Fermenter cooling

[baloonon]

Here's something I'm puzzling about while waiting until bottling time.

I put my 5 gallon plastic bucket fermenter outside to chill last night
before bottling in a few days. I put it in a well shaded spot on a
patch of concrete which registered 40 F when measured with a infrared
thermometer.

Outside it's been pretty consistently ranging from the low 30s to low
40s F and dropped to 34 F at the lowest point and reached 40 F by
morning.

The fermenter had been showing a pretty stable surface temp in the low
60s for a week after the hydrometer measurement stabilized, so
fermentation is done. And yet, after a night of chilling, the surface
temp, measured in several different places, had dropped only about 10
degrees.

Does that seem right? I'm not actually concerned, since it's an ale and
it doesn't need any serious lager-like cooling. I'm basically just
letting things settle down a little more and clear up a bit before
bottling, and in the summer I often don't don't chill at all before
bottling and things turn out fine. This is really just about my
curiousity.

I suppose I could look up how long it takes that mass to equalize at air
temp, but it feels like the temp should have dropped faster than that.

I realize maybe it's in some kind of warm spot, and maybe the
thermometer is off. There wasn't any wind to speak of. But shouldn't
the temp have dropped more?

[D Ash]

Post by baloonon
Here's something I'm puzzling about while waiting until bottling time.
I put my 5 gallon plastic bucket fermenter outside to chill last night
before bottling in a few days. I put it in a well shaded spot on a
patch of concrete which registered 40 F when measured with a infrared
thermometer.
Outside it's been pretty consistently ranging from the low 30s to low
40s F and dropped to 34 F at the lowest point and reached 40 F by
morning.
The fermenter had been showing a pretty stable surface temp in the low
60s for a week after the hydrometer measurement stabilized, so
fermentation is done. And yet, after a night of chilling, the surface
temp, measured in several different places, had dropped only about 10
degrees.
Does that seem right? I'm not actually concerned, since it's an ale and
it doesn't need any serious lager-like cooling. I'm basically just
letting things settle down a little more and clear up a bit before
bottling, and in the summer I often don't don't chill at all before
bottling and things turn out fine. This is really just about my
curiousity.
I suppose I could look up how long it takes that mass to equalize at air
temp, but it feels like the temp should have dropped faster than that.
I realize maybe it's in some kind of warm spot, and maybe the
thermometer is off. There wasn't any wind to speak of. But shouldn't
the temp have dropped more?

Going to have to guess at a couple of things. You mentioned 'shady
location'. Was that wind shade as well as sun? Plastic isn't known as
being very temperature conductive --at least not quickly--, so without
any air movement and with the liquid mass just sitting there without
internal current there wouldn't be a whole lot of incentive for it to
equalize with outside ambient. Whatever is the case, you certainly
didn't hurt it.

[baloonon]

Post by D Ash
Going to have to guess at a couple of things. You mentioned 'shady
location'. Was that wind shade as well as sun? Plastic isn't known as
being very temperature conductive --at least not quickly--, so without
any air movement and with the liquid mass just sitting there without
internal current there wouldn't be a whole lot of incentive for it to
equalize with outside ambient. Whatever is the case, you certainly
didn't hurt it.

It was pretty sheltered from the wind and there wasn't much wind to
begin with, so I'm assuming that wasn't an issue.

I'm assuming it's either a bad thermometer or else it appears that there
are weird pockets of warm and cool air that pool around me. For
whatever reason where I live, fairly often on pretty flat ground two
cars can be parked only 10 or 15 yards apart and one will have the
windows completely frozen over the other will have them completely
clear.

At any rate, I brought the fermenter inside, stuck it in a cooler with
some ice packs and the temp dropped to the mid 30s. So it goes and I'll
bottle soon.