Beer Forum

My new apartment, as it turns out, gets really cold come winter, and being a cheapskate, I don't really want to turn the heat on. As a result, my fermenter is generally around 58-62 degrees. I feel like this is too cool for ales, and I'm not really interested in doing lagers yet. I know that Morebeer sells fermwraps for like 40 dollars, but I'm wondering if there's not a cheaper solution, maybe involving a cheap heating pad from Wal-Mart etc. Anyone got any thoughts?

Or, is there just some way that I could better insulate my fermenter (I'm just using plastic buckets for right now) so that I don't lose so much heat from the initial pitch or from the heat generated during fermentation?

I imagine anything that plugs in (like a heating pad) could be used to heat a fermenter. But you would likely need to control the heat with a temp controller with a thermowell, which is more than 50% of the material cost for a fermenter heating setup. Also, be very careful about fire hazards when using things for applications other than their intended purpose.

I did this a few weeks ago when I found it was getting too cold in my garage: Link. Really simple to make, really cheap. I bought two feet of FlexWatt from a pet supply store, cut the end off an old white extension cord, and solidered it like in the instructions. I keep my carboy in my chest freezer (not turned on) for insulation and because that's already where my Ranco temp control is. My garage gets into the 40s at night but I have no trouble keeping a Belgian at 76F to finish out. A word: definitely use with a temp control unit!

sean.michaleen wrote:I did this a few weeks ago when I found it was getting too cold in my garage: Link. Really simple to make, really cheap. I bought two feet of FlexWatt from a pet supply store, cut the end off an old white extension cord, and solidered it like in the instructions. I keep my carboy in my chest freezer (not turned on) for insulation and because that's already where my Ranco temp control is. My garage gets into the 40s at night but I have no trouble keeping a Belgian at 76F to finish out. A word: definitely use with a temp control unit!

Cool info, but I get a malware alert on that link.

AndrewD wrote:Cool info, but I get a malware alert on that link.

Not sure what the deal with that is... But here it is via google's cache if you don't want to visit the site directly.

sean.michaleen wrote:

AndrewD wrote:Cool info, but I get a malware alert on that link.

Not sure what the deal with that is... But here it is via google's cache if you don't want to visit the site directly.

Cool! How much did you spend on that stuff?

AndrewD wrote:Cool! How much did you spend on that stuff?

I bought 4' of the FlexWatt (to make 2 heaters) for $21 shipped. I had the extension cords laying around but I could have gotten them at the DollarTree too. I insulated with electrical tape after soldiering, so it looks like I spent about $12 total on each.