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There's plenty of thermowell designs out there. I'm sure one of them would work for your current fermenters. OR get a thermometer that sticks on the side of the fermenter.

I used the sticker ones early on. I have had thermowells deep inside my fermenters for a long time though. I would place a stopper in the opening to reduce the amount of outside air influenced the actual reading. Using an inkbird (bluetooth connected) thermometer with a remote probe does a great job. Just be sure that you calibrate it against a known accurate thermometer. I did that again the other day in preparation of using them in the new conicals. I'll check them on first use to make sure the glycol chiller matches their readings (or that they are all in sync at least).
I had forgotten about those sticker thermometers; those are handy.
 
It's just something to be aware of. The answer may be to buy more gear, improve the setup of the gear you have, or be sure the yeasts you're using are happy in the mid-70s.

We purchased the old freezer to store extra breastmilk while my wife was nursing my now 3yo. When it went dormant, I started brewing with it. It's been a great run brewing with English yeasts, but we've got another kid on the way in July and I figure I'll lose the freezer by August. With new brewing gear out of the budget, I'm planning on shifting to kveik. That stuff wants to be in the 90s. Come late-Autumn the basement will be back in the low-60s and I'll get the standard yeasts going again.
Gotcha, so you partially plan what yeast to use based on the season and easiest achievable temperature.
 
The area/room I ferment in was always in the good temperature range for my brews. Until last year where it was at least 10F higher than years past. It's why I built a fermentation chamber. There are also other ways to make higher temperatures less impacting, or negatively so, for batches. All depends if you're setup to use those methods.
I got the glycol chiller mainly for cold crashing and keeping cold for carbonating in fermenter. Which means the unit won't be running often. At least that's the current plan.
As with most things, no plan survives first contact.
 
You might search for homebrewtalk top 100. If nothing else it will give you an idea of what styles are out there. I have made a number of beers from this list and haved enjoyed most of them (I'll probably stay away from watermelon in my beers forever. lol) There is a chocolate oatmeal porter on there that people who don't care for homebrew and especially dark beers really like. The poster mentions that this without the chocolate makes a very good base porter to experiment with.
 
You might search for homebrewtalk top 100. If nothing else it will give you an idea of what styles are out there. I have made a number of beers from this list and haved enjoyed most of them (I'll probably stay away from watermelon in my beers forever. lol) There is a chocolate oatmeal porter on there that people who don't care for homebrew and especially dark beers really like. The poster mentions that this without the chocolate makes a very good base porter to experiment with.
Thanks for the tip
 
I built a fermentation chamber from a 5 cu ft chest freezer, a hair dryer, and an inkbird controller. I can keep a +/- 2 degree wort swing at any temp from 34F up to about 80F. The Fermzilla conical I use has a thermowell and I silcone sealed a probe into it using an automotive connector to attach it to the controller. I bought a few extra NTC probes for cold crashing kegs or lagering. It ain't pretty but it does the job well.
 

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Really good fermentation chamber, or a chill coil/rod/etc. inside the fermenter connected to a glycol chiller. With my latest hardware/gear additions I now have the ability to chill/cold crash a batch separate from another.
I just got this Anvil carboy cooling setup:

https://www.anvilbrewing.com/-p/anv-cs-carb.htm
I haven’t set it up or used it yet. What kind of glycol chiller do you have? That seems to be the downside to this setup. They tell you to run cold water from a cooler full of water with ice or ice packs. But its only going to chill as much as the water in the cooler stays cold. I don’t have a fridge I can run cold water out of, and if I had a brewing fridge I would be using that instead of this setup.
 
My friend and I have only completed three batches of beer. We started with and IPA and moved on to a couple variations of porter. For our next batch we are wanting to play with flavors a bit more and experiment with what works with what. We are hoping to branch away from rigid recipes but make our own based on the tried and true. However, I am torn on what type of beer to focus on this time. Any suggestions?
The only way I can answer this is to ask you back - “What do you like to drink?” That’s the beauty of this hobby. You can brew whatever you want, within reason.

