Quick question

[BaylessBrewer]

A friend gave me a small chest freezer and I want to use it for a fermentation chamber. Plan is to use STC-1000 to control temp.
Question is: Do I have to have a heat source in the chamber and what are the cons of not having one?

 

[kombat]

No, you don't have to have one. The con is obvious - if your beer gets too cool, it'll be unable to warm it up, and you could end up fermenting cooler than you intended (or stall out fermentation altogether).

 

[BaylessBrewer]

It's going in the garage and currently the temp in the garage is around 80*F according to my car. Should be ok till fall/winter gets here right?

 

[kombat]

Sure, just keep an eye on it and see if the "Heat" indicator on the STC-1000 is lit very often.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Sure, just keep an eye on it and see if the "Heat" indicator on the STC-1000 is lit very often.

That would indicate that the unit is colder that set at?
What kind of a gap is recommended between heat and cool?

 

[kombat]

That would indicate that the unit is colder that set at?

That's correct, that would indicate that the STC-1000 is trying to warm up the beer (but which obviously won't do anything if you don't have anything plugged into the "heat" outlet of the controller).

What kind of a gap is recommended between heat and cool?

During fermentation, I set the "F2" setting on my STC-1000 to 0.3° C. So if I'm fermenting an ale, I'll have the temperature ("F1") set to 17.7° C. If it gets 0.3° too warm (18°+), then it kicks on the cooling circuit until it gets back down to 17.7° C, then turns off again. If it gets 0.3°C to cool (17.4° or lower), then it turns on the heating circuit until it's warmed the beer back up to 17.7° C.

Granted, I'm using a thermowell stopper, so my STC-1000's temperature probe is measuring the temperature right in the heart of the beer, which minimizes temperature swings.

 

[hunter_le five]

I don't use a heat source in my ferm chamber. But here it rarely gets cold enough to be an issue. Whether or not you need one depends on how cold the ambient temps around your chamber will get.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Awesome. Thanks guys.
Next beer up is a kolsch kit I got for Father's Day w/ wyeast 2565 so I want to get this set up in the next couple weeks for that.
Another question is do I just tape the temp probe to the outside of my bucket and cover it with some type of foam?

 

[hunter_le five]

Another question is do I just tape the temp probe to the outside of my bucket and cover it with some type of foam?

A lot of people do it that way, so yes, it certainly is an option.