Freestyler Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Hey all, I haven't posted in a while, its been way too hot to brew any beer over the last three months with the last batch hitting 28 degrees at times I decided to wait until I found a better setup, which I have just gotten! YESS!!![biggrin] I bought a chest freezer and a thermostat so I can now set my temps, I tested it the first night with water and set to 14 degrees and in the morning I saw on the stick on thermometer that 12-14-16 were highlighted so it seemed to be bang on. So excited to get brewing again after stocks have been almost completely depleted I mixed up an Irish Stout for the winter here and set it in last night. I should have probably played around with the thermostat a bit more to get it completely right. I added the irish stout can, 1kg of LDM and 400g of dextrose and pitched the white packet if kit yeast at around 24 degrees, a bit high. I put it in the chest freezer and set thermostat to 18, I woke up in the morning and saw the thermometer was on 12-14-16 so it was around 14 degrees. Its only been around 24 hours so I am not panicking but there is no activity whatsoever, I've since put freezer off and opened the lid and its now around 17 degrees. I know 24 hours before starting is not uncommon but have I sent the buggers to sleep if the temps dropped to 14 degrees or so? I also suspect the temps maybe lower at the bottom of the FV as the sides are cooler than the middle of the feezer area, so this could possibly have even been as low as 12 degrees. Thanks guys, good to be back. I have some serious brewing to do to get my stocks back up!! Cant wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Good to hear Freestyler and welcome back. What sort of temp controller do you have on the chesty and what type of heater are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freestyler Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hi Bill, Thanks. I have just bought a basic analogue thermostat and ran the freezer power cable through it so it basically works as a switch, when the temps gets higher than the setting it kicks in briefly. I'm not using a heater at all, the ambient temp will never be too cold here so I wont have to raise it at all. If I turn the freezer off and open the lid it gets back to 18 degrees+ fairly quickly. Even in winter this should be fine and I wont have to heat anything. I've just checked now after about 36 hours, the temp is on 20C and has been that way overnight and there is some slight activity. More than last night but a very thin layer covering roughly 80-90% of the surface Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregT5 Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Just a quick question. You mentioned that the temp rises fairly quickly when you open the lid. Where is your temp sensor? Are you measuring the air temp in the freezer or the temp of the wort? Ideally you should have the sensor against the side of the FV & insulated from the surrounding air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freestyler Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hi Greg, Yes the probe is going to be an issue, it is suspended mid air basically in the middle of the freezer area, just off the side of the FV where the stick-on thermometer is. I know its going to take some trial and error to align the temp setting on the thermostat to the thermometer on the FV. for example 22C on the thermostat equals 18C of the stick-on thermometer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamB8 Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 I have a similar setup, a few things may help you, Tape a piece of foam/polystyrene to your fermenter and push your probe in there. Sit the fermenter on some foam/polystyrene to insulate it from the floor of the freezer. Dont stick your head in the chest freezer to sniff up the gorgeous hop fumes, theres no oxygen in there due to CO2 being heavier than air and it can make you pass out [lol] (Dont ask me how I know this) Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freestyler Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 Thanks Graham, The styrofoam base sounds great, I'll sort that out this week. Regarding the CO2, I was actually just thinking that! Must resist the urge to take a big whiff! Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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