jhay said:
Did a reading yesterday and hydrometer was 1.008.read again this morning and same .Tasted great and bottled 25 740ml and 2 stubbies.Probably lost a bit with too amy hydrometer readings.(most unnecessary).Look forward to the bottles maturing.
Look forward to hearing how it turns out too mate. Post back with results when you've had a taster!
One thing i wanted to mention, are you using the stick on thermometers for your temp readings? If so, the "temp drop" may not have really happened at all.
It would take a hell of a lot of natural energy in the form of a change in the weather to affect your wort temp that rapidly. Thermal mass and all that stuff....I'm reckoning your stick on thermo (if that's what you've got) was probably reacting faster than the actual wort temp, with the actual temp of the wort lagging behind somewhat. Just a theory...
Also, nothing wrong with using water bath's to ferment in. A few years ago, i was building up stocks as my wife and i were hosting christmas, and i expected to get cleaned out by the old man, and my brother. I had four fermenters going with two different beers.
I put one of each recipe in my ferment fridge set to 18deg, and the other ones in water baths on my garage floor. Outside temp skyrocketed as it was during early december and when it was all said and done, none of the three of us could pick which was done in the fridge and which was done in the bath's. Very good way of controlling ferment temp.
However, if you're situation changes regarding having a spare fridge, carnie's suggestion of a cheapy with a stc1000 controller is a much easier and flexible way of fermenting.
Cheers,
Nath