Warm Beer!! HELP!!!

[jslive4now]

Hello all.. So I am now part of the Kegging community now and I'm so far loving it.. Do have a question though.. I kegged my first keg batch and have it in my Kegerator.. I have my STC-1000 set at 4°c (differential set at .3 and delay at the max of 10). I have the temp prob in a small bottle of water to provide some thermal load so the unit doesn't cycle on and off consitly.. I also have a separate digital thermometer in the unit to measure Ambient air temp..

As of now the STC-1000 is reading 3.9°c .. and the ambient is 31.1°f (-0.5°c).. I poured and great looking glass of homebrew and I stuck a thermometer in the glass and the brew is at 50°f...

So.. Warmer than I would like.. So my question is.. Do I turn the controller down or do I up my thermal load size( more mass)

Any help would be appreciated!!!

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Was it your first or second pour? If it was your first, a lot of the beer came from the warm part of the fridge (the top). How long has the keg been in the kegerator? My kegs will take a good day or two to cool off.

Don't turn the thermostat lower...yet. Try filling the empty space inside with anything. Gallons of water, beers, filled kegs (even if only water). It's easier to cool solids than air.

You could try adding a circulation fan too.

 

[jslive4now]

Was it your first or second pour? If it was your first, a lot of the beer came from the warm part of the fridge (the top). How long has the keg been in the kegerator? My kegs will take a good day or two to cool off.

Don't turn the thermostat lower...yet. Try filling the empty space inside with anything. Gallons of water, beers, filled kegs (even if only water). It's easier to cool solids than air.

You could try adding a circulation fan too.

I'm checking temp on my first or second pour.. The keg has been in the Fridge since Saturday morning.. I did move the bottle of water I have the thermostat in towards the front since I had it sitting on the self near the plate that cools the mini fridge...

So even having any kind of additional liquid could help??

I was thinking about a fan and probably need to do so...

 

[muels]

I rigged a computer fan to the bottom door shelf and spliced it into a cell phone charger. It's angled at a 45* angle and blows the cold air from the bottom up towards the top. Works pretty well.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[FloppyKnockers]

So even having any kind of additional liquid could help??.

Absolutely. Air is a really poor thermal conductor. It'll change temperature really quick. Water on the other hand will not. So the less air space you have in your fridge, the better.

I used to be an appliance repair tech and one of the common problems, found mostly with college students and bachelors was food is not cold enough in their fridge. Well, when you only have two bottles of beer, half a gallon of orange juice, and last night's Chinese food in there, it's really hard to keep all that air cold.

 

[RM-MN]

Put your temperature probe on what you want cold. Your glass of water is too small so it cools off quickly and the controller then thinks that that is what you wanted cold and shuts off. If you want the beer in your keg cold, put the temperature probe there. Tape it to the keg, put some insulation over it so it isn't trying to control the air temperature.