Fermenting fridge STC failed...

[Dunkelbrau]

I had a pretty hearty brew session on sunday morning, i managed to make 25L of 1.120 wort to pitch wy1728. All went well, ticked all the boxes.. tastes awesome pre ferment!

Pitched on sunday afternoon, and checked yesterday, no sign of ferment... no worries i thought, still early in the day it may have been only 12-14 hours since pitching. I got home from work today to notice that the thermometer from the STC had fallen out of the fridge somehow (assuming someone else opened the fridge and it was knocked out as it was in there when i left it yesterday (i made sure it was positioned in its usual manner). Not really a failure of the STC i guess..

My wort is totally untouched by the yeast, and has dropped down below 10.. probably around 4-5 degrees. Is warming it up going to help? if so.. quickly? slowly?

I have some 71B wine yeast i can pitch as it is a Braggot with 6kgs of honey to 6.25kg malt but i was saving that for the possibility of bottle conditioning (pitching that late once the 1728 has done most of the hard yards).

Any ideas/previous experiences?

 

[QldKev]

Shove the probe back in the fridge, and set it to the normal temp for the yeast and let it come back at the rate within the fridge. As the yeast comes back to temperature it should kick up. If 12-24hrs after it's back to temp and no signs of life give it a stir with a sanatised spoon.

 

[Dunkelbrau]

Thanks Kev! Life saver!

That's what my gut feelings were, I chucked the probe back in straight away.. see how it goes tomorrow after work.

 

[Truman42]

As learnt from others on here I tape my probe to my fermenter then tape some foam over the top. Firstly so it measures my wort temp more accurately instead of just the fridge space temp. And now secondly so the probe can't fall out of the fridge.

 

[Dunkelbrau]

As learnt from others on here I tape my probe to my fermenter then tape some foam over the top. Firstly so it measures my wort temp more accurately instead of just the fridge space temp. And now secondly so the probe can't fall out of the fridge.

That's a good idea, I currently have the cable lightly wrapped around a block of wood with the probe touching the fermenter wall.. Didn't even think of tape!

 

[roverfj1200]

I use a old lid rubber around the fermenter with the probe under a sock against the wall of the fermenter. This stops the fridge cycling to much and cools the wort faster.

Cheers

 

[Yob]

I've now done away with tape, occy straps, blu-tak or anything else.. Temp probe is lodged in a wad of foam, and then pressed between fv and the wall of the fridge.. Simple, no mess or faffing about..

Of course you do have to remember to place it, but that's the same with any method

 

[Rocker1986]

I highly doubt it cools the wort faster by doing that. It just looks like it's cooling faster because the probe isn't very well insulated against ambient temps through a sock so it changes faster.

The wort itself will change temperature at the same rate whether you dangle the probe in the fridge, put it under a sock against the FV or tape it underneath foam to the FV. The degree of accuracy of measurement however, does change.