Temperature Control Specifics, STC1000 Profiles?

[terrykalaka]

Hey Gang,
So huge thanks to alphaomega and wilconrad, i got one of his pre-flashed stc-1000 units and loaded it and wired it up without issue courtesy of the number of wiring diagrams, idea's for how and general information etc, so also thanks to all those who posted things regarding their builds. So far in 4 days, it's working flawlessly.

A couple of questions I have for the general population over here that I haven't been able to find a necessarily difinitive answer on through a few days of searching:
Knowing that high fermentation temps create off flavors, I've also read that the most critical time is early on during fermentation. Is this the case? And if so, what would be the recommendation for the most critical amount of time to control the temperature?

Currently have been running exclusivity with safale-04 yeast, and have the temp set at 65deg. Room temp is till highish at around 75-77deg(in Atlanta), but should be dropping over the next bit.

Where I'm at, is that I have a single bucket size fermentation chamber, with temperature controller. I also drink *slightly* more beer than I can keep up with brewing one 5 gallon batch at a time. If it's plausible to roll with a shorter time in the chamber, I can double stagger my brewing over a few batches to get ahead some, so for instance, do one week in the chamber controlled and then finish fermentation outside the chamber while I insert next brew into the chamber, rinse, repeat till all my kegs are full(I have 3 of 7 empty right now)

 

[jahdub]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I usually bump up my temps to closer to 70 after 7 days and usually to room temp of 72-74 by 10 days.

 

[cannman]

Knowing that high fermentation temps create off flavors, I've also read that the most critical time is early on during fermentation. Is this the case? And if so, what would be the recommendation for the most critical amount of time to control the temperature?

From what I understand, most of the fermentation is done within the first 72 hours, so those would be the most critical.

I just brewed an IPA at night, pitched some cold water to top off which took my carboy WAY below ale ferm temps, and the yeast kinda kicked back. Then the fermentator reached the required temp I set with the STC1000 and it took off like a rocket! Therefore, I would say the first 72 hours after the fermenter rises to the correct temperature.

 

[terrykalaka]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I usually bump up my temps to closer to 70 after 7 days and usually to room temp of 72-74 by 10 days.

Great info, thanks. What temp do you go with for the first 7 days?

 

[cannman]

Great info, thanks. What temp do you go with for the first 7 days?

Terry, what style of beer are you making and what yeast are you using?

 

[terrykalaka]

Using exclusively safale 04 yeast, right now I'm brewing darker beers, porter, stout, brown through till Feb or so

 

[jahdub]

Great info, thanks. What temp do you go with for the first 7 days?

That would depend on the style of beer, but I usually brew ales with us-05 at 64F

 

[cannman]

Using exclusively safale 04 yeast, right now I'm brewing darker beers, porter, stout, brown through till Feb or so

59f-75f for those beers is S04's range. I read in Chris White's book "Yeast" that if you are in doubt, use 68f/20c for ale yeasts. If you don't have a recipe use 68, otherwise if you do have a recipe, just make sure it falls in this range and program your stc-1000

 

[acidrain]

I usually find the yeast's range and start out right in the middle. Run that for two days, then bump it up 1C each day for two or three more days after that for "clean up".