Some things to take into account would be whether you have any grain on hand you want to use, or if you have a particular yeast on hand you want to use. Or if there’s a particular hop you want to try.

That’s kind of how I approach planning my brews. I usually start with the yeast, as its the most important thing. People make wort, yeast makes beer. Each yeast has a range of “recommended” beers it can produce. I’m a Wyeast guy. If I have 1056, I’m making American Pale Ale, Amber Ale, IPA, possibly American Stout or Barleywine. If I have 1028 or 1099, I’m making bitter and English Pale Ale, possibly Porter or Dry Stout. I’m not a real big dark beer drinker but my wife likes them and I do enjoy them occasionally. I plan the recipes in order, light to dark, weak to strong and try to brew 4 or 5 beers in an order that makes sense re-using the same yeast.

I take seasons into account also. I’m probably not drinking much barleywine or porter in the summer. I want lighter ales. I plan the stronger beers to have in the winter when its cold outside. It’s mid May, so if I’m brewing today I ask myself “What do I want to be drinking at the end of June, early July?”

There’s no right answer here - it’s whatever you want to do.
 
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The only way I can answer this is to ask you back - “What do you like to drink?” That’s the beauty of this hobby. You can brew whatever you want, within reason.

Some things to take into account would be whether you have any grain on hand you want to use, or if you have a particular yeast on hand you want to use. Or if there’s a particular hop you want to try.

That’s kind of how I approach planning my brews. I usually start with the yeast, as its the most important thing. People make wort, yeast makes beer. Each yeast has a range of “recommended” beers it can produce. I’m a Wyeast guy. If I have 1056, I’m making American Pale Ale, Amber Ale, IPA, possibly American Stout or Barleywine. If I have 1028 or 1099, I’m making bitter and English Pale Ale, possibly Porter or Dry Stout. I’m not a real big dark beer drinker but my wife likes them and I do enjoy them occasionally. I plan the recipes in order, light to dark, weak to strong and try to brew 4 or 5 beers in an order that makes sense re-using the same yeast.

I take seasons into account also. I’m probably not drinking much barleywine or porter in the summer. I want lighter ales. I plan the stronger beers to have in the winter when its cold outside. It’s mid May, so if I’m brewing today I ask myself “What do I want to be drinking at the end of June, early July?”

There’s no right answer here - it’s whatever you want to do.
Definitely taking season in consideration. I like (love) most beers. Though I tend to the dark side, I do love a lighter beer in the summer. If it's a light beer though, it needs to be "interesting."
 
I just got this Anvil carboy cooling setup:

https://www.anvilbrewing.com/-p/anv-cs-carb.htm
I haven’t set it up or used it yet. What kind of glycol chiller do you have? That seems to be the downside to this setup. They tell you to run cold water from a cooler full of water with ice or ice packs. But its only going to chill as much as the water in the cooler stays cold. I don’t have a fridge I can run cold water out of, and if I had a brewing fridge I would be using that instead of this setup.
I picked up the BrewBuilt Max 2 chiller (from MoreBeer). More than what you ordered, BUT it's a complete chill unit in itself. Just run the in/out or feed/return tubing to your chill coil/item and you're running. You can use either tap water or a glycol solution, depending on the temperature you set the main unit to. I'll be filling mine with just over a 20% glycol solution. Just over because at a 4.5 gallon capacity, I'd need to add .9 gallons of glycol to 3.6 gallons of water. I'm going to simply add 1 gallon of glycol to 3.5 gallons of water and call it 'good'.

I also added wheels to the Max 2 (the Max 4 has wheels) to make it easier to move around. I actually connected up the tubing that will feed my chill coils today. I made a 'jumper' for the ends of the tubing so that it's a closed system when I don't have them on the chill coils. I simply used 1-1/2" long pieces of 3/8" OD stainless tubing (already on hand, just needed to cut) with the PTC fittings on the ends of the tubing. With the lines from Spike, I have more than enough length for where the fermenters will be resting.
 
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