This is exactly what I do and I do not have oxidation in my hoppy beers for months.
It matters how it's configured. Per Doug's megapost, the rate of CO2 production is slow enough that it may mix with the vessel's mixed gas, rather than pushing it out in series. Using five 1gal kegs performs much better because mixing is pretty much prevented between kegs.
What environment are you in? This sounds like it might be a worthy upgrade for me (my beers taste a little off, IMHO "oily")? Do you run water through a heat exchanger at 74 or do you go colder?
Temperature control is critical for two phases of brewing; mashing and fermentation. A chest freezer and oil pan heater both plugged into a temperature controller (Inkbird ITC-308 wifi) with the probe in a thermo well is the only way I'll ferment. Keeps the temperature within a 3° or 4° range of the target regardless of whether I'm fermenting a lager at 50F, an ale at 65F, or a kveik ale at 85F+. For mashing, I use a Brewers Edge Mash&Boil with a recirculation pump. It lets me hold the mash temperature or raise it for step mashing. It's capable of boiling but I don't use it for that step, preferring a gas burner and a pot.
Just to be crystal clear, if I buy a fridge that keeps stuff cooler than 60F, then plug it into a temp controller (like Digiten), I can override the built in fridge temperature contol and get 65F or something like that? Right now I have a fridge that would work size-wise, but it keeps everything at 45F and the settings don't change that. Don't know whether I could use this with an external controller (advice please??).
Yes, you just set the fridge on it's coldest setting, and plug the cord into the 308 (or other controller.) The controller then keeps the fridge from getting too cold. If you want to do cold crashing or lagering, you need a box capable of getting closer to freezing. This is why many people use chest freezers, with external controllers, as fermentation chambers.
The ratio of headspace volume to beer volume is an important variable. The more headspace relative to beer, the worse the purging performance. If you try to ferment a 1 gallon batch in the same FV that you use for 5 gallon batches, the purging will not be as effective.
Why would you need to purge 4 kegs if you only have enough beer to fill 1 keg (plus maybe a little more)?
Yep, agree! Just set the refrigerator at maximum and let the controller take over. The thermocouple samples the interior refrigerator temperature and the unit cycles the refrigerator on and off based on the temperature you desire. You want 38F you got it. You want 52F, no problem. Set it and forget it! (of course in colder climates you may need to make a warming chamber instead, but that's a different thread.)
Just got a reply from DIgiten about putting the sensor into fermenting beer and don't understand the answer.Yes, you just set the fridge on it's coldest setting, and plug the cord into the 308 (or other controller.) The controller then keeps the fridge from getting too cold. If you want to do cold crashing or lagering, you need a box capable of getting closer to freezing. This is why many people use chest freezers, with external controllers, as fermentation chambers.
Brew on
The simplest way to place the temp probe for fermentation (and the best as I and some others would argue) is to tape the probe to the side of the fermentation vessel, at mid liquid level, with some insulation over the probe (probe sandwiched between the insulation and FV sidewall.) You can use a piece of foam 1/4" - 1/2" thick and about 4" square, several layers of folded paper towel, a folded washcloth, or similar for the insulation.
It seems that perhaps they don't understand the question. Or English.
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