Carbonating is the bottle please help

[glenncol]

Hi all,

I have created my first batch of anything in this case cider and i am needing a little direction in carbonation in the bottle as i have no co2 or kegs and so on.

I was going to add sugar to each bottle (Krolsch 500ml bottles ), i have read that keeping your bottles at around 21c while carbonating for 2 weeks will see it done well.

I was going to put all the bottlers into a fridge and keep the fridge at 21c with a heating pad, i tried it out by placing the heating pad at the bottom of the fridge and set the external thermostat to 21c and it took for ever for the ambient temp to get there.

The heat mat i am using is this one http://kegking.com.au/heating-mat-40-watt.html

The mat is not hot to the touch rather just warm,So i was wondering if i put the bottle directly on the mate standing up and used some neoprene on the side of one bottle with the temp send place in it to keept the temp, would this be ok?

 

[Brewnicorn]

I'd avoid putting a bottle on a heat mat at all mate. I know they get hotter than just warm with extended use. That said I'm not familiar with the keg king one.
If the fridge holds that ambient temp and she's all sealed up what's the worry? I reckon it'll be ok just keep an eye on the external thermostat and don't keep it all sealed up. I'm assuming by thermostat you mean like a PID or something that'll flick the heat pad off when it gets higher than 21?
Let us know how you go. Also I don't have a clue about cider temps so hopefully someone else will dive in there.
Good luck

 

[earle]

I have a similar 25W heat mat and it does a fine job of doing what you're trying to do. No need to put bottles directly on it or use neoprene. The wattage on these is so low that they're not going to feel hot.

When you say it took forever how long are we talking about? The fact that it got there in the end suggests it's working.

An empty fridge doesn't have much thermal mass. Once you have some bottles in there it will hold an ambient temperature much better.

For conditioning bottles I just have the temperature sensor sitting loose on a shelf of the fridge.

20-21C sounds fine for conditioning

 

[glenncol]

I'd avoid putting a bottle on a heat mat at all mate. I know they get hotter than just warm with extended use. That said I'm not familiar with the keg king one.
If the fridge holds that ambient temp and she's all sealed up what's the worry? I reckon it'll be ok just keep an eye on the external thermostat and don't keep it all sealed up. I'm assuming by thermostat you mean like a PID or something that'll flick the heat pad off when it gets higher than 21?
Let us know how you go. Also I don't have a clue about cider temps so hopefully someone else will dive in there.
Good luck

Hi, thanks for the response , the controller i am using is this one http://kegking.com.au/heating-cooling-equipment/mkii-10-30amp-temperature-controller-heat-cool.html

 

[glenncol]

I have a similar 25W heat mat and it does a fine job of doing what you're trying to do. No need to put bottles directly on it or use neoprene. The wattage on these is so low that they're not going to feel hot.

When you say it took forever how long are we talking about? The fact that it got there in the end suggests it's working.

An empty fridge doesn't have much thermal mass. Once you have some bottles in there it will hold an ambient temperature much better.

For conditioning bottles I just have the temperature sensor sitting loose on a shelf of the fridge.

20-21C sounds fine for conditioning

Hi, thanks for your response. it took a good 6 to 7 hours to get an ambient temp of 20.5 from 11c to start with

 

[earle]

Hi, thanks for your response. it took a good 6 to 7 hours to get an ambient temp of 20.5 from 11c to start with

I've never measured how long mine takes to get to the set temp but that long doesn't sound unreasonable. These mats are very low wattage devices. The positive side of that is that they don't use much electricity.