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They must be referring to the temperature of the yeasties themselves, which would be the fermenter temperature. Nothing else makes sense.
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Most of the heat is usually lost through the lid in coolers. Cooler lids are not well insulated. The bodies are. This is because they are meant to keep things cold not hot. Heat rises and a cooler lid isn't designed to actually handle it. Some coolers are better than others. I have used several and found wide differences.
I found that if I covered the ...
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It uses peltier devices - a thermoelectric cooling/heating device - when a current is applied they chill on one side and warm the other. They're quite common but relatively inefficient in terms of energy compared to a compressor that you'd find in a fridge. Their efficiency is based on how quickly you can dissipate the heat generated. Thermal design is a key ...
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The main point of raising the temp is simple. As the sugars become limiting the yeast begin to enter a dormancy phase. As yeast slow down the temp of your fermentation begins to lower too. That lowering temp is also a signal to yeast to go dormant. This causes a cyclical effect of potential having the yeast drop out sooner than you want and you do not ...
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As you drink the beer, more CO2 needs to be put in the keg to maintain the carbonation level. For beer at 65-75F°F, that's quite warm, and you'll need around 25psi to maintain the carbonation level. My guess is that you weren't holding the keg at this pressure, so it slowly loses carbonation as the beer is consumed.
Dispensing at this pressure can be ...
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Beer needs to be warmer when you bottle condition. This allows the yeast to work hard at getting the priming sugar into CO2. However, too warm and the beer will stale faster.
I recommend moving the box to a cooler area of the house (like a cupboard that is not against a wall that gets direct sunlight). DO NOT COOL THE BEER! Leave it for two weeks, then put ...
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Optimal about 18C-20C. But almost any temperature between 5 and 25 will work. If cooler then it takes longer. It is possible to go higher but there may be some more fruity esters produced although not very much... Best keep it at lower temperature range of 15-20C for about two weeks or so.
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1) Do I raise after 3 days or some other amount? (Rule of thumb here as I'm not going to take gravity readings)
Assuming you aren't taking gravity readings, therefor you aren't examining the apparent attenuation, your best bet is to wait until after high-krausen. This really depends on the gravity of the beer, what yeast your using (ale vs. lager, fast ...
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I don't think that this is going to work very well, stripping out the barrier between the freezer and the refrigerator. Any number of things could happen:
You risk damaging the refrigerant lines that may pass between or go around the freezer portion,
Unless you can disable the freezer, you may find it working extra hard to try and maintain the thermostat ...
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Many people will re-purpose chest freezers as fermentation chambers and they will place their carboys and buckets inside of them. Chest freezers do have their benefits as they are insulated and capable of cooling to any temperature (with the use of a temperature controller) wort would need for fermentation. They are often the home brewer's go-to for ...
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And Here is Flex-Watt Heat Tape, as used in herpological applications.
They are all exactly the same stuff, the homebrew products are just cut to fit carboys and pre-assembled. It's just a big resistive element, really.
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You have to base the choice on what temp you want to ferment at, not necessarily an analytical choice in the optimum range. Different points in that range will create certain flavor profiles, all temps will make beer. The profile you want comes from experience.
You need to remember that the fermentation itself generates heat. I am sure that your temp ...
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First of all, once you remove the trub bulb, there is no need to add another one. If you don't add another trub bulb and open the valve, how are you getting your "glub"? The idea is, attach the bulb before you rack in your wort and pitch yeast, transfer the wort and open the valve (that way your hand is on the valve and you can verify that nothing is ...
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A little worried, perhaps, but regardless you should attempt to keep the yeast/beer itself in the yeast's ideal temperature range. If you have a temp controller, then look into getting some sort of "thermowell" to put the temp controller's sensor in the middle of the fermentor itself, but taping (and insulting) the probe against the side of the fermentor ...
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Yes, if you switch your freezer on and off in quick succession the compressor gives up the ghost and you have a box that can actually turn into a semi-oven.
Good news! thermostats like the STC-1000 have a timer (that you can set) that tells it not to power on/off within that period. I have mine set to 10 minutes.
