temperature control

[dirt1016]

I am very interested in this. After listening to TBN for about three weeks now I keep hearing over and over again how important it is to have your beer ferment at a specific and constant temp.
I have always just tried to get it in the main rainge (65-75) make sure it bubbled and I thought all was good.
Now this sounds much more specific to yeast straign and a specific temp +/-.
I imagin most of the guys on the radio show have temp controled conicals or some other form.
I am wondering what is the cheaper version. I have a cold basement in the winter and I have been using a warming belt which has worked but I have no idea the specific temp that the beer is at and how that may have effected my results.

Is the cheap version to make a box, put a heater of some sort in and attach to a temp controler? Seems like their should be an easier way.

[Thirsty Boy]

I am very interested in this. After listening to TBN for about three weeks now I keep hearing over and over again how important it is to have your beer ferment at a specific and constant temp.
I have always just tried to get it in the main rainge (65-75) make sure it bubbled and I thought all was good.
Now this sounds much more specific to yeast straign and a specific temp +/-.
I imagin most of the guys on the radio show have temp controled conicals or some other form.
I am wondering what is the cheaper version. I have a cold basement in the winter and I have been using a warming belt which has worked but I have no idea the specific temp that the beer is at and how that may have effected my results.

Is the cheap version to make a box, put a heater of some sort in and attach to a temp controler? Seems like their should be an easier way.

Well, there are lots of people in the forum more knowledgable than me, but I have been vocal in this thread so I'll have a crack at answering for you.

Cooling - Bloody expensive tempcontrolled conical (if you're gonna get one support B3....) OR Fridge/freezer with an external temperature controller. The only reason I can think of for looking at other options is if you dont have the space for another fridge/freezer in your house

Warming - Also a Bloody expensive tempcontrolled conical (remember, support B3....) OR as Mexican and I have talked about. An immersion aquarium heater. These pretty much cover you for ale brewing (18-30 C) there are other ways (lots of them) but the immersion heaters are cheap, easy and effective. If you need to warm things up to lager temps, you are well out of my range of experience, but add an external temp controller and the aquarium heater should still do the job.

my $.02 worth anyway.

Thirsty

[dirt1016]

Thanks
I don't have room for another fridge nor the $$ for a conical from B3 ( I did just order up a 14 gal kettle and burner from them!)
I guess I will try going with the aquarium heater method. I just stick my carboy in a tub of water and heat the water?
Just stick thermometer in the water and set the dial on a setting that keeps it at a specific temp? Seems cheap enough

[mexican]

Thanks
I don't have room for another fridge nor the $$ for a conical from B3 ( I did just order up a 14 gal kettle and burner from them!)
I guess I will try going with the aquarium heater method. I just stick my carboy in a tub of water and heat the water?
Just stick thermometer in the water and set the dial on a setting that keeps it at a specific temp? Seems cheap enough

Yep. There are a few ways to do it. You can put the fermenter in a tub of water and the heater inside that with a temp probe. Very easy to do. A lot of people here in oz have platic fermenters which are basically a 25 litre barrel. In that case they drill a hole in the lid and drop the heater in through that.

I've got a heater with a rubber bung threaded onto the power cord and a hole in the lid of my fermenter sized to that bung so my heater sits directly in the wort. I didn't want to drill the lid of my fermenters but I couldn't find a tub large enough to hold two fermenters at the same time. I now just use a separate heater for each fermenter.

hehehe I said 'bung'. Maybe I should say 'bunghole' as well.

mexican.

[Thirsty Boy]

I now do what mexican does. Heater directly in the beer, with a bung threaded on the power cord of the heater. Fermentor wrapped in blanket. This takes up the least space and is the most efficient.

But I used the tub of water method a few times as well.

If you are going to use the tub, I recommend cutting up an old styrofoam fruit box and making a floating lid for the water. It really helps the temperature stay even. I just poured a bunch of bean bag beans on top of the water one time. It worked but was a bastard to clean up later.

Also, the tub I used was an insulated cooler. If you are just using a plastic tub, I'd wrap it in a blanket or something.

good luck

Edit: PS, if you want to really geek out using the tub of water method. Stick a tiny pond pump in there to circulate the water around as well. I found I had a 3-4 degree C differential between the heater end and the non heater end of the tub. Of course you could just put your thermometer in the middle and call it an average.

[JMUBrew]

Sorry, hadn't looked at the thread in a bit. I was looking to somehow be able to warm the carboy if neccessary since I wanted to try lagering this winter as the temps will be good for it! I think using some kind of an aquarium heater on a temp controller with the carboy in a tub of water or something.