Brewing Temperature Control

[metalliholic123]

Thanks for your time,
I just brewed my first batch from a Cooper's IPA kit. I sampled it after two weeks in the bottle and it's "off." It tastes similar to beer, but not anywhere near an IPA. I followed proper sanitation and time-frames, but I think it fermented way too high. 78F room temp high (wort also took a while to cool). I live in south Texas in a 1-br apt, so dedicating a room to proper fermentation tempp isn't an option. I'm looking at a Johnson Control Digital Thermostat, but don't know what to couple it with. A mini-fridge or a mini-freezer? I have free space of 2.5'deep x 4'wide. Any advice is appreciated

-metalliholic123

p.s. If this isn't the correct forum, let me know

 

[Brewskii]

With a temp controller, either a fridge or freezer will work. A freezer has more cooling capacity so it will run less frequently than a fridge and may be a smidge more economical because of it. The set up you are thinking about it a great way to go but don't rule out a swamp cooler while your looking for a better set up.

Swamp cooler is a big bucket or basin of cold water with a fermenter ( ale pail or carboy) partially submerged in it. Use a wet towel over the top and/or ice blocks to keep the temps down. Fermentation produces a fair amount of heat so more ice early and less after the first few days is a good way to go. If you use a towel, keep it wet and put a fan on it for evaporative cooling. the beer temp during the height of fermentation will be as much as 4 degrees higher than what the water temp will be but with the added thermal capacity of the water the beer temp will be more stable.

Search the equipment treads/stickies for " swamp cooler " for more info.

Oh, if you do go the fridge/ freezer route, turn the on Board appliance thermostat to the coldest setting. The Johnson temp controller will control it to whatever you set it to and you don't want interference from the appliance. The fridge compressor is either on or off so you will be using the Jonson controller and RTD to control that.

 

[BigFloyd]

Between the mini fridge or freezer, either is fine. I'd go with whichever one will fit your fermenter bucket/carboy.

For a controller, an STC-1000 is hard to beat. $20 on Amazon.

It's a dual temperature controller. You wire it into a standard 2-plug outlet that you mount in some kind of project box (either homemade or bought at Radio Shack). One (cool) outlet is for the freezer/fridge. Into the other (warm) outlet, you plug some kind of small heater and then put that heater inside the freezer if it's going to be located somewhere cold (like a garage in winter).

Set the target temp (in Celsius) on the STC-1000. Set the tolerance (default is +/-0.5*C). When the temp (as read by the sensor) climbs 0.5*C above the target, it powers up the cool outlet and keeps it energized until the temp drops to the target and then turns it off. Likewise with the warm outlet if it gets 0.5*C too cool. You tape the sensor on the side of the fermenter and place some kind of insulation like bubble wrap over top of it so that it reads the bucket temp and not the air.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-fish-tank-controller-build-using-wal-mart-parts-261506/


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-aquarium-temp-controller-build-163849/



http://brewstands.com/fermentation-heater.html

Hope this helps.

 

[balrog429]

I'm not an expert by any means, but I can tell you my experience with temp controlling here in Central California. Where I live the temps can hit about 115. That makes it REALLY hot in my garage with the cars in there. I also have a mini fridge and a chest freezer. I use the chest freezer to ferment in and the mini fridge for my kegs. The chest freezer cycles on way less than the mini fridge does and both have temp controllers on them. In this situation Craigslist is your friend. Find a small enough chest freezer that fits your carboy and use that. The video that's attached is great to use. That is the one I'm going to use once I get an upright freezer for my kegs after the mini fridge dies. Judging by the sound of it, it should be pretty soon.