National Homebrew Club Ireland

Hi . I'm taping my glass mercury standard thermometer to the outside of plastic bucket fv with cardboard to make it easy to take out and check everyday.
Q1/ if it says 20oc is the inside REALLY going to be 3-5oc higher during first 48 or am I likely getting the accurate reading as I've insulated the thermo on the side. ?
Q2/ it's read between 18-20oc the first 72 hrs and it's Safale05 dry but rehydrated will this be perfect or due to fluctuation will it have negative flaws?
Q3/ is Safale05 very good in general (dry) for pale & ipa
I want to brew flawless beer so I'll upgrade the fv later on and use belt and fridge but for...

Optimal way of measuring and controlling temp is having a thermowell in your vessel.
Plastic is a great insulator and strapping your Mercury to it won't reflect accurately what's going on inside the vessel.
A stop gap would be the Lcd strips before you decide to go mad with themowells

Second the thermowell. I used to use a probe strapped to the side of the vessel and there was about a 2-3C difference during active fermentation.

i strap my stc probe to the side and insulate it with a damp cotton pad and some insulation foam.
LCD is the simplest though

First I used to tape a sponge over the probe, then I bluetacked the probe to the side. Neither gave me the control I wanted, so I installed a big thermowell in my fermenter. I haven't seen the temp go above or below 0.2˚C of my target. Would recommend one if possible for you.

Nothing stopping you using an STC-100 as a temperature sensor.
Drill a small hole (just big enough to fit the probe) in the top of your FV, santize the probe and put it into the beer.
Then put some vaseline around the opening to prevent the relese of air.

I do it with my DS18b20 leads for the brewpi. Works great.

Or a cheapish ebay s/steel thermowell for the probe using a standard bung size, ~€14 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15-Stopper-Thermowell-Carboy-Stainless-Steel-304-Homebrew-Brewing-/111828920168?hash=item1a0985e768:g:bzoAAOSw6dNWTwtI)

(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTQ0WDE2MDA=/z/bzoAAOSw6dNWTwtI/$_57.JPG)

Quote from: pob on March 14, 2016, 01:15:19 PM
Or a cheapish ebay s/steel thermowell for the probe using a standard bung size, ~€14 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15-Stopper-Thermowell-Carboy-Stainless-Steel-304-Homebrew-Brewing-/111828920168?hash=item1a0985e768:g:bzoAAOSw6dNWTwtI)

(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTQ0WDE2MDA=/z/bzoAAOSw6dNWTwtI/$_57.JPG)

Has anyone bought one of these? Will an STC probe fit?

Yep I have loads for glass carboys but use the digital probes which are thicker again

Quote from: BrewDorg on March 13, 2016, 11:17:07 PM
First I used to tape a sponge over the probe, then I bluetacked the probe to the side. Neither gave me the control I wanted, so I installed a big thermowell in my fermenter. I haven't seen the temp go above or below 0.2˚C of my target. Would recommend one if possible for you.

Stainless shiny fermenter. What type of container is that?

Shanna

Quote from: Shanna on March 14, 2016, 07:56:26 PM

Quote from: BrewDorg on March 13, 2016, 11:17:07 PM
First I used to tape a sponge over the probe, then I bluetacked the probe to the side. Neither gave me the control I wanted, so I installed a big thermowell in my fermenter. I haven't seen the temp go above or below 0.2˚C of my target. Would recommend one if possible for you.

Stainless shiny fermenter. What type of container is that?

Shanna

It's a Bergland 33L stock pot. I don't bother using an airlock or anything with it, but I felt the thermowell was well worth adding. I did a homebrewing course in November with Ger Costello from Costellos brewing and he said a stainless fermenter is one of the best investments to make and that you don't really need to have an airlock on it, so I went for it.

My next upgrade is this tap which just arrived today: http://www.ssbrewtech.com/collections/accessories/products/miniballvalvewnewrackingarm

Plastic Glass Stainless is the way to go depending on your budget for sure.
A homebrewing course, how much was that?
Please tell me you educated him from your knowledge gained from the forum :D

The course was ran in the Thomastown School of Food (http://schooloffood.ie/short-courses.html). It was €90 and ran 2 over Saturdays. The first Saturday, he ran through the process and theory of brewing and we had a beer tasting session with some Irish beers he chose. The second day, we went through a full all-grain brewday for a beer style we decided on the previous week. When I did the course, I was still doing kits so it was a great step into all-grain. I'd highly recommend it if it's run again.

I think I was a bit raw at the time to be throwing out lessons to a pro but next time I surely will ;)

Right next brewday pics I'm charging the NHC  :P, Money for old rope...

