said, it'd at least be interesting to check the wort temperature on both vessels (like even just using the stick-on LC thermometer strips) to see what's going on.

fwiw, I did some testing of 10 gallon batches split between pairs of 6.5g carboys in the same fridge using the same yeast and found they can be apart by a full 1°F, even with a fan running 24/7. This happened across three batches tested and it was always the same carboy position that ran warmer than the other. So it could be the design of the cooling ducting in this particular fridge but it was a surprise to me as I had always assumed they'd track...

Cheers!

 

[Jabronisaur]

Out of curiosity and similar to this discussion, I am new brewer and just got a freezer I want to turn into a ferm chamber. I have the ink bird but I’m having trouble with how to heat. Suggestions? I see a lot of people use tube heaters but I can’t find them or I’m searching the wrong thing. Also what kinds of fans hold up best if left on continuously??

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I use 40 watt "reptile bulbs" with 12VDC PC fans blowing over them as heaters...

Cheers!

 

[madscientist451]

I did some testing of 10 gallon batches split between pairs of 6.5g carboys in the same fridge using the same yeast and found they can be apart by a full 1°F, even with a fan running 24/7. /QUOTE]

Thanks for posting the results of your tests.
Does 1°F make that much of a difference?
Just asking because I use ambient temps for fermeting quite often and save the chest freezer for other things, like storing kegs/lagering. I ferment lagers in the basement in the winter when its pretty cold, ferment ales in the spring and fall, and use the chest freezer for fermenting in the summer if the kegs all kick.

 

[day_trippr]

I doubt it makes that much difference, but for the OC brewer if you know there's a certain offset you can monitor the warmer carboy and adjust the controller Set Point lower by half the offset...

Cheers!

 

[Jabronisaur]

Thanks daytrip. I might have to use two as the freezer I’m using is a stand up big freezer but that should work.