Beer Forum

New Frigidaire Chest freezer and Johnson Temp Controller. Trying to hold the freezer at 68 deg to see how it does. Swings 63 - 69. Will this dampen once I have some thermal mass in there (kegs/carboys.)

Going to drop it to 50 deg F and see how it does. Just curious what experience people have with fermenting in a chest freezer.

I sounds like it is working like it is supposed to. You appear to have it actually set at 66° and the 3° differential is what you are seeing.

Air will change temp more quickly than liquid will. When you actually get a fermenter in there you need to either tape the probe directly to the fermenter (with a bit of insulation over it) or use a thermowell. This will keep the freezer from cycling whenever you open the door to check on how fermentation is going.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

They way it works with my Ranco controller (and I don't know how different the Johnson one is), I set the desired temperature and I set the differential. If I tell it to keep a temperature of, say, 68 with a 3 degree differential, it will cool down until the sensor reads a temperature of 65 (68 minus 3). It will then turn off the compressor until the temperature rises above 68, at which time it will cool down to 65 again.

I actually have it set to 68 with a 1 degree differential. Works great.

I'was set at 68 w/ a 1 deg diff, but I 'll go check my controller again. Keg going in tonight so I droped it to 50...we'll see what happens.

Still tweaking the setings. I'll take any recommendations at this point. Freezer is at 42 deg F, holding about 12 PSI, 6' of 3/16 inch beer line to a pony tap I pour just above the keg (maybe 12-18 inches above center of keg?)

Beer pours fast, great initial head that fades to an undercarbonated glass of beer. I know I need to run the numbers for the actual pressure at the tap.

I assume this is your homebrew-- how long has it been carbonating? It's possible that the CO2 may not be fully dissolved into solution yet, so you get large fish eye bubbles that don't last.

Been carbonating 10 days or so now...