Quote from: CH on March 15, 2016, 08:04:21 PM
Right next brewday pics I'm charging the NHC  :P, Money for old rope...

+1 they charge €90 when all the knowledge is free right here :o

I'd lay odd's that the teacher they have would use us as a reference  :P

Quote from: BrewDorg on March 14, 2016, 08:54:13 PM

Quote from: Shanna on March 14, 2016, 07:56:26 PM

Quote from: BrewDorg on March 13, 2016, 11:17:07 PM
First I used to tape a sponge over the probe, then I bluetacked the probe to the side. Neither gave me the control I wanted, so I installed a big thermowell in my fermenter. I haven't seen the temp go above or below 0.2˚C of my target. Would recommend one if possible for you.

Stainless shiny fermenter. What type of container is that?

Shanna

It's a Bergland 33L stock pot. I don't bother using an airlock or anything with it, but I felt the thermowell was well worth adding. I did a homebrewing course in November with Ger Costello from Costellos brewing and he said a stainless fermenter is one of the best investments to make and that you don't really need to have an airlock on it, so I went for it.

My next upgrade is this tap which just arrived today: http://www.ssbrewtech.com/collections/accessories/products/miniballvalvewnewrackingarm

Put the ss brewtech tap in tonight, works great and rotates easily..very happy with it (http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160315/d11034c734e35db40fb49167c5c20140.jpg)

Quote from: CH on March 14, 2016, 11:53:37 PM
Plastic Glass Stainless is the way to go depending on your budget for sure.
A homebrewing course, how much was that?
Please tell me you educated him from your knowledge gained from the forum :D

For a hands on course, including lunch and beer, I think the €90 was well worth it. Like I said though, I was pretty new at the time so found it a lot more useful than I would now.

@darren looking good, I'll get mine in tomorrow!

Have you a ticket for Brewcon? coffee, lunch, beer, goody bag (with stuff in it to match ticket price), 8 hours of as much as you would ever want to know about brewing beer and all for only €50

More seriously though I would encourage folks to also join their local club and go to brew days you can pick up an amazing amount just watching somebody else brew.

Won't be free that weekend unfortunately, but the events look great. 50 is a bargain!

There's no club in Kilkenny, or even near Kilkenny at the moment. I've been keeping an eye out for the Rebel Brewers meets in case there happens to be one on when I'm home.

Jaysus there must be a few Brewers around Kilkenny!

You'd think so! I know one other homebrewer up here but I know neither of us have the spare time at the minute to set up a club or run meetings :(

Do the rest of ye not run thermowells into your fermentors?  I thought if you were going to the effort of regulating fermentation temperature and running lagging and a heater/STC you might as well put in the thermowell?

Interesting thread. It started me off on my paranoia about my methods. I have two Inkbird ITC-1000 units which I tape to the outside of my fermentors and put a couple of layers of insulation on top - pretty reliable, really, I think. Anyway, I took the temperature with my glass spirit thermometer and there was at least a degree celsius in the difference, with the Inkbird reading higher by one degree.

Right........ on with the testing. Using the iced water and boiling water techniques I checked the spirit thermometer and a dial thermometer and one of the Inkbirds. (Actually I didn't subject the Inkbird to the boiling water ). Dial and glass were spot on at 0°, the Inkbird was +0.4°. Dial and glass at boiling were 101° and 103° respectively. So,  measuring water which was at 20° with the most reliable (dial), glass was at 20.5° and Inkbird at 21.6°. I attached my second Inkbird to the fermentor that the first was on and they matched.

Both my Inkbird ITC-100s were out by 1.5 degrees celsius at the level where temperature is most important. Sheeesh!

Comments?

Quote from: cruiscinlan on March 16, 2016, 04:51:16 PM
Do the rest of ye not run thermowells into your fermentors?  I thought if you were going to the effort of regulating fermentation temperature and running lagging and a heater/STC you might as well put in the thermowell?

A thermowell is a great investment when regulating temps. I have noticed less variation in temps with my stc and brew belt

As a matter of interest those ebay thermowells are 15" long, too long for the plastic bucket fermentors, I think.

Nah, the bung slides down to whatever length you want.

Can the eBay thermowells be used with a grommet instead of a bung? Thinking for a bucket rather than a carboy.

Quote from: banjobrew on May 19, 2016, 10:33:23 PM
Can the eBay thermowells be used with a grommet instead of a bung? Thinking for a bucket rather than a carboy.

Yep they can

Make sure you have diameter of both before drilling lid! I have 4 or 5 from China and they aren't always as published in the case of the diameter