Author: Marshall Schott

There are a lot of really cool homebrewing products out there, but it’s not often something comes along that is both more useful than what already exists and much more affordable. A few weeks back, while perusing one of the many homebrewing forums, I came across a single post by someone who said they were controlling fermentation temps using a regulator from a manufacturer I’d never heard of. After a quick web search, I found myself at the website for The Black Box.

After looking around, I was beyond interested. Not only did this seemingly simple looking machine, which uses the popular STC-1000 temperature controller, have the functionality to raise and reduce the temperature in my ferm chamber without me being around, but it was significantly cheaper than most other digital regulators at $55. Plus it’s plug-and-play, requiring very little setup on the user’s part. There had to be a catch, I mean, I paid nearly $100 more for my current dual-stage digital regulator, which requires me to manually input temp changes. I browsed the site more and it almost seemed too good to be true, in that “holy-shit-how-come-I-haven’t-heard-of-this-yet” sort of way. I shot-off an email and received a response the following day from a dude named Will. We chatted for a bit and a few days later, a Black Box temp regulator arrived to my house.

I was still skeptical, as I’m wont to be, but the unit felt very solid. I plugged it in just to make sure it would turn on, it did, so I put it in place on my new 7 cu. ft. chest freezer using industrial strength Velcro.

It worked really well, that shit is steeeerong! The Black Box looked sharp attached to the freezer.

The buttons on the STC-1000 were easily accessible, though I later learned I wouldn’t necessarily be using them as often as I thought.

I taped the temperature probe to some leftover Reflectix, which will be attached to the fermentor probe-side-in, usually sandwiched between 2 carboys.

After everything was in its rightful place and looking good, I got to work inputting my fermentation profiles into The Black Box- Ale, Hybrid, and of course my quick Lager profile.

Wait, what?!

Yeah, so this is what makes this controller so much more homebrewer-centric than other controllers I’ve used. A little background first…

Will Conrad, owner of The Black Box, is a regular over at HomeBrewTalk (WilConrad). A few months back, he stumbled onto a post by AlphaOmega, aka Mats Staffansson, regarding firmware he developed for the STC-1000+ that allowed for the ability to read temp in Fahrenheit and execute specific temperature profiles (here’s a link to Mats’ project page). Using an Arduino and a flashed STC-100o, Will got to work making his own controller and started doing some testing in collaboration with Mats to refine the code. Once everything was stable and useful, Will built 7 units and threw them up for sale on HBT, they were gone in a mere 45 minutes. Given the incredible response, he built a batch of more 40 units, which sold within days, so he built another 50 that also sold immediately. It was clear there was strong demand for this temperature controller. He recently placed an order for parts to build 100 units and I’m guessing they won’t last long. Thankfully, Will plans to continue building and selling The Black Box as long as the demand persists.

When Will sold that first batch of The Black Box controllers, he felt it only appropriate to offer Mats a “royalty” for his work on the firmware. Rather than accepting the money, Mats requested that Will make a donation to a charity that helps children. Will selected St. Jude Children’s Hospital and since has decided to donate $2 from every sale of The Black Box to this charity in Mats’ name.

This is exactly the type of company I’m proud to say I support! You get a fantastic product that does more than what higher-priced competitors even come close to offering at a lower price, developed by homebrewers passionate about the hobby, and it helps kids. Inspired doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel about this company. You might think I’m getting some sort of kickback as a result of this post, but I assure you, I am not. If ever there were a product more deserving of shameless promotion, I’ve yet to discover it. If you’re in the market for a temp controller, buy The Black Box. If you like the convenience of a temp controller that allows you to preset fermentation profiles, buy The Black Box. If you’re looking for a gift for a homebrewer, buy them The Black Box. Let’s help out one of our own, an obviously badass dude with a heart as big as his genius.

Something you may notice when you visit The Black Box website is that they may be sold out, which sucks if you’re impatient like me, but remember that Will is currently a one-man-show who builds each unit by hand. If you want The Black Box (you do) and they’re sold out, there’s a place you can enter your email address and he’ll let you know when more are in stock. Like I mentioned, 100 units should be available soon.

I’m not going to go into great detail about how to set the temp profiles, which is probably the most unique feature of The Black Box, Will does a great job himself in the the following video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZst7ETP-w8

What I’d like to share are the settings for the 3 temperature profiles I use most often. This be very difficult to understand until you watch the video and/or have the unit. My hope is that you can use my profiles as a simple template for entering your own. One thing to keep in mind is that these profiles assume your wort is already to your preferred pitching temp, which for me is always 2°F below my target fermentation temperature. For those who complete their chilling in the freezer a few hours prior to pitching, simply use the standard thermostat setting on the unit until the wort reaches your desired pitching temp, then execute the profile you wish to use.

***MY TEMP PROFILES EDITED 8/6/2014***

ALE PROFILE

Chill wort to 64°-65° prior to pitching yeast

SP0: 66°

dh0: 72 (3 day ferment)

SP1: 66°

dh1: 12 (.5 day free-rise/ramp up)

SP2: 70°

dh2: 72 (3 day attenuation/diacetyl rest)

SP3: 70°

dh3: 60 (2.5 day ramp down)

SP4: 33°

dh4: 0

HYBRID PROFILE

Chill wort to 56°-57° prior to pitching yeast

SP0: 58°

dh0: 72 (3 day ferment)

SP1: 58°

dh1: 24 (1 day free-rise/ramp up)

SP2: 68°

dh2: 120 (5 day attenuation/diacetyl rest)

SP3: 68°

dh3: 48 (2 day ramp down)

SP4: 33°

dh4: 0

QUICK LAGER PROFILE

Chill wort to 46°-47° prior to pitching yeast

SP0: 48°

dh0: 120 (5 day ferment)

SP1: 48°

dh1: 120 (5 day free-rise/ramp up)

SP2: 65°

dh2: 72 (3 day attenuation/diacetyl rest)

SP3: 65°

dh3: 168 (7 day ramp down/lager)

SP4: 33°

dh4: 0

If you have any questions about The Black Box you don’t think I can answer (I’m still a new user and know nothing about programming stuff), email Will, he knows his shit.

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