Beer Forum

I made a quick slide show featuring my converted chest freezer and upright fridge that I use to control my carboy temps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cWa2Owl ... annel_page

I'd love some input

Should I be insulating the carboys?

Nice video, Blowmax10,
I wouldn’t worry about insulating the carboys, but I would find some way to affix the temperature probe to one of the carboys and insulate that. I normally put the probe against the carboy, cover that with bubble wrap, and tape it to the carboy. Using ambient temp inside of the freezer may not actually have you at the fermentation temps you are shooting for.

Again, great video. Keep ‘em coming. There wasn’t much video out there when I started homebrewing. I think that it will really help new brewers out if they can actually see stuff being used.

crupp wrote:Nice video, Blowmax10,
I wouldn’t worry about insulating the carboys, but I would find some way to affix the temperature probe to one of the carboys and insulate that. I normally put the probe against the carboy, cover that with bubble wrap, and tape it to the carboy. Using ambient temp inside of the freezer may not actually have you at the fermentation temps you are shooting for.

Again, great video. Keep ‘em coming. There wasn’t much video out there when I started homebrewing. I think that it will really help new brewers out if they can actually see stuff being used.

Thanks man, that's great feed back and a REALLY good idea about the probe

Don't thank me, thank the BN. That's where I learned it!

it seems like putting the probe against the surface of a carboy and insulating that in some fashion is the most popular way to probe your box (heh. heh.)

but i heard a recent argument for using a thermowell that swayed me: putting your probe in a thermowell means a slower change in temperature at the probe and therefore less switching on and off of your freezer and hopefully more stable temps in the beer itself. if your wort is 70 degrees and you put it in the freezer set for 68, the center of your wort will not be 68 when the surface of the carboy is 68. if your probe was in a thermowell in this case the freezer would still be running.

thoughts anyone? i'm on the verge of investing in a freezer and temp controller so I'd love to hear some arguments against spending extra money on a thermowell, also i'd avoid having another piece of equipment to sanitize on brewday.

Phil wrote:it seems like putting the probe against the surface of a carboy and insulating that in some fashion is the most popular way to probe your box (heh. heh.)

but i heard a recent argument for using a thermowell that swayed me: putting your probe in a thermowell means a slower change in temperature at the probe and therefore less switching on and off of your freezer and hopefully more stable temps in the beer itself. if your wort is 70 degrees and you put it in the freezer set for 68, the center of your wort will not be 68 when the surface of the carboy is 68. if your probe was in a thermowell in this case the freezer would still be running.

thoughts anyone? i'm on the verge of investing in a freezer and temp controller so I'd love to hear some arguments against spending extra money on a thermowell, also i'd avoid having another piece of equipment to sanitize on brewday.

I get what your saying but I don't think the probe for the analog Johnson controller that I have will fit in the termowell

nice vid!
please tell me you dont lift those carboys out with those handles -crut

Crut wrote:nice vid!
please tell me you dont lift those carboys out with those handles -crut

why?

I've heard you can break them like that but I've never had a problem