TempMate Fermentation Control

[Doublehoppy]

I've just bought and installed one of these

It's brilliant, you set the target temperature and it will either switch on the fridge or a heating device depending on where the current temperature is. You also set the tolerance, to a minimum of 0.5C. i.e. If the target temp is 20C, the current temp is 16C and the tolerance is 0.5C the heater will operate until 20C is reached, then switch off. It will switch on again if it drops to 19.5C. The fridge will switch on and off in the same way.

Means of course that the seasons now play no part in brewing!!

I bought the fridge at an auction for $10. The TempMate itself cost about $110 including shipping and the project box to house it for $20. I'm using a heater pad which was $60.

The wiring is relatively easy, but you need to decide whether to do it yourself or get a sparky. Googling TempMate will take you to a thread on AussieHomeBrewer which has wiring diagrams.

I've wrapped the fermenter in an insulation layer (a camp roll) so that I can jam the probe between the two to closely record the actual beer temperature, rather than the air temperature.

By the way the jiffy box that CraftBrewer sell to house this isn't big enough.

Highly recommended

[studio1]

awesome - I ordered one of these yesterday and got a cool retro kelvinator fridge for $5 on TM

[Ged]

Hi Double Hoppy...I've been using the fridgemate -http://www.mashmaster.com.au/p/365439/fridgemate-mkii-digital-tempe...

with an old fridge and its been fabulous. It costs around $60 kiwi..Great for low temp lagering but equally so for keeping a constant at anything between 18 and 24 as well. The fridge works great as an insulator as my garage gets pretty hot in summer!!

Looks like your tempmate has a bit more controllability than mine in terms of .5 degrees settings.. I also tape the probe to the side of the fermenter to get a more accurate reading. You can also buy 200mm long temp probes from mashmaster or craftbrewer that sit in the wort itself to get a better reading.. Have fun...

[James P]

I have a fridgemate and a danfoss temperature controller, and they are worth their weight in gold for controlling the fermentation.

I tend to do lagers, so I use them in conjunction with a chest freezer, well at least I did until a couple of weeks again when the freezer shat itself!

[Doublehoppy]

To test the effectiveness of heating and cooling I first put 21Lt of water at 32C and set the target to 20C. It took ages quite frankly to drop it, virtually overnight. Then I filled the fermenter with tap water at 15C and raised it to 20C. Still took a while, probably 4 or 5 hours. But once it's at the target it has no problem holding it within the tolerance range. If I find the heat/fridge switching on and off too rapidly then I will increase the tolerance to say 1C, but I think 0.5C should be fine

I was told that the heat pad had a maximum of 20C but I got the temp up to 25C without problem. I didn't test any higher

[Doublehoppy]

Not sure why the hyperlink didn't attach... here it is...

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=2592

[Richee]

Temp controlers are awesome. For even better control consider getting on of these:

http://www.mashmaster.com.au/p/366867/ntc-sensor-stainless-steel-pr...

This will tell you exactly waht the fermentation temperature is!!
Rich

[Doublehoppy]

Hi Rich

I take it there isn't a chance of the airlock grommet poping out and losing half the beer?

[studio1]

i think you would put it in the top, like the airlock.

[Doublehoppy]

I knew that...lol

[Richee]

Mine sits on the side of my s/s 50L keg fermenter, I'll attach a photo later today.

[studio1]

Here's some pics of the one I just had wired up. I opted for 2 x female plugs on the heat/cool so I can interchange between fridges/heaters if need be. The sparky wired them up with a fair bit of length, I reckon you could chuck a double wall socket in the back of the jiffy box to save the cables.

How/where are you guys attaching your standard sensors?

[Doublehoppy]

I've taped mine to the side of the fermenter, then wrapped an insulation layer around the whole bin. The purpose of the layer is to prevent the air temperature from influencing the sensor. The first photo in the original post shows it - you can just see the grey sensor wire on the left.