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  • fermentation temp issue

    I am working with stein craft 2bbl jacked and insulated fermenters. we just got them over the summer and haven't had any issues until now. the beers are getting too cold with out the glycol running. my guess is the ambient temperature at nights but I need a way to bring the temp back up. it will sit almost 10 degrees too cold in the tank. and tips and tricks?

  • #2
    Does the building/room have a heater?

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    • #3
      I appreciate the ambient temperatures have dropped, but if these have almost any sort of insulation worth talking about, they shouldn't cool like that.

      Have you checked the control vales are not passing? Or perhaps you need to warm up the coolant a little so it doesn't overcool when the coolant first comes on. Once cooled by 10 degrees, it tends to knock the yeast for six and it doesn't recover at all easily
      dick

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      • #4
        What Dick wrote.

        Your glycol temp should be no less than 26F. You need to take your valves apart and inspect them for any tiny bits of junk that are causing them to leak/stay open. Piloted solenoid valves are especially sensitive to getting tiny bits in them that you might not even notice when inspecting them, so just clean everything well.

        Does your glycol system have a strainer after the circ. pump? You really need to have one. I recently rebuilt a glycol system for another brewery, and we were cleaning the strainer once a day for the first few days of operation. It's almost impossible to get every little bit of junk out by being careful and flushing the system.
        Timm Turrentine

        Brewerywright,
        Terminal Gravity Brewing,
        Enterprise. Oregon.

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        • #5
          I also have problems in winter. I have 20hl fermenters so they don't really cool down because there's enough thermal mass there, but it's impossible to get the beer temp to rise for a diacetyl rest. The brewery is in a large uninsulated warehouse and night temps get down to 5C inside the brewery, with day temps barely reaching 15C (I wear a beanie all day!).

          I wonder if it's possible to re-direct the glycol through a coil in a warm water tub? Possibly a stupid idea, but hey this is the Stupid Stuff forum ;-)

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          • #6
            I assume you are brewing lagers when you refer to rising temperatures for diacetyl rest. One of the lagers I brewed we stopped controlling when the PG = 25 SG, to allow the temperature to rise 4 degrees C - and this is in 1700 hl wort with six inches of foam insulation. We also regularly had to raise the PG at which we started the rise to diacetyl rest to 26, and occasionally 27 during winter - when it got to say minus 5 or 10 for several days on end - rare, but it happened. 15C cold? - its often that in summer here!
            dick

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            • #7
              5C to 15C is the winter *indoor* temperature. Outside, everything is ice.

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              • #8
                Wow, I didn't think anywhere in Oz apart perhaps from Tassie got that cold
                dick

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