Quote:
Originally Posted by william_shakes_beer
Be careful in selecting a heater. The one I started with had its lowest setpoint too high. Be sure the heater will work to maintain temps within the range of your yeast.
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the Rena (brand) heater's lowest setting is 66 and the ones i have heat the water bath to ~67 at the lowest setting. you can get ones with lower settings from most quality aquarium retailers. i highly recommend a
submersible with actual degree settings on the dial and not the ones with a 'hi-lo' dial. i recently bought an Aqueon 100w for one of my aquariums that has a very nice degreed dial, display and it was only $19.99 (maybe $24.99). it's incredibly accurate, it's set at ~79 and holding a 30 gal aquarium at ~77-78, it's 100% submerged and next time i need a heater for brewing, i'm getting a 50w version of that one.
there's always the option of using a cheap temp controller to keep the heater from cycling on too much, but for ale brewing, the Rena heaters will do just fine without one. for lagers, i run my Rena heater off a $25 Johnson temp controller, i put the probe in a thermowell and it works pretty well. i'll post some pics on that on my blog when i begin lagering my Alt that's in primary now. FWIW, that beer is holding 55 in a swamp cooler that's in a cool (62 degree) room with only ice bottles to cool it. i've been adding one every two hours or so. but it only creeps up 1-2 degrees in 8 hours over night w/o ice.
cheap & easy
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