yeast temperature

[thisisbeer]

Ok I need something cleared up. The recommended temp from white labs is 66-70 for wlp 400. Belgian wit ale. Is this ambiet temp or fermentation temp? If it is fermentation around what should the ambiet temp be to achieve this?

 

[pabloj13]

Ok I need something cleared up. The recommended temp from white labs is 66-70 for wlp 400. Belgian wit ale. Is this ambiet temp or fermentation temp? If it is fermentation around what should the ambiet temp be to achieve this?

It's the fermentation temp. Generally fermentation temps run 5-10 degrees above ambient during very active fermentations. Where are you putting the fermenter?

 

[thisisbeer]

I have a freezer with the stc-1000 for temp control

 

[Spintab]

It's nearly impossible to assume an ambient temperature will result in a certain wort temperature. The difference between the two will change during the course of the fermentation. Your best bet is to stick the probe to the side of your fermenter with insulation on the outside of the probe. I'd say stick the probe right in the wort but this tend to cause the freezer to swing wildly, pulling the wort temp along with it.

 

[Spintab]

And in case your a visual person, this is what you are ideally trying to do. This is two batches going at once, each in it's own chest freezer. The red and purple are the freezer temps, the blue and darker green are wort temps. The red and cyan at the bottom indicates when each freezer turns on and off. I personally use a microcontroller and an algorithm that takes both air and wort temp into account to avoid large swings on either probe. I'd think out of the box, probe taped to the fermenter, you can keep the wort within a degree or two of your target. You really want to get a probe down in the wort if you can. Even if it's just to monitor while you adjust your controller temp.

 

[thisisbeer]

Wow. I would love to be able to get that kind of info about the fermentation. How do you get this set up? Im extremely interested in the scientific side of brewing.

 

[Spintab]

I'm a programmer and database guy by day and do electronics tinkering in my other spare time. It just made sense when I started brewing to stick some probes in there and take data. You can check out embedded control concepts if you really want to get into it. That's the closest thing I can find to a commercial version of what I have built. I'd love to get this going during the mash too but my budget only works so fast.