I just posted the following message in a number of electronics forums hoping for some info, but I'm also posting it here in case any of my fellow brewers can help me with this. By the way, let me also add here that I want to be able to suspend a container below my conical's ball-valve (thinking of a 1/2 pint mason jar, but am open to suggestions). In other words, I want to add something that will function like the "capsule" on the V-Vessel -- see
I'll get right to the point, and then add more info below for those who want to read further. I don't know if this sort of a device exists, and I've just spent all afternoon googling -- trying to find one -- without any success at all. I hope that some kind person here will be able to point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for any help.
I'm looking for a programmable digit thermostat with a short probe that just needs to reach about 2 inches through an insulated wall; in other words, I want to mount the thermostat on the outside of a cabinet to monitor and control the temp on the inside of the cabinet. I built the cabinet a few years ago to ferment ale, but now I'd like to expand its ability to include lagers which require more careful, critical control.
For ales, I used just a cheap household hvac thermostat mounted on the inside, and there was no need for it to be programmable or even visible; I just set it and forgot about it until the ale was done fermenting about a week later. In fact, cooling was generally only important for about the first 4 or 5 days, and the temperature requirements for ales are so rough that most people don't use any cooling system at all except perhaps to drape a wet towel over the fermenter to cool by evaporation. I would just set my temp on 70F, and my system worked _very_ well. The thermostat cycled a small fan (the type used to cool CPUs), and the fan moved cold air from the lower ice compartment into the chamber where my conical fermenter is suspended.
But lagers require _sustained_ cooling and conditioning, lasting perhaps two months, with significantly cooler temps in the 35F to 55F range, and with gradual, slow temperature changes (in contrast to ales which can have a constant temp). If it isn't possible to program a thermostat to constantly drop the temp at a controlled rate (e.g., 4-5F/day, max), then I could manually lower the temp one degree every 6 hours or so, but that would make having the control on the outside even more important.
What most homebrewers do is buy an old chest freezer and then change the thermostat, but they usually use glass carboys as fermenters. I have a conical fermenter which is too tall to put inside a chest freezer, and my cabinet also doubles as the frame to support it. Besides, I'd really like to try making a lager or two before deciding if I want to invest in an extra freezer and converting it.
Also, if it turns out that my ice-cooling system isn't up to the job*, I intend to try to augment the cooling by putting the system out in our breezeway during the winter, but that presents the possibility of things getting too cold, so I'd also like to be able to use the thermostat to control some small heating device -- either a lightbulb or perhaps some heat-tape like those used to prevent pipes from freezing. I figure that the wires that usually control the air-conditioning will control my fan, and those that control the heater will control my light-bulb or heating strip.
*As for cooling power, the outside of my cooler is 16.5" x 16.5" x 34.5" and it has 1.37" thick styrofoam (double 11/16") on all sides and top, and 11/16" thick styrofoam between the two compartments. The lower compartment can hold four frozen 1-gallon milk jugs, although I want to play with that a bit because I'd like to suspend a 1/2-pint mason jar at the bottom of my fermenter to collect yeast, etc.Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated. I hope someone will be able to help. Thanks.
Bill Velek -- remove the "--NO-SPAM--" from my email address