Temp control start to finish.

[KyBeer]

With my BCS I control the BK, HLT and Mash with a HERMS coil in the HLT. All works well. I just added an Ink Bird ITC-308-WIFI with a 25W heater. I have been able to set the temp to 66 degrees and it tracks within 1-2 degrees. My question is now that I can now control the brew process Mash to Package, what part of the process is the most critical? I understand the effects of temperature during mash and I can get within 2-3 degrees. My altitude lets me boil around 208-209 degrees depending on barometric pressure.
What part of the brew process do most all grain brewers worry about?

 

[Golddiggie]

IME, fermentation temperature is the largest impact to a batch. Most batches I target the middle of the yeast's listed range, since it provides me what I want. I alter that depending on the yeast and the impact temperature has on it. Knowing that bit of info can have a larger impact than you might think. Fermenting under pressure (I only let it get to about 5psi max) can mitigate higher temperatures, but controlling the actual temperature is a solid solution (IME/IMO).

I typically aim to be within 1F of my mash temp target for the duration of the mash (can pretty much get there). Fermentation temperature stability is pretty easy with a glycol chiller in the mix.
After that it would be the temperature to carbonate (I carbonate in conical) so that it's done right. Plus at lower temperatures, you don't need as much CO2 to get the job done.

Generally, I don't "worry" about most of this. I have monitoring in place for fermenting temperature (as well as the progress). Hitting mash and sparge temperatures are probably the things I monitor closest, on brew day.

 

[KyBeer]

In the past I would just put a glass carboy on the basement floor covered with a sweat shirt to keep the light out, and hope for the best. This has worked to make beer for almost 30 years.
Now that I am not working 50-60 hours a week I am getting more time to play with the fermentation temps. The first controled brew uses US-05 that has a mid range of 65 F. I have placed two 1/2" sheets of styrofoam covered with foil, then a 25W terrarium heater on top on the basement floor. I cover the carboys with the black sweat shirts an pinched the temp probe between them. (under the shirrt and in contact with the carboy.) I just used a box fan to blow on the carboys when needed.
My basement is a cool 60-64 degrees this time of year. The 308-WIFI shows the temp swing from 62.2 to 66.1 F. I have reflective bubble wrap I plan to replace the sweat shirts with. Space in my nemesis so another fridg is out of the question. I can work toward making the temp more consistant, but I don't want to over engineer the process, someting I tend to do with everything I touch!
Just ordered the Yeast book to see if is can help, but any advice would be great!

 

[Golddiggie]

I went from a fermentation chamber (too f'king big for my space) to conical fermenters and a glycol chiller. MUCH more efficient use of space that way. Especially since I can move the conical fermenters, and chiller, around (all on wheels). Right now the chiller is in a corner next to a shelving unit and the fermenters are typically in front of that when occupied. When empty, they can move around as needed. This is all in the basement room I ferment in (same level as the garage/brewery).

I've been using pure O2 to oxygenate my wort since early on (over a decade). Less work and great results. Making starters is also an easy way to get liquid yeast to where they need to be for batches. Back when I started brewing, dry yeast had very little information as to what they would give a beer. Where liquid had far more (good) information readily available. IME, starters are easy. Even more so with canned starter wort being easily obtained.

I have the Yeast book, great start on the series. I also have Malt and Water. I suggest at least getting the Water book, as well as the Malt book if you can swing it.

 

[KyBeer]

I have all those and the Hops book as well. My BOOK collection is almost 30 books now. Some I will never read cover to cover but they are a great reference. It always seems like I get my answer but not the why from the "how to brew" books and the more technical books are a tuff read for a retired radiology engineer. Give me physics, mathematics, human anatomy or electronics and I'm good. Chemistry, biochemistry or plant biology and it is a slow process to understand. Just wasn't my field of study.
I need to keep an eye out for a used conical fermenter, all though I do enjoy building all the parts of the brew process welding is not something I can do, yet. Is your glycol chiller a double wall, cooling coil that goes in the top or a blanket style? The brewery I worked at for a short while used double wall bright tanks, out of my price range! The blankets that wrap around the fermenter work but you need to keep ice in the chest to work properly.
For now heating is my issue. In summer my fermentation area stays under 70 F. J have got 68-70 with just a tub of water and a beach towel over the fermenter.
My goal is to make better beer. If I need to spend $2K to improve by 2-3% it will be a hard sell to the wife! Of course we don't brew to save money.

 

[Golddiggie]

Right now I'm using Spike CF10 fermenters. I'm waiting for Brewers Hardware to get their 15 gallon jacketed conical model in stock/available. I want to get one of those to see how I like it compared with the Spike. If I like it better, I'll probably end up selling the Spike conicals and get the BH model to replace them. Although I have been thinking about getting a CF5 to use for cider and mead to keep the larger units available for beer.

