Fermentation Fridge - Thermocouple Placement?

[tom_hampton]

::blush::

Thanks.  Full disclosure, I'm an aerospace engineer. So, a lot of this mathy stuff is old hat.

I only have 5 books on brewing:

How to brew, John palmer
Brewing classic styles, John Palmer & jamil z
Yeast, Chris white & jamil z
Designing great beers, ray daniels
Brew like a monk, Stan hieronomous

Other than that I listen to the brewing network every day.

I try to pass on what I can.

 

[grathan]

Good stuff tom. Any idea if the hot side of the stc-1000 10amps could handle a 1500 watt heating element?

 

[tom_hampton]

Nope.

1500 watts / 120 volts = 12.2 amps.

For longevity, never run a relay past 75 percent of its rating. 

 

[grathan]

You've got the right idea, Phil.  If you want to control the beer temp, you need to measure the beer temp.  The activity of fermentation generates quite a bit of heat.  So, your controller will have to work hard before fermentation starts, and after fermentation finishes....but, in the middle the yeast will do a lot of the work themselves.

In the future, you will want to get more controllers.  One for the air temp inside your fridge, and one for each beer.  I use heating pads to heat each carboy or bucket while keeping the air temp down at 45F or so.  I can ferment several different beers at several different temperatures this way...

I've been thinking about this lately.... Can you do a lager 45.0F next to an ale 68.0F using this method? You don't happen to have a link to the type of heating pad that you use?

 

[tom_hampton]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000F54AOW

But, if I do more I will use heat tape.

My fermentation room is sitting at 8C.  I have routinely ferment ales at 21C. I use buckets with the above heating pads, and an stc1000 temp controller. Then I cover the fermenter with reflectix insulation. 

Attached is a pic of half of my setup.

 

[piper55]

I use a brew hauler on the carboy and stick the probe in between the hauler and the carboy