Brew Belts

[wyatt_girth]

Heya,
Just wondering if anyone has tips for using a brew belt. Do they do the job? I have a fridgemate so would like to use it to keep the ales going through the cooler weather. My neighbour uses a heat pad in the bottom of a fridge/cabinet connected through a fridgemate. I was going to try a belt out that I bought earlier on, before I go and get a pad.
Any thoughts?

wyatt

 

[jarrad]

I've had moderate success using an incandescent light with the brew in a closed cupboard, but it doesn't get very cold where I live. And it was cheaper!

 

[loftboy]

They work fine, as long as you control the temperature somehow. I have a Scottish Export 80/- in the brewing fridge (turned off) and a brew belt around the fermenter. I managed to get it from 15 deg C to 18.5 deg C, simply by having the brew belt on a timer. I find that turning the belt on for 15 mins every 3 hours with the timer works well for my 23L batch.

I'm going to get a FridgeMate next week & will connect the belt to it.

Heya,
Just wondering if anyone has tips for using a brew belt. Do they do the job? I have a fridgemate so would like to use it to keep the ales going through the cooler weather. My neighbour uses a heat pad in the bottom of a fridge/cabinet connected through a fridgemate. I was going to try a belt out that I bought earlier on, before I go and get a pad.
Any thoughts?

wyatt

 

[Cocko]

I use a belt and it works fine.

I find it heats my 23L fermenter at about 1 deg. an hour...

 

[peas_and_corn]

I keep my brews in a temp controlled fridge, with no means of heating the brew- I don't have any problems. It provides its own heat.

 

[ausdb]

As has already been said a brewbelt works well with timer and a bit of experimentation, you can also experiment with moving the belt up and down the fermenter as it will not heat as much if you place it higher up the fermenter than at the bottom. I have a few home made "brew belts" made from old crankcase heaters used for refrigeration compressors which are a 25W silicone belt heater and at this time of the year I ferment a lot of ales with with the fermenter just sitting in my shed rather than in the fridge. I normally turn the heater on in the evening before I go to bed and then turn them off in the morning befor I go to work, if I want to keep the fermenter cooler then I leave the fermenter sitting on the concrete slab floor of the shed. If I want to try and keep the fermenter warmer then I will put it on an old scrap piece of carpet, you just have to try it and find out what works for you.

 

[peterkinden]

My HBS told be that you will only get a year or so out of a belt before it packs itself.

Was he simply trying to upsell me to a heat pad? He told me noone really uses these anymore.

Sorry to hijack..

 

[rough60]

Not true pete, I've been using the same couple for abot 6 years now. Hooked up to a fridge mate they work better then a pad/mat IMO.
Cheers.

 

[gundaroo]

i have a waterbed heater belt, with a thermostat, works very well as opposed to my heat pad,which seems to be erratic.

 

[Interloper]

I have one and find that they are great over the very cold months when the brew would normally be very slow to start to ferment.

I place mine fairly low on the fermenter, and watch it like a hawk because if the ambient temp creeps up on you it can get the brew up over 22 degrees pretty quickly.

If it starts to get hotter I move it higher up the fermenter, even having it wrapped very loosely above the level of the krausen will keep it up around 18-20 degrees in the chilliest weather.

Last brew I started was at 6 degrees after 24 hrs so I gave it a good shake to wake the yeast up and put the heat belt on for a day or so, temp jumped back up to 20 degrees so I pulled it off and the brew fermeneted along at between 15-18 all on its own after that.

I have no method of cooling my fermenters (no room for a 2nd Fridge), so I like to brew like a mad man over winter because I really can't do a tasty brew over summer because it ferments in about 6 hrs and they taste "jammy" to say the least.

 

[drsmurto]

I'm with peas and corn on this one - if you pitch your yeast at or just slightly above ferment temps and can keep the fermenter in either an insulating box (old fridge/freezer switched off) then the heat generated during fermentation will be sufficient to hold the temp there until the job is done.

I use either a dead fridge or if i have 2 or more fermenters on the go at the same time sit them on a few sheets of cardboard and wrap them in an old sleeping bag. Even with the temps dropping below 5 here at night i can easily ferment ales and lagers would be a piece of @#$%

Cheers
DrSmurto

 

[jonw]

For those of you hooking your belt up to a fridgemate, where do you put the temp probe? I guess it would be best to put a thermowell into the fermenter and drop the probe into that. How about just sandwiching it up against the fermenter with e.g. some foam? Should be good enough.