Which Inkbird temp control should I get?

I’ve seen several mentions on this forum of the Inkbird ITC-308 (about $35), which I use and have been pleased with. The programming menu has a relatively small learning curve and it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it.
For an additional $15 you can get a Wifi version with an app for IOS or Android. I picked up one of those too but haven’t fermented remotely yet.

Edited to add: The post linked below has some decent info about using a temperature controller. Courtesy @PortLargo
https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...emps-fermometer-accuracy.576635/#post-6051565

 

I bought and use both versions. I prefer the WiFi, it's very easy to work with and monitor. Definitely worth the extra few bucks in my opinion.

 

You're in Florida, but is it likely that you could place your fermenter and fridge in your garage during the winter, thus you might need to consider heating the inside of that fridge? If the fermentor will stay inside the house you should be okay with only keeping the inside cool.

 

I’ve been using the cheapest one (35 dollars) for like 5 years. Never had a complaint.

 

You do want to control the yo-yo'ing if the fridge is in the garage. You can avoid brewing during the winter, or at least the probable coldest part of winter as one way to avoid the issue. But my point of asking if you might be putting the fridge in the garage is to let you think about the need to heat the inside of the fridge to keep your beer at the ideal fermentation temp range for whatever yeast you use.

I think some temp control units can be set up to be dual controls, i.e. controlling the fridge's cooling mechanism as well as controlling a heat pad or something like that. During the spring and fall season you may need to chill the fridge during the day and heat it at night.

Putting the temp sensor into the fermentor is the most accurate way to deliver the proper temp inside the fridge, but it's still fairly accurate to tape it to the side of the fermentor and then cover it with bubble wrap or something that can insulate it from the side away from the beer.

So much of all of this depends on how well insulated the fridge is to avoid the wild swings from the temp extremes in the garage. Keeping it indoors removes the need to worry about having to heat the interior, and worry just about the cooling control.

 

The link in my previous post touches on that fairly well, with pictures and everythang.
Then scroll to post 7 of that thread for info about thermowell design/placement. I bought a stainless steel thermowell tube & stopper that had sufficient inside diameter to accept the Inkbird temp probe.
I'll try to find what I ordered, if you're interested.

 

ITC-308

 

I use an old Johnson Controls device that is cooling-only, but my fridge is in the basement and I never need heat, so I don't pay that much attention to newer devices. It simplifies my life.

 

This is the ITC-1000 Inkbird model, 16 bucks on Amazon. It does everything the 308 does (I have both). It comes basic: you have to wire it, takes 5-10 minutes and there are about 100 youtube videos that show you how. It doesn't have an enclosure...I put mine in the box it shipped in and have been using it for years. So if you have an old extension cord laying around total extra cost is zero. Everyone raves about the 308 because it's purty...but like a spouse, the plain ones sometimes work out best.

When actively fermenting I might change the setting once a day, twice is about max. WiFi will allow you to avoid that trip to adjust . . . but won't tell you anything about your blowoff.

 

Cheap and Cheerful! I like it!

Here’s my setup. Not quite as cheap, but not quite a cheerful. The Johnson A419 is for heating, while the Inkbird is for cooling. The A419 controls a heater inside the fermentation cabinet, while the Inkbird controls the small AC unit in the foreground. Cheers!

 

My fermentation cabinet can comfortably hold two 6 gallon car boys, although these days I use Speidel 8 gallon fermenters. It can hold two of those, although I rarely have more than one going at a time.

Total investment? Hard to say. I’ve been homebrewing for more than 20 years. I’ve built the equipment up over that time, adding what I thought would be beneficial as I’ve gone along. I’ve now got a system that I am very comfortable using: propane heating, gravity fed sparging and transfer to Speidel, temperature controlled fermentation, and kegging with kegs in a dedicated fridge.

I’ve also developed a spreadsheet that allows me to design my beers, and from that design it helps determine all the brewing parameters (grain weights, hop amounts, water treatment, yeast starter parameters, etc.) for a given beer. I recommend Brewcipher by @VikeMan as an easily adaptable spreadsheet for this sort of thing if you really get into designing you own beers.

I did she’ll out bucks towards a self designed electric brewing rig a few years ago, but I’ve never assembled/wired the controller box, and I’ve yet to get a mash tun / kettle (idea is a one vessel system). My motivation sort of waned because I don’t brew nearly as often as I did in the past. I sort of wish I’d just bought a complete electric rig — like the Grainfather — but currently (yes, that’s a joke) I am in limbo with electric. It will be fun to wire up, if and when I get to it.

Not sure where all that came from. Anyway, cheers!

 

Take mine, I rarely use it . . .