Temperature control

[teegasus]

Hello

So yesterday I put my first ever cabernet sauvignon to primary fermentation. Yay! I have the primary fermenting bucket inside a chest freezer, and with that chest freezer I use an InkBird ITC-308 temperature controller set to 23 degrees celcius (about 73 F). I have the differential set to 0.3 degrees celcius. So when the temperatures reaches 23.3 degrees it starts to cool it down. The problem is (or is it?) because I use a thermowell the freezer gets really cold, and when the temp. hits 23 degrees in the wine it shuts off, but because I use a thermowell it takes some time to cool the whole 6 gallon of wine, and the batch sinks down to 22.2 degrees.

My question is; is this too big of a fluctuation or is it completely fine?

23.3 C (73.94 F) to 22.2 C (71.96 F).

Am I ovethinking this? What can I do to improve the control over the temp.?

 

[Maylar]

it's more than good enough.

 

[jgmillr1]

my first ever cabernet sauvignon to primary fermentation

Is this a kit, juice bucket or something with skins? What yeast are you using? What size batch are you making?

Red wines are often fermented closer to 80F when on skins in order to better extract color and tannin. Most strains of yeast can tolerate these temps without stress as long as supplied with moderate amounts of nutrients.

A smallish batch won't generate too much heat. White wines are more prone to volatile aroma loss from excess temps so I glycol temp control my whites but only loosely control my reds.

 

[Buckhuntr]

My fermenter with the Winexpert Double Noir kit going strong is sitting on the window bench seat in the kitchen, with the box the fermenter came in upended over it to keep out light, i.e. at room temp (73 day, 67 night).

 

[Coffee49]

Wrapping primary vessel in a blanket will hold heat in after fermentation begins