Heres A Weird One For Ya!

[coloneldom]

Ok, been brewing an ESB Aussie Draught, and with my last few brews I have struggled to keep my temps down and the fruity esters really annoy me! Anyway, this time I placed the fermenter in a plastic bin, surroudned it with water to about halfway up and placed two frozen bottles in the water, interchanging every day or half day. I had a thermometer in the water which stayed at a constant 18-20 degrees the whole time, however I couldn't check the stick on thermometer without disturbing the wort so I just left it. After a week I had a look at the stick on thermometer and it seems that every one of the little squares that changes colour according to temp are now highlighted, all the way from 10 to 40 degrees! :huh:

So I was just wondering if anyone had any idea about what was goin on, and is it possible my wort has got to hot again!?!? :angry:

 

[mika]

Don't stress, I've seen ones that never light up. I'd be ignoring the stick on strip.

 

[braufrau]

So I was just wondering if anyone had any idea about what was goin on, and is it possible my wort has got to hot again!?!? :angry:

Is the thermometer submersed? I'm not sure they like that.

 

[reveler]

yeh the stick on strips aren't all that useful.

I have a fridgemate keeping my brew at 10 degrees and the stick on strip still says 20ish. I think its broken!

 

[coloneldom]

Ahhh this is all very relieving. Just a quick question, how do you guys tell what temp your brew is at? Or do you rely on fridgemates etc? (Which I don't own and won't be owning anywhere in the near future due to the ol' Johnny Cash factor)

 

[joecast]

i just go by the stick on strip, but yeah, they probably arent all that accurate. i havent had too much trouble with them, so as long as it seems close, i think its a good guide.
in your case where all the squares had "lit up", i would pull it off and throw it out as its obviously not working. either it didnt like being under water or something else was wrong.
keep going with using a tub of cold water if that works. it's a lot better than no temp control at all, and you already have all the bits for it. good luck
joe

 

[Simon W]

A cheap digital thermometer(Something like this one:Link ) will be accurate enough.
Get one with a probe on a lead, hold the probe between the fermenter body and a block of foam(as insulation from ambient temps) with some tape.

 

[coloneldom]

Cheers for that, it might not be a bad investment for the upcoming hotter months, and even the bloody cold iwnter months in Bathurst!

 

[roger mellie]

Cheers for that, it might not be a bad investment for the upcoming hotter months, and even the bloody cold iwnter months in Bathurst!

If you really want to know what the temperature inside your fermenting beer is - you need to get a temperature measuring device into the beer. Just relying on measuring the ambient temp in a fridge will not 'accurately' show the ferment temp. Close but sometimes 2 or 3 degrees different from experimentation.

Try a keg dip tube through the lid of your fermenter - crimped at the end - with the probe of a fridgemate or similar inside - make sure it is watertight though.

RM

 

[EK]

I (mostly) submerge my fermenter into water and do the whole frozen bottle thing as well. I find that the stick-on thermometer gets somewhat discoloured by the water (turns a bit white), but that it reverted after the tank was removed and it dried out.

I also found that the thermometer was probably reflecting the external water and not that of the fermenting wort. To solve this, I got another stick-on thermometer and stuck it on sideways above the water but below the line of the wort. This shows the temperature of the wort as well as the stick-on ones always have (however good that actually is). This has worked well for me and will probably do so...until I can afford to buy a brewing fridge.

 

[coloneldom]

Good advice all round, the second stick on idea seems pretty good for a tight arse uni student like myself EK, cheers mate!