Hey everyone, recently I went buck wild and got a new setup consisting of two 14.5 gallon conicals and two glass door refrigerators controlled by fermostat temp controllers. Previously I was doing 5 gallon batches in carboys with a chest freezer/fermostat.
Last night I brewed up my first 10 gallon batch and have a few questions and concerns:
1) Being my first batch larger than 5 gallons (probably about 11.5 gal in the fermenter) I'm concerned I didn't pitch enough yeast as I'm not seeing any activity in the blowoff tube ( yes I know that's not always reliable but still it's reassuring to see it). I pitched 1/3 of a quart mason jar of pure-washed U.S.-05 and then another half quart mason jar of unwashed us-05 I took off an IPA that I kegged at the same time which just came out of cold crashing. The batch is a centennial blonde OG of 1.041. Did I under pitch to much?
2) I cooled the wort with my old IC chiller because the fittings haven't come in yet for my new plate chiller. I areated well and transferred wort to the conical. The conical has a thermowell on it so this is the first time being able to see actual wort temps instead of just ambient. I pitched at actual wort temp of 75 degrees and set the controller to 62 (next time I'll wait until wort is cooled to the actual ferm temp). Went to bed and woke up this morning. Ten hours later no activity (still early I know) and temps were only down to 72! So I adjusted the controller down to 56 degrees in hopes to lower the wort temp to mid 60's or so. It will take some tweaking I guess to figure out were I need to set the controller to get the wort temps where I want them. Which brings me to:
3) should I even be going by the thermowell and actual wort temps? In the past I had no idea of actual wort temps, I just set the controller temp and let it be. I also had strong blowoff tube activity the next morning though. I'm not sure what good the temp controllers gonna be if it isnt going to read properly. What should I do with the temp controllers sensor probe to get more accurate control?
I'm all ears if you've got any suggestions. Really concerned I under pitched. It's a badass system but I've got to get it dialed in. In the future I'll pitch double the yeast and get the wort temps down to the fermentation temp or below before pitching. I do have a magnetic stir plate for starters but I prefer reusing slurry and have always had things take off strong, but for now I'm wondering if the batch will be ok? I do have another 5 gallon blonde in a carboy in cold crashing now, I could harvest more of that yeast and pitch it in two days if need be?
Here's some pics of the setup:
Last night I brewed up my first 10 gallon batch and have a few questions and concerns:
1) Being my first batch larger than 5 gallons (probably about 11.5 gal in the fermenter) I'm concerned I didn't pitch enough yeast as I'm not seeing any activity in the blowoff tube ( yes I know that's not always reliable but still it's reassuring to see it). I pitched 1/3 of a quart mason jar of pure-washed U.S.-05 and then another half quart mason jar of unwashed us-05 I took off an IPA that I kegged at the same time which just came out of cold crashing. The batch is a centennial blonde OG of 1.041. Did I under pitch to much?
2) I cooled the wort with my old IC chiller because the fittings haven't come in yet for my new plate chiller. I areated well and transferred wort to the conical. The conical has a thermowell on it so this is the first time being able to see actual wort temps instead of just ambient. I pitched at actual wort temp of 75 degrees and set the controller to 62 (next time I'll wait until wort is cooled to the actual ferm temp). Went to bed and woke up this morning. Ten hours later no activity (still early I know) and temps were only down to 72! So I adjusted the controller down to 56 degrees in hopes to lower the wort temp to mid 60's or so. It will take some tweaking I guess to figure out were I need to set the controller to get the wort temps where I want them. Which brings me to:
3) should I even be going by the thermowell and actual wort temps? In the past I had no idea of actual wort temps, I just set the controller temp and let it be. I also had strong blowoff tube activity the next morning though. I'm not sure what good the temp controllers gonna be if it isnt going to read properly. What should I do with the temp controllers sensor probe to get more accurate control?
I'm all ears if you've got any suggestions. Really concerned I under pitched. It's a badass system but I've got to get it dialed in. In the future I'll pitch double the yeast and get the wort temps down to the fermentation temp or below before pitching. I do have a magnetic stir plate for starters but I prefer reusing slurry and have always had things take off strong, but for now I'm wondering if the batch will be ok? I do have another 5 gallon blonde in a carboy in cold crashing now, I could harvest more of that yeast and pitch it in two days if need be?
Here's some pics of the setup: