problems using a fridge/freezer as fermentation chamber?

[triangulum33]

I think I'll measure the temp of fermenting wort next week with a sanitized thermometer probe to validate some of these numbers in my system.

 

[belmontbrew]

The bonus I found with the light bulb method is there is almost no residual heat to over shoot your temp. The bulb turns off and cools down quickly. When I tried the heating pad method, it saturated the wall that it was touching and caused it to slowly over shoot. However, I could see how this would be beneficial in a cold garage. OFC YMMV.

Have you had any skunking effect from the light (or do you block the light from getting into your bucket/carboy)? That's my big worry with a light bulb.

And yes, I also get overshoot to the tune of about 0.3F (not bad, but not that great). I had to widen my deadband to +/-0.5F when I added the heating pad.

 

[belmontbrew]

Oh, and I also meant to add: I just drop my temperature probe right into the bucket. I went to all this trouble to acquire and build my fermentation temp controller... I might as well measure the temperature of my actual beer!

I just give it a spritz of Star San in between batches. The probe tends to sink -- or at least to not float -- on its own, and the stopper still seals enough to force bubbles through the airlock.

 

[Hang Glider]

Skunking is a problem with ultraviolet light. (sunlight, fluorescents). regular incandescent bulbs are not prone to skunking beer - there are links around here somewhere....


belmont - to avoid contamination in the future (good luck so far!), you might consider a thermowell. If you have a glass carboy for a fermenter, a double holed stopper has a long stainless diptube and a conventional airlock hole.
the probe drops into the diptube, which is surrounded by your wort.

 

[newdamage1]

Have you had any skunking effect from the light (or do you block the light from getting into your bucket/carboy)? That's my big worry with a light bulb.

And yes, I also get overshoot to the tune of about 0.3F (not bad, but not that great). I had to widen my deadband to +/-0.5F when I added the heating pad.

I have been using a standard 150w incandescent bulb, and from my understanding does not put off (enough) UV to cause skunking. I have not had any issue with it yet.

FWIW, I could turn off the deadband on the heating side in my setup, the cooling side is a whole other story, the 5k BTU ac unit undershoots on the cooling by a lot. But for me, tinkering is half the fun.

 

[triangulum33]

I have been using a standard 150w incandescent bulb....

Aren't those illegal now?

 

[solbes]

I also saw those thermowells with the hole in the stopper pre-drilled. I was thinking about this the other day. Would it be better to control the air temp or beer temp? If you control the air temp, you should see less variation in beer temp right? That is, when your fridge overshoots by 3-4 degrees on the cool side, it will not necessarily move the beer by much at all (maybe a degree). Alternatively, if you control the beer temp you will for sure be varying the beer temps by a minimum of 1 degree plus overshoot (depending on your differential temp).

For now I'm going to control the air temp. But I also have a digital thermometer with a remote probe (insulated) that is stuck to the side of the fermenter so I can monitor what the beer is really at.

 

[newdamage1]

Aren't those illegal now?

They still have some at my local Lowes, and that sucker was $3! Even with them being expensive, I'm going back and getting 4pack to keep as spares. The only other alternative to incandescent would be the UV heat lamps, and I wouldn't trust that with clear carboys.

 

[BurntOrngeLonghorn84]

It takes ALOT of energy (large specific heat), and hence time, to change the temp of 5 gallons of water.[/B]

So that means your air temp could be cooled to 30, but your beer is only at 62. How do you prevent further heat exchange, cooling the beer further than 62? If you control air temp, your beer will always be in your deadband range. I normally set my deadband range to what Wyeast recommends for their strains.

This is probably along the lines of if you prefer a secondary or not but we all have our reasons to do what we do.

 

[triangulum33]

Hang Glider and Tinga, I verified the temp difference between ambient and fermenting beer in my chamber. I measured consistant 6 difference over the first few days between a probe taped with insulation to the side of a fermenter and the ambient air in the chamber.
Pretty sure some of my brews were probably a sustained 78-80* in the fermenter in the past due to this discrepancy.

 

[Flomaster]

I have a 1/2" thermowell I built and it sits inside my carboy I fill it with starsan and im pretty sure its the closest to the temp of the beer one can get. I feel that is very accurate can control my temperature very well.

-=Jason=-

 

[newdamage1]

I have a 1/2" thermowell I built and it sits inside my carboy I fill it with starsan and im pretty sure its the closest to the temp of the beer one can get. I feel that is very accurate can control my temperature very well.

-=Jason=-

You happen to have a pic of that? I looked through some of your posts, but didnt see it.

 

[Hang Glider]

try here - Brewers Hardware

you get a 2-hole stopper - one for the thermowell, one for the airlock

because of temperature reaction time, you probably need to change the differential somewhat on your controller. - as in, by the time the cooling/heating system turns off, it will still impart action on that thermal mass we call wort.

 

[newdamage1]

try here - Brewers Hardware

you get a 2-hole stopper - one for the thermowell, one for the airlock

because of temperature reaction time, you probably need to change the differential somewhat on your controller. - as in, by the time the cooling/heating system turns off, it will still impart action on that thermal mass we call wort.

Oh, I've seen those. I guess I was envisioning something more crafted. :fro:

 

[HornOfAle]

This is replying to a 5 year old post, but I was wondering if there were any other huge principal differences in setup of a chest freezer for fermentation other than more than 2 cycles- for someone like myself that lives in a place actually hotter than Guam?

Thanks!