When you buy a temp control device, just ...
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First off, there's no need to worry about leaching tannins in the boil. Tannins are mostly found in the husk fraction of the malt. This means you have to be careful with the temperature only when the grain is in the water. So you should be safe in that regard.
However the question you're asking is what temperature to boil at.
'is there a temperature ...
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I live in the south of England where it has recently been even colder than "oop North". At this time of year I go with the seasons and brew the year's supply of lager(!!!). Its perfectly lagered and crisp by summer.
However to answer the particular question - yes, I brew ales, light and dark, during the winter months at "less than room temperature" and they ...
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You are correct when you say the warmer the brews are stored the faster carbonation will complete.
Carbonation is a mini fermentation, so ideally you would want it to complete around the same temperature as you brewed your beer.
Higher temperatures for carbonation can produce or accelerate the production of of flavours in multiple ways, the first that ...
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It is definitely the temperature of the fermenting liquid. What you normally would do is fit a thermometer (like a crystal thermometer) against the side of the fermentor. Then you have a good view of the temperature of the fermentation.
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Jumping off from some of the comments already posted:
I think to make sense of this it helps to realize that, for those brewers who produce most of the beer in the world and who are probably the most significant portion of these yeast manufacturers' business (that is, commercial brewers), the ambient temperature is, for the most part, basically irrelevant.
...
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It sounds like you could be right - if the existing fridge doesn't get cold enough, then the thermostat is opening (disconnecting the circuit) above your target temperature, so the unit doesn't get cold enough. I'm assuming you've looked for some adjustment on the thermostat - most fridges have these.
So, if you have connected the A419 to the mains socket ...
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I use one of these seedling heat mats as my heat source inside a freezer. They're built to have stuff sitting on top of them, they're water resistant, and they heat gently. Seems pretty safe to me.
That said, you can make any of these options much safer by plugging your temperature controller into a GFCI outlet.
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I use a wine fridge that I took the shelves out of. I can fit a 5 gallon fermenter into it. It has a digital temp display on the front and I set that to the temp I want, it works well for the German lagers I make. Most wne fridges I looked at when I was after one had a flat bottom big enough to take a 5 gallon fermenter.
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the closest thing you can get with out spending an arm and a leg is getting a brewPI, I dont have one, but it says it can log locally and has a bunch of different functions, and a web interface. you may be able to follow this guide to hack your existing fridge to be compatible.
personally, i like to build things so i would get a raspberry Pi, put a Lamp ...
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Based on what John Palmer says about cleaning copper with various acids, I wouldn't use copper in the acidic environment of fermenting beer.
If you can get your hands on a stainless coil though, the idea will work. SS Brewtech has a Fermentation Temp Stabilization System along these lines.
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The main reason you need an external temperature controller is because the thermostat on a fridge or freezer isn't in the right temperature range. Also they are typically not calibrated and offer only approximate control.
Some appliances have a digital thermostat, and you might be able to use these if they fall within the required temperature range. For ...
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AFAIK one of those puts out a lot of heat. You could also consider a Fermwrap heater, which goes on sale once or twice a year for $10 or so.
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Remember that yeast are living things and will regulate their own temperature as best they can. I've kept fermenters in rooms with an ambient temp around 18C and the yeast raised the fermenter temp to about 20C. You could also help them by wrapping the fermenter in an insulated blanket.
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The Advanced temperature control algorithm of BrewPi uses both environmental and fermentation vessel temperature (multiple sensors). The problem this solves is the air surrounding your fermenting wort will always change quicker than the wort.
Depending on where you put the sensor from a STC-1000 the liquid will either warm/cool more than expected because ...
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I have 2x fermentation fridges, and both have heaters (heat-pads) connected to the STC-1000. My fridges live outside, so suffer winter lows (~ 0C/32F) and summer highs (~ 45C/113F).
If you're confident the environment your fridge is in will never get below say 15C (point at which ale yeasts typically go somewhat dormant), then there is no need for a heating ...
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