Hello from Galway

[KevinF]

Hi there, first of all great forum I've been browsing for the last few months especially the how to guides.
I'm on my second kit brew the first was a craft range red ale from homebrewwest and turned out great. I picked up a Irish stout from the same range today and made it up earlier, unfortunately a few plant leaves fell into the malt extract when I was adding the water I quickly fished them out so here's hoping they won't cause any problems. Here's a photo of my setup



Fv sits in a container half filled with water fitted with a 50w aquarium heater set at 22 degrees sitting on 4 inches of insulated boards. I use a multimeter to monitor temperatures the digital thermometer on the back wall was just added today


   

[Flanagan]

Hello Kevin, looks like a fairly nice set up and you have the most important stuff sorted around fermenting temperature. So what regulates the temperature, is it the aquarium heater or the multimeter? I use an STC-1000 and a heating belt myself but they're a bit of hassle to wire up, fit into a box etc (I've done it twice now). Also 22C might be a tad high for the beer, not very detrimental but I'd be starting of sub-20 myself in case the ferment takes off and it rockets up to the mid 20s.

I am in Galway myself. I was brewing for a few years overseas but only getting started here since I've come home. Hoping to get work in Galway so if I do I might see you around at a meetup or something.

[KevinF]

The aquarium heater has a built in thermostat which controls the temperature. The multimeter was just for monitoring. I may hook it to an stc-1000 for better control down the line as the fv temp can lag behind the water by a couple of degrees. I'll adjust it down to 20 in a while.
I tried a red ale last night and was a bit disappointed, it's my own fault I had the temp up way too high for that batch.