Hi All,
I recently purchased a Johnson Controls A419 Temperature Control with a seven cubic foot GE chest freezer to do lagers as well as ales that tend to be more sensitive to temperature variations. Anyway, I have noticed that whenever I have the "Set Point" temperature in the 60s, the freezer kicks on as it should, cools down to roughly two degrees lower than the set point as it should and then shuts off, but according to the temperature reading, the temp continues to drop, usually until it's down to about eight or nine degrees below the set point temp. According to Johnson Controls, this is a result of the chest freezer's short burst of cold, as chest freezers are primarily designed to operate at temps much colder and therefore they cool too quickly. Is this normal? Also, if I'm doing an ale such as a German Weiss, which typically ferments best around 67 or so, should I be worried the yeast will go dormant if the actual air temp within the chest freezer drops to around 55 throughout the day before it begins to slowly raise back up to the set point mid 60s range? I would think it would take longer for the wort to be impacted, or should I set the set point to a higher range to compensate for what I described above?