Moved the fermenter from the homemade cooling chamber into the new frigedeezer. For now, just gonna hang the temp sensor between the door and the body so I can push it up into the thermowell. The move wasn't as bad as anticipated because the missus helped me by keeping the stand under the fermenter in the move. Worst part was that silly me put it in the freezer with the TC well in the back, didn't I? So, had to take it back out (because the handle won't let it spin in the freezer) to turn it around. Probe in, freezer running, ITC-1000F waiting to see what happens. Already dropped the temp from 67.7 to 67.6 in less than 5 minutes. No more totin' ice.
![IMG_3056[1].JPG](https://www.brewersfriend.com/forum/attachments/img_3056-1-jpg.22384/ "IMG_3056[1].JPG")
Hard to see, but the airlock sticks up above the internal temp controller bracket, so I had to take that off to put the fermenter in the freezer. 20 minutes later, and the temp is already down to 65.6F from 67.8. So, maybe money well spent on the freezer. I may have to reconsider turning the freezer on full tilt. Not sure how cold the ambient is gonna get in there meaning how much undershoot I'm gonna get. I can tweak a lotta things to fix that now, though. This batch will definitely get renamed to Frankenbeer if it survives all the disturbances I've given it. It's taken a beating on temperature and been bumped around a little, too. A little agitation, but I don't think any sloshing or aerating. Hoping it still had enough CO2 in the headspace to prevent any problems with critters going in while I had the airlock off.
Now, to look up fittings and stuff to put on that lid so I can try to push the beer out the bottom and into the bottling bucket .... The FF7.9 isn't pressure rated, so I dare not put more than a couple PIS on it. I'm not too concerned about the valve or it's attachment to the bottom, but I won't be impressed if it blows the lid off or breaks it. Worst I can do is break it, best I can do is force fermented beer to go where I want without aeration. Any recommendations on a good C02 regulator, spunding valve rig, and source for line parts? Come to think of it, my stepson (who got me started with this) has a tank and regulator. Might borrow his for a while. He isn't brewing much, and I'm pretty sure he has most everything needed for kegging, too. Might borrow his stuff and pay him back with some beer.
No problem. The recipe is a simple extra pale ale with a single malt and single hop in 2 boil additions. Pick your favorite malt and hop and decide how bitter you want it. I wanna say you prefer a less bitter beer? This one comes out around 30 IBUs (theoretically)
30 is actually a good number for me, if the hops are bringing something else to the party other than just plain bitterness. I'll even range up into the 40s in a stout if it's got some other fun for the tongue. But, you're right, I don't drink beer because I like bitter things. I tend to avoid using specialty flavor hops for bittering because Warrior (16 AAU) is so cheap and it doesn't take much of it (less sludge after the boil). Too much of it, though, and the beer tastes like I just mowed the lawn.
This sounds like a good way to individually sample hops, malts, and yeasts to try different things, then put adjuncts in to make a specialty beer. Thanks for your malt foundation research. I may give these a go and perhaps just try different hops in the one I like best until I find the hops I like best, then repeat with that foundation to find the yeast I like best. Got some brewing to do, darn it.
. Don't worry she sure got all my attention whilst she was awake 
