[dcampbell34]

Good Morning Everyone,

I use a chest freezer and an Inkbird plus a Tilt for temp control. During fermentation the temp spikes a couple of degrees. My question is, does this need to be controlled? In other words if my temp is set at 67 do I need to drop the temp on the Inkbird to compensate or just ride it out?

Thank You.

[tommymorris]

Good Morning Everyone,

I use a chest freezer and an Inkbird plus a Tilt for temp control. During fermentation the temp spikes a couple of degrees. My question is, does this need to be controlled? In other words if my temp is set at 67 do I need to drop the temp on the Inkbird to compensate or just ride it out?

Thank You.

I set my temp controller to come on when my fermentation hits the max temp I am comfortable with for that yeast. I’m guessing most ale yeasts would be fine with 67F for the early parts of fermentation with a spike to 70F. But, I am not 100% sure because I usually have mine around 64 and then spike to 67-68.

[ynotbrusum]

I just monitor the temperature of the fermenting wort (thermowell or thermistor taped to side wall of the FV with insulation over it) and set the temperature accordingly.  Then the ambient in the chest freezer goes to what is needed to control the wort temperature, rather than the ambient temperature within the chest freezer.  Of course you have some range set to kick on/off, so there will be modest temperature swings.  Also, if the yeast really kick in strongly, I suppose that there could be a rise above the top range setting, just because it takes a while to cool a hot ferment back down, but I would not sweat that.

[MNWayne]

Fermentation produces heat. If your Inkbird controller is reading and controlling the ambient temp of your chamber then your wort will be fermenting at a higher temperature. You should adjust the Inkbird to account for this temperature differential.  I found there to be a greater difference during early ferment than later. If your Inkbird is reading the wort temp via a thermowell, then the differential should be almost zero.
In my situation, in winter I heat my chamber but in summer I cool my fermenter via a submerged stainless coil.  So when I'm running my cooler it's set to ferment temp, but if I must provide heat, my setpoint temp is 3-5 degress below desired ferment temp.

[dcampbell34]

Good Info.

Thanks everyone.