Opinions on Equipment Setup

BUT is it not IMpossible to have a beer that finishes at 1.006 from 1.060 and be ‘not dry’!?

Also, I agree with 'Hawk. 3711 is a rampaging beast, and it will attenuate like hell even at 66-68 held steady. I raise it more to free up my ferm fridge :cheers: [/quote]

Agreed on all counts!

So lets say I go three weeks in the primary, I start the fermentation around 66 like Pietro suggests and then warm it up slighty to Allow the yeast to shine. After 3 weeks in the primary, the 3711 is still bubbling away. Do I take a gravity reading or let it continue?

BUT is it not IMpossible to have a beer that finishes at 1.006 from 1.060 and be ‘not dry’!?

Also, I agree with 'Hawk. 3711 is a rampaging beast, and it will attenuate like hell even at 66-68 held steady. I raise it more to free up my ferm fridge :cheers: [/quote]

Agreed on all counts![/quote]

Having a Mead finish at 1.030, but an OG of 1.13 (??), I will also say that 1.030 didn’t taste all that sweet. If it started at 1.080 it might be a different story.

BUT is it not IMpossible to have a beer that finishes at 1.006 from 1.060 and be ‘not dry’!?

Also, I agree with 'Hawk. 3711 is a rampaging beast, and it will attenuate like hell even at 66-68 held steady. I raise it more to free up my ferm fridge :cheers: [/quote]

Agreed on all counts![/quote]

Having a Mead finish at 1.030, but an OG of 1.13 (??), I will also say that 1.030 didn’t taste all that sweet. If it started at 1.080 it might be a different story.

Remember bubbling does not equal fermentation. Especially on a beer that is being warmed up. Gases are not as soluble in warmer liquids, so as a liquid (including beer) warms, it will blow off gas/CO2. I would take the gravity reading in 3 weeks. That schedule will be fine with 3711.

THANKS !!!

Ok, one last question. I have an old fridge in the basement, I cranked it up to the warmest setting, and I am going to give it a couple hours so I can take a temperature reading. (I have an actual battery powered air temp thermometer that is in there now.)

I realize that the cooling power of the fridge really affects the answer to this question, but if I was to store the carboy in the fridge for the first 5-7 days. how cold is too cold of an air temp inside the fridge to ferment at 66?

Since it is a small fridge, an old fridge, and I am betting, an extremely inefficient fridge, I think I could go as low as 56-58 degrees to keep fermentation around 66. It was at 45 degrees when I checked it overnight on the middle setting.

Would you agree/disagree with these assumptions?

Lots of questions in there, I’ll only address one.

Cooling with the plate chiller - if the wort is coming out too warm just slow down the wort flow into the chiller, it gives more contact time and will lower the temp of the wort further.

What most people do is buy a remote temperature control device or thermostat. It has a probe that goes inside the fridge or freezer and the plug for the fridge plugs into the body of the unit. It basically overrides the regular thermostat to maintain any temp desired.

Well worth it.

Problem is if you only get up to 56*, it might be too cool for the tail end of active primary.

yeah, look around over on HBT, and if you are mechanically inclined, there is a DIY build to construct a temp controller for next to nothing and squeeze some life/utility out of the 'ol fridge. Or, you can be a sap like me and buy a pre-wired ready-to-use-out-of-the-box one for $80.

This is kind of confusing, but it helps to remember that BEER temperature is whats important during fermentation, not necessarily ambient. So if you tape and insulate a temp controller’s probe to your fermenter inside your fridge during fermentation, it is reading beer temp. Then, if those yeasties start throwing off too much heat, the probe will read this and kick on the fridge’s condenser. So the ambient temp in a fridge is kind of ‘chasing’ the beer temp, but it is regulating it. So basically, at high krausen, the ambient temp inside the fridge could be 5-10 degrees LOWER than the beer to keep the beer temp in check.

Thats another reason I take mine out of the fridge after 3-4 days to make sure the temp gets into the high 60’s during the tail end of fermentation.

[quote=“560sdl”]What most people do is buy a remote temperature control device or thermostat. It has a probe that goes inside the fridge or freezer and the plug for the fridge plugs into the body of the unit. It basically overrides the regular thermostat to maintain any temp desired.

Well worth it.

Problem is if you only get up to 56*, it might be too cool for the tail end of active primary.[/quote]

Thanks, yeah too many variables to estimate what the temp of the actual beer will be.

Thanks, already found it, $19.99 on Amazon for the controller and I have all the other pieces to make it work.

[quote=“Pietro”]This is kind of confusing, but it helps to remember that BEER temperature is whats important during fermentation, not necessarily ambient. So if you tape and insulate a temp controller’s probe to your fermenter inside your fridge during fermentation, it is reading beer temp. Then, if those yeasties start throwing off too much heat, the probe will read this and kick on the fridge’s condenser. So the ambient temp in a fridge is kind of ‘chasing’ the beer temp, but it is regulating it. So basically, at high krausen, the ambient temp inside the fridge could be 5-10 degrees LOWER than the beer to keep the beer temp in check.
[/quote]

Not confusing at all, thanks. I’m just glad that I can control it somewhat at the beginning. Once the controller is built, I will have more control.

[quote=“Pietro”]
Thats another reason I take mine out of the fridge after 3-4 days to make sure the temp gets into the high 60’s during the tail end of fermentation.[/quote]

I plan on doing this as well. Would that go for the IPA as well? I guess it depends on the ambient in the basement. Variables are annoying.

Otherwise if you are mechanically inclined Nighthawks signature line has great info for building your own cheap temp controller. Cheers

Thanks all very much for your support and knowledge. I went all grain yesterday and I’ll never go back! The Petite Saison D’ete was fun to brew.

All my equipment worked very well. The plate chiller brought the boiling wort down to 85 degrees in only a few minutes. In lieu of running the wort through again and risking contamination, I stuck the bottling bucket in the spare fridge and got the wort down to 66 degrees in two hours. Splashed the wort into the my primary fermenter and pitched the yeast.

For those wondering, the plate chiller worked great but did get clogged towards the end of the kettle transfer. I used hop pellets, but there was also a lot of sediment in the wort. It was cleared easily by reverse flushing with hot water.

My OG reading before transferring to the fermenter was only 1.031, supposed to be 1.041. I’m not really sure how to account for the loss in gravity. I didn’t measure the volume of the wort, but it looks to be less than 5 gallons. I’m not really sweating it though! Should be a good beer.

Also, it is very mild this week, so the basement is very cool. I’ve been monitoring the temp of the fermentor and its right at 66-68, so I’ll take it.

:cheers:

Remember bubbling does not equal fermentation. Especially on a beer that is being warmed up. Gases are not as soluble in warmer liquids, so as a liquid (including beer) warms, it will blow off gas/CO2. I would take the gravity reading in 3 weeks. That schedule will be fine with 3711.[/quote]

7 days fermenting around 64-66 degrees in the basement (the saison). I brought the little guy upstairs and put it in my bathtub for the last couple of days to raise the temp to 68-71. Took a gravity reading today and its already down to 1.006!