Insulating Temerature Control Probe?

[Crambo]

Hi, i am just about to put down my first FWK its a ND Cherny Pivo (Dark Lager), very excited to taste this as i am a bandit for a dark lager. It will be the first time ive used my temp control and fridge as i wanted to step up from the tub of water and ice bricks for my FWK. My question is, where is best for the temp probe to sit? At the moment i have it hanging from the roof of the fridge. I have also seen mentions of insulating the temperature probe, is this necessary? And if so, for what reason and what am i best insulating it with?

Cheers all.. :beerbang:

 

[Baulko Brewer]

I put my probe in a PET bottle with water in it. This seems to be pretty accurate. It stays in the water full time and to date have not had an issue

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

Hi, i am just about to put down my first FWK its a ND Cherry Pivo (Dark Lager), very excited to taste this as i am a bandit for a dark lager. It will be the first time ive used my temp control and fridge as i wanted to step up from the tub of water and ice bricks for my FWK. My question is, i have seen mentions of insulating the temperature probe that sits inside the fridge for the temp control, is this necessary? And if so, for what reason and what am i best insulating it with?

Cheers all.. :beerbang:

The reason you need to, is otherwise the tempreture would be going up and down too quick and before you know it your fridge is dead. To insulate my probe I use two bits of duct tape to tape it to the fermentor and then place bubble wrap over the top that has been folded three times.

 

[felten]

Hi, i am just about to put down my first FWK its a ND Cherny Pivo (Dark Lager), very excited to taste this as i am a bandit for a dark lager. It will be the first time ive used my temp control and fridge as i wanted to step up from the tub of water and ice bricks for my FWK. My question is, where is best for the temp probe to sit? At the moment i have it hanging from the roof of the fridge. I have also seen mentions of insulating the temperature probe, is this necessary? And if so, for what reason and what am i best insulating it with?

Cheers all.. :beerbang:

You want to stick the temp probe to the side of your FV with some kind of insulation against the ambient temperature, this way you can monitor the actual temperature of your beer, which can be 4-5c above the ambient temp.

This should help keep the temps down on the most active part of the ferment at the beginning, and keep from dropping the temps too much at the end of the ferment (depending on ambient) when the yeast stop producing heat.

 

[whippee]

what about sticking the thermocouple in the wort? Is this a good idea?

thanks

 

[jamiefbacon]

what about sticking the thermocouple in the wort? Is this a good idea?

thanks

This is what i do only started doing it 4 batches ago but havent had a problem yet. I find it easier as i use gladwrap instead of lid and just chuck it in (after steralising) gladwrap on rubber band all done. I was having trouble with tape n insulation falling off outside of fv so found this a much easier way.

cheers
Jbacon

 

[argon]

the way i do it is to attach the probe to the side of the fermenter kept in place by a piece of elastic wrapped around the fermenter with wetsuit material stubby-holder insulating it from the ambient air.

From the material that i've read and the podcast on brewing network that investigated the best location for the probe, suggests that the measured temperature of the beer inside the fermenter is no more than +-0.1C when measuring against the wall of the fermenter and insulating from ambient air.

 

[stux]

I use a large thermowell from beerbelly to suspend the probe in the wort.

I find this gets me exactly the temp I want without the swings I was getting when sticking to the outside of the fermenter

 

[hotchilli]

To insulate my probe I use two bits of duct tape to tape it to the fermentor and then place bubble wrap over the top that has been folded three times.

I've also been using bubble wrap (folded 4 times, ie: 8 layers) for a coule of weeks now and it's working quite well. Air is a good insulator and having it trapped in the plastic bubbles means the air around the probe and closest to the fermenter isn't readily affected by the cool air inside the fridge.

 

[Flippo]

I do two wetsuit material stubby holders, probe underneath taped all around the edges onto the side of the fermenter. Never had a problem.

 

[Darkman]

I use piece of foam with a cavity carved out of it large enough to fit the probe into then use a bike inner tube to attached it to the outside of the fermenter .

 

[DUANNE]

im another one using a stubby holder. just cut one in half and tape it to the side of the fermenter then slide the probe in to the space between the two. seems accurate enough to me and oesnt cycle the fridge to much. im not sure about the bottle of water technique though because i fail to see how that can compensate for the extra heat the active yeast are creating in the fermentor.

 

[petes180]

I do two wetsuit material stubby holders, probe underneath taped all around the edges onto the side of the fermenter. Never had a problem.

+1

 

[Crambo]

thanks for all the tips and info guys. I went with sterilising the probe and putting it in the batch. I use the glad wrap method and thought it would be the easiest and most accurate way to control the temp. Wish me luck, cheers.