Wintertime Fermenting

[BrewNoob]

It's already snowing here in Michigan and during the summer I was using a
fridge to keep my ferments cool. The fridge is in the garage, which is
warmer than the outside temp but too cold to ferm ales in, the fridge is set
for 62 but the temp is reading 55 today and it's only 31F outside with a wind
chill of 18F. Not good for ales. I don't lager, seems like it takes alot
longer than ales so my questions now are:

I've looked into this
http://morebeer.com/product.html?catego ... &addqty=1& But
I called and they said there is no way to thermostatically control it.
sounded to me I would have more temp control using a regular 3 setting
heating pad than one of those.

Second, moving the fridge inside is not even an option, otherwise I would
have done that long ago.

I do have a fridge temp controller but since the therm wrap only heats to a
maximum of 20f above ambient and I forsee 0 degree and lower temps in the
coming months I don't think it would be able to keep the temp even close to
60F in the fridge.

Indoors the only room that I thought might stay cool in the winter is foiled
by the fact our furnace is in the room and it actually gets pretty warm in
there I found out today, close to 70, which would be on the warm side.

Any help/suggestions on this would be much appreciated.

Gerard

[Thirsty Boy]

Maybe an aquarium immersion heater?? Those puppies go up to 300 or so watts and heat REALLY big fish tanks. Plus they are food grade and come with their own inbuilt temp control. The ones I have seen go from 18C up to 32C which is the perfect range for ales.

I only use a 50 watt one, but then again, there isn't any snow where I live. Still, I would imagine that 300W would be plenty for pretty much anywhere if you stick a bit of insulation (blanket) on the fermentor. If you are nervous about dunking the heater directly in the fermentor, you can put the carboy/bucket in a tub of water and use the heater to control the temperature in the tub.

Ebay. Heaps of em.

I have the opposite problem. Its getting too hot even for ales here (36C 97F today) and I dont have a fridge for temp control. And no room to put one.

Of course, Iam fairly nooby brewer too, so what the hell do I know? Wise ones, enlighten us..



Thirsty

[BrewNoob]

I just tested putting a heating pad in the fridge...seems to work well...guess if I hook my johnson controller to the heating pad instead of the fridge it could work actually. Just wonder if the fridge will get funky smelling with no fridge air circulating in it....maybe a box of baking soda? I definately don't want stagnenet humid air causeing mold growth.

Gerard

[mexican]

Maybe an aquarium immersion heater?? Those puppies go up to 300 or so watts and heat REALLY big fish tanks. Plus they are food grade and come with their own inbuilt temp control. The ones I have seen go from 18C up to 32C which is the perfect range for ales.

I've been using aquarium heaters for ages now and they do work a treat. The only problem I've had is setting the initial temperature accurately on them. Once you ge the temp right, they nail it consistantly. I'm actually going to turn my heater right up and use a digital controller to control the heater. That way I can more easily dial in the temp I want depending upon the beer I'm fermenting.

I only use a 50 watt one, but then again, there isn't any snow where I live. Still, I would imagine that 300W would be plenty for pretty much anywhere if you stick a bit of insulation (blanket) on the fermentor. If you are nervous about dunking the heater directly in the fermentor, you can put the carboy/bucket in a tub of water and use the heater to control the temperature in the tub.

My heater is inside my fermenter though the tub of water trick also works. The tub of water may be better in colder conditions as it would have a larger thermal mass and so once up to temp wouldn't need much juice to keep stable. Can't remeber the wattage of my heater but it keeps 20 litres bang on temperature even down to 2 degrees C ambient.

I have the opposite problem. Its getting too hot even for ales here (36C 97F today) and I dont have a fridge for temp control. And no room to put one.
Thirsty

hehehe. Yep certainly was a stinker yesterday, wasn't it Thirsty ! I haven't figured out the 'keep it cool enough for ales' thing yet either. I've got a freezer, but thats full of kegs. Dunno whether the missus would let me get another fridge either.

Actually an idea might be to use a small submersible aquarium pump in a container of iced water pumping over the fermenter and have it turn on and off via a temp controller. If you've got a keg fridge/freezer setup then you may be able to have the pump and cold water in that and run tubing to and from a giant bucket containing your fermenter. That way you wouldn't need to keep topping up the cold water all the time. I'd just make sure the bucket is higher than your pump setup so that the water flowing around and over the fermenter can empty back into your cold water reservoir in the fridge.

Hmmm, I think I might have some experimenting to do this weekend to see whether this actually would work.

Also you might want to check with OZ as he's brewing in stinking hot weather all the time. He might have some more ideas.

You just need to remeber that you are dealing with a fairly large thermal mass that will change temperature very slowly so once you have the right temperature it won't take much effort to keep it at that temperature.

mexican

[skipper]

Also you might want to check with OZ as he's brewing in stinking hot weather all the time. He might have some more ideas.
mexican

You would be asking a man who has his own cold room at home (not to mention a few temperature controlled fridges...one of which I may purchase ).