Brew Heaters

[sawtellrob]

Hello all

Winter has struck hard on the mid north coast of NSW and the old electric blanket is struggling to keep the brew keg warm. I'm going to replace it but what is better - an immersion heater, a heater belt or a heater pad. Any thoughts?

Ta
Rob

 

[manticle]

Hello all

Winter has struck hard on the mid north coast of NSW and the old electric blanket is struggling to keep the brew keg warm. I'm going to replace it but what is better - an immersion heater, a heater belt or a heater pad. Any thoughts?

Ta
Rob

What temp are you aiming for and do you mean keg or fermenter?

 

[drtomc]

Other experience may disprove me, but I prefer a heat pad on the basis that if you warm the bottom, convection will ensure the whole thing warms up. Conversely, if you warm the top, the warm wort won't sink to the bottom.

The main shortcoming of this theory is that by heating with a pad underneath you are warming the trub, and may therefore increase the amount of autolysis. Perhaps a heat belt a few cm from the bottom....

T.

 

[Fantoman]

I just use a good old fashioned hot water bottle strapped to the side of the fermenter with some elastic. Fermenting fridge stops it from getting too hot so it just sits at around 18-20c overnight.

Just have to refill the hot water bottle first thing in the morning and before going to bed at night...

 

[wambesi]

Other experience may disprove me, but I prefer a heat pad on the basis that if you warm the bottom, convection will ensure the whole thing warms up. Conversely, if you warm the top, the warm wort won't sink to the bottom.

The main shortcoming of this theory is that by heating with a pad underneath you are warming the trub, and may therefore increase the amount of autolysis. Perhaps a heat belt a few cm from the bottom....

T.

The heat belt a few cm from the bottom is exactly how I do it, oh and a fridgemate to ensure it doesn't overheat it. Works a charm.

 

[Spartan 117]

Perhaps a heat belt a few cm from the bottom....

T.

+1

I use this method during he winters in melbounre and it works rather well, you can improve on it by adding isulation around the fermenter.

Aaron

 

[gava]

I use a submersible heater using a fridge + tempmate.. works a treat.. just got another fridge/tempmate and a heat belt and will see if this also works as good as the sub heater..

I've been using the sub heater for years with no problem.

 

[rich_lamb]

They're all good and achieve the same thing - it doesn't make an appreciable difference which way you do it, so long as you keep the temperature as constant as possible.
So the method of delivering the heat is less important than the controller.

I used to use a heatpad, and was very happy with the way this worked. A nice gentle heat with a wide distribution, and as mentioned convection takes care of the rest. These days I use fan-forced warm air around the fermenter, which is another story, but works just the same.

 

[drtomc]

On a related note:

Recently I've brewed a Saison which had several weeks in primary fermentation (but man! what attenuation!) at a relatively warm 24C. That's fine, except it took up my temperature controller and heat mat for that long, preventing me from fermenting anything else for about 5 weeks. Well, that's not quite true - if I had something else that wanted 24C, I could do something side-by-side wrapped in blankets.

Short of buying another mat/belt and another controller, any clever ideas about how to achieve split temperatures?

T.

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

On a related note:

Recently I've brewed a Saison which had several weeks in primary fermentation (but man! what attenuation!) at a relatively warm 24C. That's fine, except it took up my temperature controller and heat mat for that long, preventing me from fermenting anything else for about 5 weeks. Well, that's not quite true - if I had something else that wanted 24C, I could do something side-by-side wrapped in blankets.

Short of buying another mat/belt and another controller, any clever ideas about how to achieve split temperatures?

T.

I have 2 x 23 fermenters sharing one heat pad between them at the moment, about to be bottled. I put them both down at the same time and put the heat pad between them but under them, wrapped them in a blanket and they sat at a constant 23 degs in an unheated room. Was around 0 degrees here last few nights so the heat pads do the trick fine for me.

 

[pdilley]

I have 2 fancy new technology fish tank heaters. I was used to the old fashioned ones that you screwed onto the side of the tank.

These new ones are fully submersible cord and all. I had planed on using them "bain-marie" style by getting a square plastic tub from Bunnings that fit the dimensions of the fridge, put water in the tub with fish tank heater and temperature probe from TempMate and put the fermenter into the warm bath of water.

With fully submersible, it opens up the possibility of sanitising the heater and cord and into the fermenter with that and then either probe in or taped to side and then plastic film wrap over the top.

Also makes it easy with my stirplate, rubbermaid tub on top of that, water and toss in the submersible heater and temperature probe. Then put Erlenmeyer flask into warm water bath and build starters in optimum time.

Only $20 from the local aquarium nutter selling fish and gear out of his house.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[haysie]

There was a thread very recently regarding hotplates as a heating source. I bought one at ALDI last week for $24.
I have used the aquarium heaters, the pads, leckie blanket, household globe all controlled via a fridgemate, yet never found one too be ideal, i.e aquarium heaters are a beetch too calibrate, clean those cable ties, heatpad is a huge autolyis issue as mentioned above, leckie blankets are just cumbersome and frustrating, globes can blow at the worst time.

 

[pdilley]

Yeah thats why TempMate controls the fish tank heater on/off based upon the TempMate temperature sensor and the heater is simply set to full temperature. Good heat and accurate control. I agree on their own I wouldn't trust a fish tank heater to be accurate or reliable in its temperature.

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

The main shortcoming of this theory is that by heating with a pad underneath you are warming the trub, and may therefore increase the amount of autolysis.
T.

You say the "shortcoming" of this theory........increase the amount of autoysis.

What are autolysis?
Anyone?

 

[pdilley]

Autolysis is the destruction of a cell by digestion of itself by the very enzymes contained within them.

Its good in wines (adds mouthfeel, reduces astringency, adds bready and flowery aromas), but are not what most people are looking for with beers.

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

Autolysis is the destruction of a cell by digestion of itself by the very enzymes contained within them.

Its good in wines (adds mouthfeel, reduces astringency, adds bready and flowery aromas), but are not what most people are looking for with beers.

Thanks Brewer Pete.

All clear.

Cheers.

 

[tommystarr]

I just started a brew yesterday using a fish tank heater. I sanitised the heater, placed it in the brew with cling wrap on top and the rubber ring from the lid of plastic coopers fermenter to hold it all in.

So far so good....

 

[technocat]

Initially I started with a heat pad which karked it in two seasons. I bought a heat belt six years ago and happy to report it is still going. They both did an excellent job but I was a little disappointed not getting much mileage out of the heat pad. :angry: