Heating

[jeffyjudd]

what is the best way to keep ur beer warm at 18 dec for fermantation in winter i started brewing at the start of the year (summer) got a fridge with temp controller
i seen
heat belts
heat mats
n hear puting a lamp light in the fridge
with the first 2 do they heat evenly?
whats best?

 

[kjparker]

what is the best way to keep ur beer warm at 18 dec for fermantation in winter i started brewing at the start of the year (summer) got a fridge with temp controller
i seen
heat belts
heat mats
n hear puting a lamp light in the fridge
with the first 2 do they heat evenly?
whats best?

I found with the brew I am doing at the moment, simply wrapping the fermenter in a blanket is keeping it pretty stable. My fermenter is sitting at 18.5deg, and hasnt really moved, not even first thing in the morning. Well, it had actually increased by .1 of a deg overnight...

 

[jeffyjudd]

cant do the blanket because the day temp is still high but night temp low 1-6 at night so still need the fridge for the day
im doing a lager now fridge holding at 12 at night but next week forecast weather down to 0 night 12 day gunna have to heat even the lager
so however i heat it..it still has to be to the fridge

 

[stef]

i use a lamp, because it heats my fermenting fridge, rather than just the fermenter, which means i can have multiple beers fermenting at the same time (provided they all want the same yeast) whereas a heat band etc will only heat the 1 fermenter. Otherwise i believe the currents etc in the fermenting wort tend to distribute the heat a fair bit anyway?

I dont think any one method is best- depends on what you want/need/like.

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I've been going through this adventure myself

In my old place I was able to hold 18+ without issue in the garage

The new place has a stand alone garage and it's been mighty chilly - the ferment itself will hold the temp in the fridge but as activity wanes so does the temp and I've been worrying about the yeast completing

I was looking at a brew heat pad @ ~$55 or a reptile heat pad @ ~$30 but was at the green shed this morning and picked up a little fan heater for ~$16 so I'll use this with a STC-1000 I have

It's probably a little too powerful @ 1000W but I'd imagine it'd only take a very short time to heat the fridge space before switching off

Cheers

 

[[email protected]]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I jus got this from ebay, should do the trick this winter, although I haven't had problems with my fermenter getting too cold just yet.

 

[Jeff Margrie]

what is the best way to keep ur beer warm at 18 dec for fermantation in winter i started brewing at the start of the year (summer) got a fridge with temp controller
i seen
heat belts
heat mats
n hear puting a lamp light in the fridge
with the first 2 do they heat evenly?
whats best?

Using a small fan inside your fridge to help circulate the air keeps it nice an even.

More info here.

Cheers WoolBrew :icon_cheers:

 

[Supra-Jim]

I use a heat belt and an STC1000 works well and keeps a nice consistent temp.

Cheers SJ

 

[Mclovin]

My Rig is a 80 watt crank case heater from a commercial refrigerant compressor switched via a temp controller set to 18'C

Check it out.

 

[smilinggilroy]

Try one of these:-
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT
You can attach it in a horizontal or vertical zig-zag patterned coil to the walls of your fermenting fridge/box.
Hook it up to a temp. controller or even a timer (experiment with on/off times and intervals).
Depending on size of fridge/box a fan helps too.

 

[bignath]

I don't have any heating at all, and have no problems maintaining consistent temps.

I have a fridge with temp controller set to 17 for ales (fermentation heat gives me 18deg.)
and for lagers i set it to 10 or 11.

Having said that though, the region i live in has fairly constant temp so my fridge doesn't get affected by ambient temp change very much.

Works for me

 

[Spork]

My ferment fridge and freezer are outside on my patio. It has been -2 here last few nights and only about 12c during the day. Heat belt was struggling - set to 18, was staying on 24hrs/day and only managing 15-16.5c. Got the reptile heating cord today. Wrapped / wove it onto a spare 'fridge shelf so doesn't overlap at all. Doing a big belgian at the moment, they say to up temp to 20c after a few days (pointless with heat belt) and it's now maintaining that easily. Going to get another one for other fermenting fridge I think. Advantage of this over the pads is it can thread through the drain hole in the bottom of the chest freezer.

 

[DWC]

I use hot water bottles and a sleeping bag to keep my fermented warm in winter.
I haven't seen those reptile heaters before, might move a little more hi-tech.

 

[RdeVjun]

whats best?

Ob: ditch the ales and start brewing some lagers! h34r:

10- 12C is a piece of cake of late, and that's in sunny Qld where I'm already on to my second of the season. B)

 

[haysie]

Ob: ditch the ales and start brewing some lagers! h34r:

10- 12C is a piece of cake of late, and that's in sunny Qld where I'm already on to my second of the season. B)

is it that cold,,,yukk! not to lagers but cold weather. Cairns/Port Douglas come september :wub: , maybe another roadtrip rdevun and another taste of those lagers.

 

[RdeVjun]

maybe another roadtrip rdevun and another taste of those lagers.

Ob: :icon_offtopic:
Hopefully without the acetaldehyde next time, haysie! As you can see, progress has already started on the next tranche- that last one of mine was pretty darned ordinary (pardon the brewday faux pas...).

 

[rich_lamb]

I've used a heat belt and they work.
I've used a heatpad (my personal preference) and they work well too - good even distribution from the bottom of the fermenter.

In my new setup, I have the heatpad standing inside the little fridge (I ferment in a barfridge) and a fan mounted nearby for good heat circulation - obviously you can only do this in a confined space. That works well too.

Ultimately you just need something of fairly low wattage to provide a gentle heat, doesn't really matter what.

 

[dougsbrew]

i recently bought a heat belt which ive only just started using - 30 watts, im finding its too much heat at this stage.
i am planning on buying a light dimmer to wind the heat up and down to suit. my other idea was to use a timer, on for 15 minutes every hour or something like that.

 

[monkeybusiness]

I use an aquarium heater. Cheap and works a treat. You can use the temperature controller on them if you trust them or use them in with a separate temperature controller (which I do).

Here's a link to a thread with some discussion about their use. There are others threads also if you want to go digging.

 

[ahidau]

I've attached a 45w heat belt to a custom made shelf in my fridge and mounted some fans above. One fan turns on when the heat belt does and the other when the fridge does. Using a tempmate for control. Works a treat. The shelving bits are all from from bunnings. I have a similarly constructed shelf for the fermenter, but with 4 rails. One thing I can highly recommend is adding 10 to 20 litres of water in a container to the fridge. Really helps to smooth out temperature changes.

Cheers