Starting the fermenting chamber

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Joon1975

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Noob, here! Just purchased a freezer of Craigslist and finished building my Temperature controller. I plan on keeping it in the heated/ac basement which is about 64 in the winter and about 68 in the summer. My questions are how do i get it started with the controller? Am I going to need some sort of heat in the chamber? I plan on only ferrying one beer at a time. Where should I put the probe? Any help would greatly appreciated, thanks!!!View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1486009627.064020.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1486009661.350383.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1486009673.299627.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1486009686.497721.jpg
 
Yes you'll want some sort of heat if you want to take the wort to a higher temp than your ambient. A good way to do that is with a seed-starter mat like so:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZXOP1C/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I have both a fermwrap (which is what you see in the pic below) and a seed-starter mat. Even at just 20 watts, one of those seed-starter mats works fine.

You want to control the temp of the wort, so you can either use a dip tube in which to place the probe, or press the probe against the side of the fermenter using a piece of foam to insulate the probe from the ambient temp in the freezer.

Here's how I do mine (different type of fermenter, same idea):

probefoam.jpg
 
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If your ambient is mid 60's day and night you will probably not even need to bother with a heater. Honestly i would just start with cooling.

Plug in the freezer to the controller cooling plug, set all the STC-1000 settings, set your target temp and wait 10 minutes for it to kick on for the first time assuming your set point is below the temp of the beer.

You should read up on the STC1000 settings though, as using the defaults could burn out your freezer faster than you want. Like set a the max cycle time(F4 i think?) to the max of 10 minutes, and set a decent delta temperature to like 1F so that your fridge only cycles on if its 1F off the set point.

At 64 and 68F your chamber wont have to do much to keep 5 gallons at ale temps.

Only invest in a heater if you play on doing saisons or something that can benefit from 80F temps.
 
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