For those of you who have temperature controllers on your freezers. Found this tip on the Beertown site.
Kirk
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1. Chest Freezer Temp Controller
I have a chest freezer with a temp controller for my kegs. You can save energy and wear on the freezer motor by submerging the temp controller sensor in water. The water changes temperature more slowly than the air in the freezer and more closely approximates the temperature of the beer in the kegs. Fewer changes mean the freezer runs less and saves you on the power bill. I started with an open bucket, but I had a lot of condensation in the freezer that pooled up at the bottom. I tried covering it with foil, but that didn’t help. The key was to reduce the amount of total water in the freezer and also reduce the surface area to keep it from evaporating and condensing on the freezer walls.

Take a used White Labs yeast vial and drill a hole in the top. The drill bit needs to be fairly large, but depends on your temperature probe size. Before you drill the hole, take out the thin plastic piece that fits inside the screw top of the vial, and save it for later. Take the plastic piece and cut a small X in it, right in the middle, and stick it back inside the screw top. Fill the vial about 3/4 full of water and attach the screw cap. Now you just insert the temperature probe through the screw cap and the plastic “X”. The vial is essentially sealed at this point (I wouldn’t hold it upside down, but it’s pretty contained). You can now get the benefits of measuring water temperature in your fridge/freezer without all the condensation.

Matt Fischer
Fort Collins, Colo.
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