Thermowell use

[HerkimerBrewer]

Ok, so I got a thermowell and installed in my fermenter. I use an inkbird with the 12" probe in a homemade fermentation chamber. I'm seeing large flucuations in the temperature inside the chamber, although the temperature reading in the thermowell is pretty steady around 67, but when the heat kicks on in the chamber, the temperature shoots up to about 80, and then kicks off and gradually goes down. I'm wondering if I should skip the using the thermowell, and just leave the probe hanging in the chamber as I normally would. Right now fermentation is going strong. The temp differential on the inkbird is set to 1 degree.

 

[ancientmariner52]

You don't mention your heat source. Is it attached to the fermenter? Air has a much lower specific heat than beer, that is it takes much less energy to raise the temperature. If you are heating the air, and the air is heating the fermenter, this is exactly what I would expect to see.

For now, as long as your fermenter temp is where you want it, I think you can ignore the air temp. Keep using the thermowell.

 

[Remos112]

Totally agree with Ancient, concentrate on the temperature you read on the Inkbird Since this is to be likely to be as close as possible to your wort temperature. The air temperature is just a means of getting the desired wort temperature. Other than that it is irrelevant.

 

[RM-MN]

Your thermowell and controller are doing exactly what they are designed to do, keep the fermenting beer at a near constant temperature. Why should you care what the temperature is outside of the fermenter, you aren't fermenting anything in the air.

 

[HerkimerBrewer]

Thanks for the advice! The heater is a fan like you'd use at a office desk. So Yeh, I didn't think about it as you guys explained, that does make sense.
Cheers!