Temperature Controller Malfunction

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vr4_psych

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I returned home from dinner to see my beer (brown IPA) which was supposed to cold conditioning sitting at 70C. Turns out my controlling unit had malfunctioned and decided that it would try to reach 111C. Thankfully the aquarium heater topped out before then!

Current tasting is not proving very positive and I'm attempting to get the temperature down as quickly as I can. It appears as though all hop flavour and aroma has been scratched out and alcohol has become a lot more prominent.

While I'm going to attempt to rescue this beer if possible I was just wondering if anyone had any advice/reasons why I shouldn't even bother before I dump a whole lot more hops into this.

Cheers,
Leigh
 
I returned home from dinner to see my beer (brown IPA) which was supposed to cold conditioning sitting at 70C. Turns out my controlling unit had malfunctioned and decided that it would try to reach 111C. Thankfully the aquarium heater topped out before then

Forgive my brashness, but your post is confusing. I dont understand any of those figures, even compensating for error. Did you make two typos? If your actually talking degrees Fahrenheit, then 70f would be 21c, too warm for cold conditioning, and if you meant 7c, that's still too warm.

What is your temp controller, and have you determined what the issue is ? (settings, faulty unit, bad wiring).
 
Forgive my brashness, but your post is confusing. I dont understand any of those figures, even compensating for error. Did you make two typos? If your actually talking degrees Fahrenheit, then 70f would be 21c, too warm for cold conditioning, and if you meant 7c, that's still too warm.

What is your temp controller, and have you determined what the issue is ? (settings, faulty unit, bad wiring).

Sorry for the confusion. When I left home the controller was set at 1C. However, upon return the controller had decided to reset itself at 111C. I know that this was not simply human error as the maximum setting on the controller is 40C. As the aquarium heater is not strong enough to reach 111C, it instead got it up to 70C.

Regarding the unit, it is a Weipro aquarium controller. A quick testing of the unit shows that when it is switched off and switched on again (ie. as per a power surge) the unit does arbitrarily reset its temperature to a seemingly random number. But that's a side issue - this is going into the bin before my next batch.

Leigh
 
Well look on the good side that you didn't have it controlling a fish tank full of expensive fish! The other positive is that ethanol boils at 78C so you could still drink the results and get pissed. I'd contact Weipro and tell them about this problem.
 
Similar thing happened to my Craftbrewer TempMate

It was misreading the temperature, one minute 11c, the next 90C, then error, then -5 etc...

So, the fridge is cycling on, off and the heater on off, eventually I realized that I wasnt maintaining 14c very well...

Turned out the sensor probe was kaput
 
Well look on the good side that you didn't have it controlling a fish tank full of expensive fish! The other positive is that ethanol boils at 78C so you could still drink the results and get pissed. I'd contact Weipro and tell them about this problem.

Will do. And correct - ~$50 on grain and hops is cheap in comparison. Based on the small samples I've had I'm not convinced it's much more drinkable than petrol

Similar thing happened to my Craftbrewer TempMate

It was misreading the temperature, one minute 11c, the next 90C, then error, then -5 etc...

So, the fridge is cycling on, off and the heater on off, eventually I realized that I wasnt maintaining 14c very well...

Turned out the sensor probe was kaput

That sucks. Given that mine seemed to be reading a fairly accurate temperature (the beer was most definitely 70C), I think more than just the tempt probe is fucked.

Leigh
 
Final update for tonight - realised that my controller can only measure up to 70C so the temperature may have in fact been a lot higher. Based on my tasting it would have to have been at least that given the complete eradication of hop flavour and aroma. Thus, as a result of the headache and nausea this beer has also given me, I'm going to tip it.

Cheers,
Leigh
 
That's one hell of an aquarium heater.
I might have to get one of them for my HLT :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

70C? Did you burn your mouth when you tried it?
 
That's one hell of an aquarium heater.
I might have to get one of them for my HLT :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

70C? Did you burn your mouth when you tried it?
The aquarium heater doesn't directly apply heat to the fermenter but to a small body of water (5-8L?) surrounding it. Funnily enough, I didn't drink it when it was still reading 70C but there was steam coming out of the fermenter when I took the glad wrap off. Moreover, the sample I drew off (100ml?) and left in the freezer for 15 min before testing was still warm enough to be confused for terrible coffee.

Edit: Oh, and I when I first tried to smell the beer I accidentally inhaled and I have a feeling it was alcohol vapour.
 

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