SS BrewTech 6.95 Gallon Brew Bucket Fermenter

[Houblon34]

http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/SS_BrewT ... bucket.htm

These SS fermenters look really nice, but I'm curious about two things:

1) How do you monitor your temperature? Obviously, the stick-on thermometers won't work well!
2) Am I the only one concerned about not seeing what's going on inside the fermenter? I know that the airlock bubbling is a good indicator, but I still like to see how high the krausen goes, when it starts to drop, etc...

Opinions?

[Jimmy]

You could drill a hole and add a thermowell and use a digital temperature controller to control fermentation temps.

As for seeing what's going on inside - there's really no need. It's best to keep air and light away from your beer!

[Jimmy]

A thermowell like this could go be placed in the lid, likely in the hole that's already there for an airlock. You would probably be better off drilling one in the center of the lid, though, for a better temperature reading.

http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/Stopper_ ... mowell.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[spears104]

Why wouldn't the sitck-on thremometers work? Your beer and the vessel it is in are going to be very close in temperature, unless there is an extreme change in the temp of the air surrounding the fermentation vessel. It should work as well as it does on glass or plastic.

[gm-]

Why wouldn't the sitck-on thremometers work? Your beer and the vessel it is in are going to be very close in temperature, unless there is an extreme change in the temp of the air surrounding the fermentation vessel. It should work as well as it does on glass or plastic.

+1, it should work even better, as steel is way better thermal conductor then both plastic and glass

[Houblon34]

Why wouldn't the sitck-on thremometers work? Your beer and the vessel it is in are going to be very close in temperature, unless there is an extreme change in the temp of the air surrounding the fermentation vessel. It should work as well as it does on glass or plastic.

+1, it should work even better, as steel is way better thermal conductor then both plastic and glass

Well that's good to know. For some reason, I thought the steel would act as an insulator, throwing the temp reading right off.

The thermowell is an option, but I would rather keep it as simple as possible. Stick-on thermometer it is. I'll just learn to deal with not seeing the progress of the fermentation.

[RubberToe]

Do you mean sticking on an actual temperature probe, or the sticker thermometres? The sticker ones aren't terribly acurate.

[Houblon34]

Do you mean sticking on an actual temperature probe, or the sticker thermometres? The sticker ones aren't terribly acurate.

Sticker. True, they aren't as accurate as other types of thermometers, but I'm certainly not at a level of brewing where I'll worry about a 1 or 2 degree difference. Maybe one day, but I'm just not there yet... haha