Beer Forum

So I'm sure this topic has come up before. but I'm new here, so I have an excuse

I just got a chest freezer a couple weeks ago and plugged it in to a thermostat. I just dangle the temp probe over the side in to the freezer and let it hang about halfway down.

For ale temps, what ambient temp should I be shooting for? I've been keeping it at about 65f, but fear the temps in the beer from fermentation are going to be too high. Since I've never used a setup like this, I'm not entirely sure where to set my ambient temp.

Any suggestions?

Here's a pic of what's going on. I'm only brewing 1gal batches, so in case the volume of beer is critical, I thought I'd point that out.

Evan Burck wrote:So I'm sure this topic has come up before. but I'm new here, so I have an excuse

I just got a chest freezer a couple weeks ago and plugged it in to a thermostat. I just dangle the temp probe over the side in to the freezer and let it hang about halfway down.

For ale temps, what ambient temp should I be shooting for? I've been keeping it at about 65f, but fear the temps in the beer from fermentation are going to be too high. Since I've never used a setup like this, I'm not entirely sure where to set my ambient temp.

Any suggestions?

Here's a pic of what's going on. I'm only brewing 1gal batches, so in case the volume of beer is critical, I thought I'd point that out.

As I learned here.... I tape the JC probe to the side of the carboy. Then I sandwich a folded piece of bubble wrap between that and the fridge/freezer wall to keep it fairly insulated. No dangling for me.

Oh, and that looks liek the same damned freezer I use for my other 2 batches. If it is the same, you can only fit a 6 gallon and a 5 gallon at any given time.

65 sounds good to me, you could put it down to 60 if your worried about it... You should put one of those "fermometer's"(the sticky thermometer strip) on the carboy to get a better idea of what the liquid temp is.

Thank you for the advice gentlemen! I'll try this bubblewrap method

I do the probe dangle just like you. I have a cheap digital thermometer that has the probe on a six foot wire. I tape that probe to the carboy then adjust the Johnson Controller to whatever temp I want. I do this because the temp indicated on my Johnson is usually off by 6-8 degrees from what I measure. I will post some pics of my setup when I get a chance.

i have a cheap thermometer in there with everything, and it seems to be pretty consistent to what i have the thermostat set at. is it pretty common for them to be off? i know they're supposed to have a 3ish degree fluctuation on either side of what you have it set at.

I prefer to measure the temperature of the beer, not the air. Experiments have show a difference of about 0.5 F between the probe taped to the side of the carboy (and insulated as shown) and a thermowell inserted into the middle of the beer so either is great in my opinion.