Temp controlled fermentaton

[crow_flies]

I had a beer ruin over recently and I suspect the culprit was too high temps during fermentation. The beer just is over bitter and I can taste harsh alcohols on the swallow.

Anyhow I invested recently in an atc800 and have it wired to my fridge and did a black sheep clone earlier today - all looks promising, the wort was extremely clear and tasted great going into the FV.

I have used Nottingham yeast which I've used successfully in the past and set the temperature to 18c with a 1c differential. The sensor I placed about 1/2 way down the side of the FV.

question is whether this is a good temperature or should I go a little higher? looked on the lallemend site, but it just say that it can ferment in 4 days at over 17c, but it doesnt actually state what is an ideal temp or what the max is.

any advice chaps?

/CF

[maxashton]

Ideal temp for most ale yeasts is around 20 degrees. 18 will probably be fine, just perhaps a bit slower.

[crow_flies]

yeah thanks I concluded that too having just read some other stuff on google. Given the margin of error with the probe not actually being in the wort, 18 should allow a little leaway up or down.

I'm happy for a slow fermentation so long as its clean and controlled! no more wild ferments for me!

cheers

/CF

[crow_flies]

i checked the fermentation this morning and its doing nicely. Also drew off some liquid from the vessel and took temperature - its just over 1c difference between probe temp and liquid in the FV. Useful to know.

the temp is remaining stable at around 18.4 = 19.5-20c I guess - should be spot on for a good clean fermentation.

Unfortunately I had to use one of my old budget barrels to ferment in as the full size FVs dont fit this fridge - guess the only issue I'll get is cleaning the bugger afterwards! I'm really hoping this brew goes well, I was so disappointed to throw out my last batch....first time its happened to me!

/CF

[ashbyp]

i checked the fermentation this morning and its doing nicely. Also drew off some liquid from the vessel and took temperature - its just over 1c difference between probe temp and liquid in the FV. Useful to know.
/CF

That observation also matches some experiments I did, once the fridge settles down into some sort of equlilibirum that 1 degree diff seems to hold until fermentation really slows down.

No point in dangling probes into the beer in my opinion.

[maxashton]

Nah, just one more step to add into your sanitation procedures, and another surface you have to keep scratch free.

[Matt]

Dangler here!

I've got one with the plastic probe and I have it dangled inside the wort. I've done 7 batches like this and not had a spoilt brew yet.

[crow_flies]

actually I just drew off 1/4pt and took the temp of the liquid to get a rough idea.

/CF

[Iank]

I think the dangling question also depends on what type of refrigerator you're using. my experience using Ben's freezer and *dangling in* was that the freezer would overshoot on the downside as it would work like the clappers to get the temp down, by which time the temp of the freezer was extremely cold. Therefore once it turned off the beer would continue to cool by a couple of degrees, so that the atc800 would then be calling for heat (which wasn't installed). I feel that by not dangling in this case a less variable temperature environment would have been achieved.
With a fridge rather than a freezer the dangling option might be more accurate as the ambient temp wouldn't be so low

With regard to fermentation temp, I think I started off (using SO4) setting the temp to 22c, then after a couple of days 21, then 20 for the remaining week or so. I got the idea for this from Jim's how-to AG page