Temp Control - a testimonial

[Mark_]

Good morning folks,

With all the insecurities and questions I had surrounding temperature control I thought it would be a nice gift to the people starting out to touch on my experience. This is me giving back. I realize that a lot of discussion surrounds temperature control so let me just add one to the pile.

I am finding in talking to others that most of us evolve in our brewing in phases.

• Phase 1 - You do the research, buy some rudimentary equipment and make beer by throwing it in a pot, doing the best you can, and tossing it in a dark corner of your home in hopes that it will make beer. Surprise, surprise, it's beer!
  
• Phase 2 - You start scrutinizing your process to try and improve the flavor, even though it was of course incredible to begin with. You make some adjustments, maybe some equipment upgrades and start to dabble in some minor cooling. This usually involves a swamp cooler of some sort. After you brew a batch with even rudimentary cooling you are generally impressed at the difference in quality between no temperature control and moderate temperature control.
  
• Phase 3 - You invest in active cooling. This usually involves a freezer or refrigerator hooked up to a controller of some sort such as a Ranco or Johnson Control. At this point you even start monitoring the temperature of your wort and not the ambient temps around it. This is TRUE temp control and will give you the optimum amount of control over your fermentation temperatures.

I am in Phase 3 and honestly do not know what comes next, if anything. I anticipate that since I truly have a handle on my temperature at the moment this should be all I need. (Unless I start automating!)

My point in all this is that through this evolution every single one of us will read and post and devour every bit of information and opinion on these forums. Most times however one will never truly understand what temp control will do for us unless experienced ourselves. I speak from experience.

So to all those who ask that question, "are my temps too high"? If you are asking, you probably suspect they already are. Even if your *ambient* temperature is perfect, your wort is probably not. If there is even the smallest question in your mind if your temps contributed to your brew not being perfect, then the answer is probably yes.

If you want to get better at this, if you want your beer to improve, temperature control is the next step. Take from a guy who learned the hard way. Can you make good beer without it? Of course! Just wait however to see the difference once you take that leap!

Ok, rant over

Of course in the end, RDWAHAHB! Even non-perfect beer is still beer

 

[TKH]

Thanks for sharing! I keep checking craigslist for a great deal on a chest freezer for those reasons.

 

[BigFloyd]

Good post Mark.

I was fortunate to have someone (who went through all 3 of the phases you describe) give me some good advice as I was just getting started. I bought an STC-1000, re-purposed our garage chest freezer, and jumped straight to Phase 3 before I ever brewed my first batch. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go the same route. I'd place it ahead of going all-grain on the priority list for those who want to take their brewing to the next level.

When we get prospective brewers come to our local group's monthly tastings, I'm always the one who tries to get them set up to do active temp control (including building an STC-1000 control box). I figure that, if their first brew is something that they and their friends/family really enjoy, they'll want to continue and grow in the hobby.

 

[brewguyver]

Piling on, I think there is a step 4 - moving to an advanced cooling system (BCS-460, step temps, etc). I made the mistake of skipping temp control at step 2 and then jumping to step 4. That doesn't work very well unless you have lots of time and a good background in electronics. I have neither.

My recommendation is to avoid analysis paralysis and get one of the basic, reliable controllers that is plug and play (or requires a minimal amount of wiring). You can always expand from there, and your old controller can be used for something else (e.g. A kegorator, simple herms, etc).

My plan is to dial back and use a tc-910 with a dorm fridge (Craigslist) big enough for my carbon, and then move on to the advanced stuff when I get more time.