Kegerator and issues holding ale temps

[Chris79]

Hi Gents,

I have a Kegerator series 4. I got this from my workplace. I used it successfully from Jan-Apr brewing some lagers and an ale all successfully in terms of my temps I wanted it to hold.

I've had it off for say 3-4 weeks, as I needed to take a break from brewing/drinking due to some minor health problems for the last month and a bit.

I turned it on last Sunday. Since then I've had problems getting the actual temp above 14-15 C. I have a pocket temp probe in a glass of water inside the fridge and it's reading anywhere from 12-15 C even when I've had the set temp at 18-20C.

The kegerator is inside my house. Previously I had no problem holding these warmer temps for doing a d-rest for my lagers or the English dark mild I brewed.

I live in metro Sydney. Is this just a by-product of the colder weather and for some reason it can't warm up to these desired temps? Or is there something I can do/check to fix this?

Cheers
Chris

 

[malt junkie]

you need a heat pad, or something to produce heat, you don't expect to get hot coffee from a fridge! Ambient temps have been well bellow the temperature you want, the kegerator is just a fridge and can cool stuff, you need a heater and a way to control both heating and cooling.

 

[pnorkle]

Don't think he knew it was a fridge?

 

[Chris79]

No prob, I do understand what you are saying and that ultimately the kegerator is a fridge!
I have a heat pad and currently have my English Bitter sitting on that!

 

[Chris79]

I do know it's a fridge pnorkle.

Simply asking the question, what is the temp range it can run.

 

[Grott]

Problem is that if the ambient temperature and the product you want to temp control is lower than the set temp of the kegerator, then you will not achieve what yo want. Do you have one of those heat bags you can heat in the microwave? Or those hot/cold packs for injuries? Put something like that in, raise temp to/above required and away you go.

 

[Chris79]

Thanks Grott.

Yes the ambient is lower then my desired ferment temp, and actual fridge temp was about 13-15.

What I did so was used a pasta pot put warm water in that and it did raise the internal temp well, but a few hours later it came down a lot.

I do have a heat pad, which I started using for this brew, which seems to be working well keeping my ale around 18-20 c.

Cheers

 

[pnorkle]

Dumb question from me, (and I apologise if I came across as a smartarse in earlier post) but, you don't have the kegerator turned on at the same time as the heatpad?

 

[Chris79]

No worries pnorkle! So hard to tell what people mean in an online setting like this.

I got the fermenter out of the fridge sitting on the heat pad

 

[Bribie G]

In the winter I use one of the kegmates in the garage simply as a fermenting cabinet, switched off but with a fridge mate probe into it so I can check the actual temperature on the fridgemate display.
It's been a couple of degrees warmer than Sydney of course being up here nearer to God, but ambients are running at around 12 to 16 in the garage. I pitch at around 20 and the heat generated by the ferment has kept the brew in the kegmate at around 20 for the first few days.
Last brew heated up to 22 and I had to open the door for the afternoon.

The insulation on these things is extremely good. If it's really cold, even just putting a litre bottle of hot tap water onto the compressor hump for a few hours bumps it up really nicely.

 

[Chris79]

Maybe next time in winter I'll ferment in the kegerator with it off.

What do you mean by a kegmate? Is that the same one of keg king kind of insulation jackets?

Cheers Bribie

 

[TidalPete]

Maybe next time in winter I'll ferment in the kegerator with it off.

What do you mean by a kegmate? Is that the same one of keg king kind of insulation jackets?

Cheers Bribie

You are using a KegMate!
Just another name for your kegerator.

 

[Bribie G]

Same thing, resold by CraftBrewer as KegMate. Mine doesn't have the rice cooker add on.
Actually looking at the Keg King website I see that they now call it the "Keg Master".

 

[Chris79]

Thanks Pete, Bribie.