The Spike units use the chill coil. Brewers Hardware is the double wall (jacketed) type. I've been using the Spike for about a year now with good results. At this time it's more about the interior design/space for beer than anything else. Well, that and how BH uses standard TC connections for everything, including the lid. Where Spike has this three segmented clamping thing for the lid (PITA IMO/IME to get it on to start, then you need to really wrench down on the clamping part to get a good seal). I highly suspect I'll have mostly Brewers Hardware models in the future (hopefully near future). The supply chain BS is the only reason I don't have a BH model yet.
The cost difference between the Spike CF10 and the BH 15 gallon (the CF10 has a capacity of 14 gallon, so they're pretty much a match) isn't a joke. Which is a reason I need one of them before switching. At about 1/2 again the cost of the Spike, the BH is up there.

For books, I have a small collection for beer/brewing items. The Yeast, Malt and Water books among them. I have some style books (for styles I brew) and maybe a couple of others. I've found that I rarely used all but the Brewers Element Series books after the first (or second) run through. Just like I've been creating my own recipes since the third batch. I've been getting solid results that way. There's only one, or two, recipes I decided were not for me (just don't care for the style). The rest are either in rotation, or are brewed at least from time to time. I have the next few batches planned already. Coming up is an imperial stout, then my English IPA, maybe the ordinary bitter, and then either another stout, or maybe I'll brew the old ale again (making sure the mash temp is correct for the entire time this run). A braggot, or barley wine, is also planned to be started before summer so that it's ready come fall/winter.

I made some neoprene 'hats' for the CF10 fermenters since they don't come with anything to cover that (with the jacket they sell). IME, that helped keep the temperature inside better. I might make something like that for the BH unit when it shows up. I'll probably decide after the first batch goes through it. At least I moved the items from the basement (where things ferment) that were the cause of the increased temperature there. I had a couple of SuperMicro (tiny) servers, my NAS, ethernet switch, and two UPS' in that area that increased the temperature by about 10F. Not a problem for the winter, but a problem in the summer for certain. Especially when I added the glycol chiller to the mix. I moved those to a different room/floor so the basement temperature is much better (where it was before then).

I have a friend that's a welder (good kind of friend to have). I've had him TIG up the sparge arms I've been creating for use with the Spike kettles (the MT especially). I'm hoping that the latest version is the final one. I'm going to see if he can TIG up a new brew stand for me once I move. I want to go from mild steel to stainless for that. I'll probably see if BH would be willing to make one per my design as well. It's very similar to what they make now, but different enough. All the stainless rectangular tubing is going to be the largest part of the cost. At ~$25 a linear foot, it's going to add up fast. Just ran the numbers, looking at about $900 for most of the stainless I'll need. Key part of the build will be passivating the areas of the weld again. The last thing I'll want is for that to rust on me.

 

[KyBeer]

My brewing has dropped off the last two years so it is getting harder to justify large investments. I just try to make my changes to the brew process the most cost effective way as I can.

Last week I had four fermenters going at the same time. A white wine that should be about 58 F, a Pinot Noir that needs to be at 76 F and two NEIPAs that I kept between 65-66 F. I thought a chest freezer conversion was the answer but if I continue to make beer, wine and ciders a single chest will not let me do multiple fermentations at different temps. I need a way to control each one independent of the others.

In the cooler weather months I have an Ink Bird ITC-308-WIFI and 25W tank heater with a simple box fan for cooling, it works. In the summer I could use a chiller and a valve setup for each fermenter but not sure how to size the BTU requirements. Are you using the same chiller for several tanks? We did at the brewery, but that was big stuff and big bucks! My fermentation area in about 58 F in winter and 72 F in summer. It fluctuates as the weather changes so I am looking for a way to get a consistent fermentation temp.

 

[Golddiggie]

I've found glycol chillers very effective at chilling different fermenters to different temperatures at the same time. I'm currently using the IceMaster Max4 unit (had the Max2 earlier). Since I plan to add a third conical (once it's available) to my setup and possibly a fourth in the next few months.

There are more than a few different glycol chiller options out there to pick from. I picked the Max4 mostly due to it being ready right out of the box. I didn't need to add pumps and controllers for each fermenter to it. I might change to one that would require that in the future (depends on what my needs evolve to). IME, getting the right mix ratio of glycol to water is a key aspect for using these and NOT having ice form inside. You also want to use silicone tubing, NOT vinyl, for the glycol to go through. Silicone can better handle the low temperatures the glycol will be as it flows into the chill hardware for the fermenter. I've also found that using 1/2" wall thickness insulation on the lines is very important. IMO, that's what all lines should be insulated with (at a minimum). I was using the thin (1/8" wall) insulation that Spike puts on their [vinyl] lines initially, but had a good amount of condensation form on those. Changed over to 1/2" wall and that went away. NOT needing to deal with that moisture is HUGE (IME/IMO). I might go with thicker insulation if I needed to change it again.

With my setup, I've had one fermenter running at 70F while the other is carbonating at 36-38F.

 

[spittybug]

Some long winded answers.... #1 fermentation temp control. #2 mash temp control. Period.

 

[KyBeer]

Sometimes the "How" needs a "Why".