Meet my new fermentation system

[JJRJR]

Hello all. My electronic temp control unit arrived last night, so decided to set it up with my 5 cubic foot chest freezer. I programmed the "set point" to 65 degrees with a 5 degree "differential." I put my Summer Ale into the freezer and it seems to be doing its job. When the freezer reaches an internal temperature of 65 the unit turns on the motor then when it reaches 60 degrees it shuts it off; seems ok. EXCEPT, there appears to be a pretty big lag in that when the unit shuts off at 60 degrees, the freezer keeps getting a bit colder before it starts to warm up again. It seems to get to about 53 degrees before the temp starts to climb. I'm thinking there isn't much I can do about it and that the beer/wort won't be effected. Let's see how she works out.

 

[divrguy]

You could try setting differential to a couple of degrees.

 

[broadbill]

It looks like your probe is just sitting out in the open, is that correct?

Its the temp of the beer that is important, not of the air inside the chamber. Tape that probe to the side of the bucket with some bubble wrap over it as insulation. That might help.

 

[HibsMax]

If your freezer is getting too cold, change your lower boundary to something a little higher. I *think* if you set you differential to a smaller number you risk the freezer switching on / off too much.

 

[hefehawk]

I set mine to 72 with a 2 degree differential and 12 minute compressor cycle. This gives me about 68 to 69 degree wort temp and even though the compressor kicks off at 70, my reading will continue to drop down to about 64. The reason why it gets so low is because even though the freezer has shut off, it still has radiant cooling which drops the temps even further.

 

[beerkrump]

+1 to putting the probe on the fermenter

You may also look into installing a small fan in your fermentation chamber. Chest freezers are designed to hold stuff below freezing, not maintain a constant above freezing temperature throughout the box. You will get thermal layering.

 

[JJRJR]

Thanks all, I'll try a different temp and differential.

 

[johnheather125]

Good choice of controller well worth the money

 

[Beer-lord]

I've been thinking about getting one of these but to convert to a kegerator. Sam's has the 7 cubic foot for $199. I don't know if a 5 gallon corny can fit in it. But, this would also make a great fermenation chamber for my summer beers. Just too hot to do large batches and keep them cool in the summer time.
Great idea.

 

[broadbill]

Good choice of controller well worth the money

Sure is, but I don't for the life of me understand why people pay so much money for this set-up only to let that probe dangle in the air and have to fiddle-F*ck around with the temperature to get it where they want it.

When I tape that probe to the side of the bucket with some insulation, the controller reads the temp of the beer and controls it accordingly. Dead on accurate and easy. Sorry--rant over.

 

[helibrewer]

Buy or make a thermowell and drill another hole in your fermentor lid, put some water in the thermowell and put a probe thermometer in it.

Then put that controller probe in a couple cups of water to buffer temp swings...monitor fermentation temp with the thermometer and tweak the controller to get your settings correct.

You might be able to run the controller with the controller probe in the thermowell but 5 gallons ia a large mass and that freezer will get too cold trying to cool that large mass...at least until equilibrium is reached.

 

[cherrob123]

Sure is, but I don't for the life of me understand why people pay so much money for this set-up only to let that probe dangle in the air and have to fiddle-F*ck around with the temperature to get it where they want it.

When I tape that probe to the side of the bucket with some insulation, the controller reads the temp of the beer and controls it accordingly. Dead on accurate and easy. Sorry--rant over.

I hate to hijack, but do you actually put the probe in the beer or just inside the lid to the bucket?

 

[broadbill]

I hate to hijack, but do you actually put the probe in the beer or just inside the lid to the bucket?

Neither. Hold the probe to the side of the bucket, take a piece of folded bubble-wrap and hold it over the probe. Tape bubble wrap to bucket. The probe should be sandwiched between bubble wrap and the side of the bucket.

The bucket is the same temp as the fermenting beer (+/- 1-2 degrees), so by taping the probe to the bucket (and insulating it), the temp controller read the actual temp of the beer/bucket and will cycle the freezer on/off accordingly.

 

[JJRJR]

Well, turns out that my set up is keeping the beer at an even 62 to 62 degrees. I checked the internal temp and it's right on with the reading on the controller.
John

 

[RichH]

Buy or make a thermowell and drill another hole in your fermentor lid, put some water in the thermowell and put a probe thermometer in it.

Then put that controller probe in a couple cups of water to buffer temp swings...monitor fermentation temp with the thermometer and tweak the controller to get your settings correct.

You might be able to run the controller with the controller probe in the thermowell but 5 gallons ia a large mass and that freezer will get too cold trying to cool that large mass...at least until equilibrium is reached.

Is the temp probe on the A419 waterproof? Which method gives you better temp control, thermowell or taping probe to side of bucket?

I plan on using a thermowell. I like the idea of putting water in the thermowell.

 

[broadbill]

Is the temp probe on the A419 waterproof?

Probably not. Hence the need for a thermowell. The idea behind filling the thermowell with water was to give better heat transfer (and a more accurate reading) to the probe thermometer which is water-proof.

What I don't understand is if you fill the thermowell with water, then why bother with the thermowell in the first place? I thought the idea behind a thermowell was to be able to directly measure the temperature of a liquid with a probe that wasn't waterproof.

 

[Heidenweizen]

Probably not. Hence the need for a thermowell. The idea behind filling the thermowell with water was to give better heat transfer (and a more accurate reading) to the probe thermometer which is water-proof.

What I don't understand is if you fill the thermowell with water, then why bother with the thermowell in the first place? I thought the idea behind a thermowell was to be able to directly measure the temperature of a liquid with a probe that wasn't waterproof.

A thermowell would not be a good choice since when the beer is fermenting it will be a higher temp than just water around the probe if it were in a thermowell. I have the same controller and I just tape the probe right to the side of the fermenter and put some bubble wrap over that and tape again.

If this were a kegerator then a thermowell would be a good choice but the heat from the fermentation will mean the beer inside the fermenter will be much warmer than still water outside.

 

[Gameface]

A thermowell, as I understand it, is a metal tube closed at the bottom that gets submerged into your wort. The tube is open at the top which allows you to drop your temp probe into it and get a temp reading from somewhere close to the center of your wort. It would be the most accurate way to measure your wort short of dropping your temp probe directly into the wort.

That said I use a styrofoam block with a small recess cut out to hold the probe in place on the side of a 13 gallon bucket. Seems to work well, although I haven't taken temp readings directly from the wort and compared them.

here's a link to a pic of my setup. (guess I can't post images)

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/dsc0246tb.jpg

 

[RichH]

My plan was to use a thermowell and drop the temp probe in it. (not filling the thermowell with water) I would think this would give you a much more accurate wort temp than taping the same probe to the side of the bucket.

Would this be a correct assumption?

 

[broadbill]

My plan was to use a thermowell and drop the temp probe in it. (not filling the thermowell with water) I would think this would give you a much more accurate wort temp than taping the same probe to the side of the bucket.

Would this be a correct assumption?

Maybe, but my experience is that the probe-on-the side-of-the-fermenter gives you the corrent temp +/- 1 degree. That is good enough for me not to fool around with a thermowell.