Clearout Brews

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

Apologies, I think I mixed you up with Jigsaw that also does quick lagering. If you dont have lots of hops in the trub, then you could reuse as is. I've done it with good success using 34/70 in pilsners, I found that the sooner you use the yeast the quicker the ferment starts, kinda obvious, but cool to see the almost immediate kick off

Probably Jigsaw. He does a quick everything

I did the yeast/ trub/water mix and its all settled the same. I think I will just bin it and try it one day when I actually have a schedule to reuse it a bit later. My next brew will be a hoppy something or other so will probably use US05/S04

In my keezer [Lager chamber atm] I have been moving my prob around to see effects on maintaining temps and load cycling, and also doing reading up on literature. Mostly related to temp control of vaccines and meds in the medical field [Which seem to be quite critical of consistent temps for obvious reasons]. The very common advice [usually referencing the CDC] that came through often was this:

-Probe should be buffered to reduce excessive cycling:
-In a small container of fluid, preferably glycol. (just for freezing risks)
-Larger container will give less cycling but wider variation
-Probe positioned in the 'average' position of items being cooled:
- ie. most likely near the centre
- away from the cooling/ heating source [more so for more powerful cooling/heating sources]
-Replace open space in chamber with 'thermal mass'
- ie containers of water [or more kegs of beer!?]
- helps maintain more stable temps
- maintains more stable temps when opening and closing the chamber


I know everyone has their theory, and mine was a bit different to this, but this does make sense to me and I will probably try and follow something along the lines of these guidelines

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Thanks for that info

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Probably Jigsaw. He does a quick everything

I did the yeast/ trub/water mix and its all settled the same. I think I will just bin it and try it one day when I actually have a schedule to reuse it a bit later. My next brew will be a hoppy something or other so will probably use US05/S04

In my keezer [Lager chamber atm] I have been moving my prob around to see effects on maintaining temps and load cycling, and also doing reading up on literature. Mostly related to temp control of vaccines and meds in the medical field [Which seem to be quite critical of consistent temps for obvious reasons]. The very common advice [usually referencing the CDC] that came through often was this:

-Probe should be buffered to reduce excessive cycling:
-In a small container of fluid, preferably glycol. (just for freezing risks)
-Larger container will give less cycling but wider variation
-Probe positioned in the 'average' position of items being cooled:
- ie. most likely near the centre
- away from the cooling/ heating source [more so for more powerful cooling/heating sources]
-Replace open space in chamber with 'thermal mass'
- ie containers of water [or more kegs of beer!?]
- helps maintain more stable temps
- maintains more stable temps when opening and closing the chamber


I know everyone has their theory, and mine was a bit different to this, but this does make sense to me and I will probably try and follow something along the lines of these guidelines

Thanks for this mate. Going to be placing my probe in a bottle of water then, I think. Is the probe on these things completely waterproof?

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

Is the probe on these things completely waterproof?

I think they are meant to be. I think its usually a s/s 'cup' with the sensor electronics 'potted' into it.

However, my probes have tarnished to hell so I doubt the stainlessness of it. I may put a length of heatshrink on from the top part of the probe, but will probably just use it straight as is. First I want to see if I can get a little stash of glycol.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I think they are meant to be. I think its usually a s/s 'cup' with the sensor electronics 'potted' into it.

However, my probes have tarnished to hell so I doubt the stainlessness of it. I may put a length of heatshrink on from the top part of the probe, but will probably just use it straight as is. First I want to see if I can get a little stash of glycol.

Considering the idea is to avoid freezing, why not just stick the probe in a little jar of alcohol and sealed at the top? I'm considering now taking a ~200ml jar, filling it with alcohol, and then drilling a small hole in the lid, stick in a piece of rubber as a grommet, force the probe through there and hang it in the liquid. Can store the jar in the door of the fridge even. 500ml rubbing alcohol costs like R50 from Dischem:

https://www.dischem.co.za/dis-chem-r...-alcohol-500ml

Hell, just drill a hole in this bottle's lid and stick the probe through there for all it's worth. It's a cheap fix, and IMO should work wonderfully and keep your fridge smelling fresh/clean.

EDIT: I just Googled. It can be used as a bug repellent as well, so it'll keep flies/bees/ants away as well. Damn, I had a good brain wave there.

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

Good idea. I cant see why that wouldnt work? I think I will do the same, but I reckon I will just use a little 100ml bottle of rubbing alc/ surgical spirits [Im still a little skeptical ], and stick the probe right in there. Dammit, Im going to have to go all technical now and learn arduinos and raspberry pis and monitor temperature trend graphs.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Yeah unless someone more experienced than me can tell me why that wouldn't work, I think that's exactly what I'll do. The alcohol will prevent rusting and it's not electrically conductive, so the probe should measure just fine.

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

Like a real first time lagering novice, I set up a webcam on my STC and am checking it periodically to see how high or low the temps go
Screenshot_20190723_130446.jpg

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

I think alcohol would be safer than glycol ... isn't that stuff toxic ?

PS: my STC1000's probe came covered in rubber

20190723_153900.jpg

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

My STC's probe is just open. Looks like stainless, and definitely not sealed in rubber. I do have some heat shrink - maybe I should silicone the open end of the probe and heat shrink the rear end of the probe all the way up the cable for a few cm? Can you extend the cable?

Also, I tried testing my STC last night on the fridge. I wired it COMPLETELY wrong, so yay. Have to re-do it. The diagram on the thing didn't come with a wiring diagram and honestly, I could do a single, massive improvement on the STC with a simple change, but eh. Will re-wire it tonight and see how it goes. Tested my fridge and it works 100's, so there's that. Haven't seen how low it can go, but I'll do that tonight.

[BeerHolic Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BeerHolic]

Wiring diagram I used.
Red = Live
Blue = Neutral
Green = Earth

STC1000Wiring_zps91a30666_large.jpg

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Wiring diagram I used.
Red = Live
Blue = Neutral
Green = Earth

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2050[/ATTACH]

Yeah I downloaded one that looks like that as well now. Will just re-do the wiring as needed. For some reason I thought you could do it like this. Stupid, I know, but in my defence I'm about as electrically wired as a rat, and the thing didn't have a guide that showed anything in the box, so I just went with it. So the STC would switch on, detect the temps and then switch over, but nothing would work once it switches over:



EDIT: And to add, if they just re-do a small section inside to avoid the looping wires on the outside, it can easily be done this easily, IMO.

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

I think alcohol would be safer than glycol ... isn't that stuff toxic ?

PS: my STC1000's probe came covered in rubber

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2048[/ATTACH]

Yea my Elitech STC came with a moulded plastic/ rubber probe & 2m of wire. The cheapies all had 1m of wire and a metal case on the probe.

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

My STC's probe is just open.

Wierd. You mean the metal part is shaped like a section of pipe, and not like a little metal cup?

Can you extend the cable?

Im not sure. I think it affects the calibration, but I dont know to what extent. Maybe negligible, but you could always just test and verify with another thermometer.

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

You can quite easily modify what you have to fix. something like this

wire.PNG