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Date: 15 Aug 2006 04:56:30
From: Alf McLaughlin
Subject: Carboy thermometer sticker; is this thing working right?
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Hello all-
Since the little sticker costs 2 bucks, it certainly seems possible
that it isn't terribly accurate. I've got 2 of them on 2 different
carboys: the one in the 71 degree room reads 83 and the one in the
lagering fridge reads 58 but the fridge is hovering around 40. In the
latter case, allow me to explain that yesterday the carboy was at 68
degrees as I was pulling the
wait-until-fermentation-starts-than-lower-temp trick, but still I would
suspect that overnight at 40 the dang thing might be a little closer to
40 than it is. My conclusion is that the temperature of the carboy
must be really different than the ambient temperature (heat of
fermentation?), the carboy takes a really long time to change
temperature, or else these dumb stickers really do suck ass.
Thanks,
Alf
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Date: 15 Aug 2006 16:44:08
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Carboy thermometer sticker; is this thing working right?
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On 15 Aug 2006 04:56:30 -0700, <ohmygog@hotmail.com > wrote:
> Hello all-
> Since the little sticker costs 2 bucks, it certainly seems possible
> that it isn't terribly accurate. I've got 2 of them on 2 different
> carboys: the one in the 71 degree room reads 83 and the one in the
> lagering fridge reads 58 but the fridge is hovering around 40. In the
> latter case, allow me to explain that yesterday the carboy was at 68
> degrees as I was pulling the
> wait-until-fermentation-starts-than-lower-temp trick, but still I would
> suspect that overnight at 40 the dang thing might be a little closer to
> 40 than it is. My conclusion is that the temperature of the carboy
> must be really different than the ambient temperature (heat of
> fermentation?), the carboy takes a really long time to change
> temperature, or else these dumb stickers really do suck ass.
I've got several of those stickers. I doubt they're dead on accurate, but
they should be within a couple of degrees.
For the ale, yeah, fermentation does create heat. The warmer your ambient
temp during fermentation, the more heat it will create (it makes the yeast
more active). IMO, 71F is pretty warm for fermenting. The fermentation
creating +12 is a little surprising, but it's in the ballpark. I've heard
of +10 before if ambient was in the high 70s. It's probably a combination
of the fermentation really creating a lot of heat, as well as the sticker
maybe being off by a couple degrees.
For the lager, I doubt that it is creating +18 worth of heat from the
fermentation. Lager fermentations tend to be much calmer/slower, so they
don't get as high above ambient. I'm guessing on this one that the temp
of the carboy just hasn't lowered down to your ambient temp yet. IE, it
probably didn't get all the way down to 40 just overnight. I'd bet that
if you kept an eye on this one, the temp will continue to drop until it
gets closer to 40.
John.
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Date: 15 Aug 2006 08:04:38
From: Alf McLaughlin
Subject: Re: Carboy thermometer sticker; is this thing working right?
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> For 2 bucks, you can put a stick on thermometer on the fridge wall as a
> check on the thermometer/thermostat.
Not a bad idea; i'll give it a shot! I guess the carboy does feel a
little warmer than the walls of the fridge. How long do you think it
takes 5 gallons of beer to go from 65 degrees to 48 degrees if the
ambient temperature is 40 degrees? Since fermentation was going
steadily, I turned it down just a tad more and went off to work; we'll
see what it's at when I get home.
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Date: 15 Aug 2006 08:31:54
From: The Artist Formerly Known as Kap'n Salty
Subject: Re: Carboy thermometer sticker; is this thing working right?
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Alf McLaughlin wrote:
> Hello all-
> Since the little sticker costs 2 bucks, it certainly seems possible
> that it isn't terribly accurate. I've got 2 of them on 2 different
> carboys: the one in the 71 degree room reads 83 and the one in the
> lagering fridge reads 58 but the fridge is hovering around 40. In the
> latter case, allow me to explain that yesterday the carboy was at 68
> degrees as I was pulling the
> wait-until-fermentation-starts-than-lower-temp trick, but still I would
> suspect that overnight at 40 the dang thing might be a little closer to
> 40 than it is. My conclusion is that the temperature of the carboy
> must be really different than the ambient temperature (heat of
> fermentation?), the carboy takes a really long time to change
> temperature, or else these dumb stickers really do suck ass.
I have a couple of stick-ons that are pretty dead accurate (which has
alwasy surprised me). However if your fridge is at 40, but the sticker
reads 58, then something's wrong with either the sticker OR the
thermometer you're using to measure ambient. Fermentation produces heat,
but not THAT much heat, especially at low ambient temps.
--
(Replies: cleanse my address of the Mark of the Beast!)
Teleoperate a roving mobile robot from the web:
http://www.swampgas.com/robotics/rover.html
Coauthor with Dennis Clark of "Building Robot Drive Trains".
Buy several copies today!
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Date: 15 Aug 2006 10:33:04
From: Robert Oliver
Subject: Re: Carboy thermometer sticker; is this thing working right?
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The Artist Formerly Known as Kap'n Salty wrote:
> Alf McLaughlin wrote:
>
>> Hello all-
>> Since the little sticker costs 2 bucks, it certainly seems possible
>> that it isn't terribly accurate. I've got 2 of them on 2 different
>> carboys: the one in the 71 degree room reads 83 and the one in the
>> lagering fridge reads 58 but the fridge is hovering around 40. In the
>> latter case, allow me to explain that yesterday the carboy was at 68
>> degrees as I was pulling the
>> wait-until-fermentation-starts-than-lower-temp trick, but still I would
>> suspect that overnight at 40 the dang thing might be a little closer to
>> 40 than it is. My conclusion is that the temperature of the carboy
>> must be really different than the ambient temperature (heat of
>> fermentation?), the carboy takes a really long time to change
>> temperature, or else these dumb stickers really do suck ass.
>
>
> I have a couple of stick-ons that are pretty dead accurate (which has
> alwasy surprised me). However if your fridge is at 40, but the sticker
> reads 58, then something's wrong with either the sticker OR the
> thermometer you're using to measure ambient. Fermentation produces heat,
> but not THAT much heat, especially at low ambient temps.
>
How does it feel to the touch? you should be able to tell if the wall
of the fridge and the carboy are 18 degrees different. What is the rate
of change? Is it still going down?
For 2 bucks, you can put a stick on thermometer on the fridge wall as a
check on the thermometer/thermostat.
Bob Oliver
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Date: 16 Aug 2006 05:46:31
From: Alf McLaughlin
Subject: Re: Carboy thermometer sticker; is this thing working right?
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> I'd bet that
> if you kept an eye on this one, the temp will continue to drop until it
> gets closer to 40.
Here's an update: 24 hours later the temperature strip reads 50 while
the fridge thermometer reads 40. Weird. I should mention that the
fridge thermometer is a novelty thermometer from Quebec's winter
carnival and it is on the floor of the fridge. Is the floor of the
fridge 10 degrees colder than the center of the fridge? I like the
idea of adding a strip to the wall of the fridge instead so at least
the carboy and fridge are using the same metric. I think this is
destined to remain somewhat mysterious at least for now. Thanks for
the replies! As long as I see bubbles I really don't care if it's 40
or 50.
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