New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association
Brewing => Equipment => Topic started by: paulmaybee on May 05, 2015, 12:40:24 PM
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Has anyone used those heating pads that sit under the carboy? Any reviews?
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I use heat coils I wrap around my carboy(s) when it gets too chilly in the garage, held in place with masking tape... They work pretty good, especially with a blanket put on top of the coils. My wife's electric blanket works nice too (shhhhh).
Yep, I can't afford and don't have room for a fermentation chamber so I hillbilly-rig my beer :wavebeer:
I suspect a heat pad would work better than a coil if taped to the side. I'm not sure I'd want to sit a carboy on top and warm up the beer through he dead yeast/trub at the bottom though...
by the way, don't use duct tape to on heating coils. Bad idea.
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Thanks for the input Blisster. That was also what I was wondering about heating it through the dead yeast. I wonder if anyone has tried it and noticed any negative side effects??
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That's funny I never gave it a second though! Before I built a Ferm. Chamber I would sit my fermenter on a water bed heater on the floor wrapped in a blanket. I never noticed any issues. But I always do a transfer into a secondary after a few days maybe that's why... Duno! Interesting thought though.
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when souring with lacto I use a seed germinating mat and wrap it around the middle of the carboy and I use duct tape to hold it in place. Works great for me
if you’re not using lacto or a hot tolerant strain like some saison yeast I would be worried of autolysis. Dead yeast doesn’t taste that great....speaking from experience lol
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when souring with lacto I use a seed germinating mat and wrap it around the middle of the carboy and I use duct tape to hold it in place. Works great for me
if you’re not using lacto or a hot tolerant strain like some saison yeast I would be worried of autolysis. Dead yeast doesn’t taste that great....speaking from experience lol
Well there you have it a tip from the pro!
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when souring with lacto I use a seed germinating mat and wrap it around the middle of the carboy and I use duct tape to hold it in place. Works great for me
if you’re not using lacto or a hot tolerant strain like some saison yeast I would be worried of autolysis. Dead yeast doesn’t taste that great....speaking from experience lol
Thanks Jamie, this is helpful. I'll take a look for a seed germinating mat. Is there one you'd recommend?
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Well I just used the mat because I already had it and didn’t want to buy another gadget. Maybe some wine belt would work too or the heating blanket like @blisster (http://nbcba.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1931) said. Whatever works 8)
Another thing I tried was putting the fermenter into a big bucket of water and use an aquarium heater. The only thing I didn’t like about this is there was a good difference in temp for one side to the other and top and bottom. Would work great with a small recirculating pump
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Well I just used the mat because I already had it and didn’t want to buy another gadget. Maybe some wine belt would work too or the heating blanket like @blisster (http://nbcba.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1931) said. Whatever works 8)
Another thing I tried was putting the fermenter into a big bucket of water and use an aquarium heater. The only thing I didn’t like about this is there was a good difference in temp for one side to the other and top and bottom. Would work great with a small recirculating pump
I had also tried years ago with an insulated rubbermaid garbage bin and aquarium heater. I found it worked well, but was cumbersome to work with and took up a lot of space. I'm looking for a simpler solution, so I think I will try the heat pad route.
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I made a paint can heater. It cost me $10-15 and has worked for me for years. Warmest I've ever fermented at was 23 during the winter and it kept it there steady for a week.
Here's the link (http://www.brewstands.com/fermentation-heater.html) if you're interested.
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I made a paint can heater. It cost me $10-15 and has worked for me for years. Warmest I've ever fermented at was 23 during the winter and it kept it there steady for a week.
Here's the link (http://www.brewstands.com/fermentation-heater.html) if you're interested.
Do you use this in a fridge/freezer, or did you build a wooden ferm chamber? I'm thinking I might just need to build a deluxe ferm chamber, but was trying to avoid it if possible. 8)
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I use an old fridge but as long as you put some insulation in a wooden one, it should work fine.
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We use an old fridge for a ferm chamber, just a couple of lightbulbs wired in series for heating and a temperature controller. We have to switch manually between heating and cooling.
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Hey Paul,
Not sure if you can easily source these parts in Canada, but here's a heater based on heat tape for a lizard enclosure
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=6879426#post6879426