Swamp cooler and fermometer discprepency

[jmyers04]

I am sure there have been tons of posts about these strip thermometers before. I have spent a good portion of my morning reading some of them. But haven't quite gotten to answers I am looking for. So if this is a worn out topic I apologize. Back story....We brewed a cream ale last night. Cooled it down to 80F then moved it to the fermenter. We then placed it in a swamp cooler (round tote) with 72 degree cold tap water and added some ice to cool it down overnight. I woke up this morning and the temp was at 72(on the strip thermometer)....worrying about letting it sit until I could come home for lunch to pitch...I added more ice and pitched this morning thinking that it could cool down to high 60's before fermentation kicked off. I went home on lunch just to check and see whats going on and it is still at 72 on the strip. The water is a little more than half way up the big mouth bubbler but under the strip. The water is coming in at 66 F with a pen thermometer. I have read that it is just a few degrees above what the water in the swamp cooler is....but that's not the case here. Will the 66 F swamp water continue to cool it down more or should I just wait until fermentation starts and gauge where it is and add ice from there? Goal was to ferment in the 66-68 range....but definitely keep it under 70. Yeast is us05.

 

[doug293cz]

Put more ice in the swamp cooler. You're going to need a bigger temp difference between the swamp water and beer to keep the beer temp down. Fermentation creates heat, so that increases the cooling requirements.

Brew on

 

[jmyers04]

Put more ice in the swamp cooler. You're going to need a bigger temp difference between the swamp water and beer to keep the beer temp down. Fermentation creates heat, so that increases the cooling requirements.

Brew on

So an update. I added some ice when I got home and put a towel around the fermenter. Has dropped to 66 since then. So that being said. Fermentation has not yet started. Will the drop in temp from 72 to 66 since pitching shock the yeast and cause it to stall real bad? Or should I be ok in that regard?

 

[Jtk78]

I could be dead wrong here, and if so please let me know. But what is the ambient temperature. If the temp strip is above the water, and the beer temp is 66 with an air temp of 78, could the strip read 72?

 

[doug293cz]

So an update. I added some ice when I got home and put a towel around the fermenter. Has dropped to 66 since then. So that being said. Fermentation has not yet started. Will the drop in temp from 72 to 66 since pitching shock the yeast and cause it to stall real bad? Or should I be ok in that regard?

You should be ok with your yeast.

Brew on

 

[jmyers04]

I could be dead wrong here, and if so please let me know. But what is the ambient temperature. If the temp strip is above the water, and the beer temp is 66 with an air temp of 78, could the strip read 72?

Ambient temp is 72 in the house. The strip reads 66 right now. And it's under a towel on the fermenter but above the water level. The water temp in the swamp cooler is at 61 now. Isn't the strip supposed to read what the temp inside the fermenter is?

 

[doug293cz]

Ambient temp is 72 in the house. The strip reads 66 right now. And it's under a towel on the fermenter but above the water level. The water temp in the swamp cooler is at 61 now. Isn't the strip supposed to read what the temp inside the fermenter is?

The temp strip gets most of it's input from the liquid in the fermenter, but the ambient temp does have a small affect on it.

Brew on

 

[jmyers04]

The temp strip gets most of it's input from the liquid in the fermenter, but the ambient temp does have a small affect on it.

Brew on

So if the wort is cooler than ambient then there is a chance that the wort is actually cooler than what the strip says?

 

[flars]

Try measuring the temperature of the beer in the fermentor with your pen thermometer. Tape some insulating material to the side of the fermentor and insert the pen thermometer under the insulation. It would seem that by now your beer should be the same temperature as the water in your swamp cooler unless all the ice melted very quickly.

 

[doug293cz]

So if the wort is cooler than ambient then there is a chance that the wort is actually cooler than what the strip says?

A little cooler, but not much.

Brew on

 

[jmyers04]

Try measuring the temperature of the beer in the fermentor with your pen thermometer. Tape some insulating material to the side of the fermentor and insert the pen thermometer under the insulation. It would seem that by now your beer should be the same temperature as the water in your swamp cooler unless all the ice melted very quickly.

It has all melted at this point. Just a few degrees difference between ferm strip and water temp in the swamp cooler. Just waiting for fermentation to kick off so I know I didn't stress the yeast too much cooling it down 6 degrees after pitching.