RedDragon
Well-Known Member
I have a Johnson Controls thermostat on my refrigerator to regulate the temps for fermentation. Any ideas on the best ways to have the probe?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Refrigerator Fermenter
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Don
Well-Known Member
I tape my onto the outside of the carboy about the middle. Then put a small piece of insulation and duct tape over it.
At one time I used the 2 hole stopper with the SS tube to pick up the temp in side of the beer. I found that this was a lot of work and cleanup (and wast difficult when you had blow-offs, so I went to the outside.
On sever brews I did them both and found that there was no real difference in the temperatures.
I use the Ranco controller..
At one time I used the 2 hole stopper with the SS tube to pick up the temp in side of the beer. I found that this was a lot of work and cleanup (and wast difficult when you had blow-offs, so I went to the outside.
On sever brews I did them both and found that there was no real difference in the temperatures.
I use the Ranco controller..
I just tape the lead of the probe so it dangles about half way down the freezer - ensuring it does not touch the walls or floor of the freezer. I also have two of those stick on thermos (one on the bottom and one half way up) so it seems to keep everything very close to what I set it at.
I frequently need to ice my ancient knees after abusing them. I have a couple large gell packs that have a cover with a pair of elastic/velcro straps that allow the pack to be wrapped around the knee and be strapped in place.
I was pondering this exact temp probe question myself. I use Better Bottles with the proprietary closure, so a thermowell to put the probe down in the wort was out. It struck me that wrapping the gell pack around the BB would provide a large mass of fluid that would closely track the temperature of the wort. I simply put the probe between the gell pack and the BB. The probe is now essentially surrounded by fluid at the temperature of the wort. It should track nearly as well as a thermowell, with a lot less hassle.
I was pondering this exact temp probe question myself. I use Better Bottles with the proprietary closure, so a thermowell to put the probe down in the wort was out. It struck me that wrapping the gell pack around the BB would provide a large mass of fluid that would closely track the temperature of the wort. I simply put the probe between the gell pack and the BB. The probe is now essentially surrounded by fluid at the temperature of the wort. It should track nearly as well as a thermowell, with a lot less hassle.
MgMt_Home_Brew
Well-Known Member
I just have a water bottle in there and submerged the probe in the water.
I just got mine hooked up a few days ago. I didn't want to put it in the carboy because I was afraid that with the huge thermal mass of 5 gallons of liquid, the air temp in my freezer would get too low during the 'on' cycle. On the other hand, I didn't want to just dangle it in the air where it might be too susceptible to air currents (though you could compensate for that with a large enough differential setting). I have mine in a White Labs vial - drilled a hole in the top to run the wire through and cut a small cardboard disk with a hole in the center to hold the probe off of the wall of the vial - nothing else in the vial but air. So far, it seems to be working well, though I'm just experimenting with 5 gallons of water at this point - expect to have some beer fermenting in a couple of days. 
