My house is pretty cold...

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katetree

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My house is pretty cold and I am worried that my beer isn't going to come out right... I just transferred a double IPA to the carboy, and brewed another IPA last night. The thermometer on the carboy is reading 57 and the bucket is reading 64. Any ideas on getting the temp up without raging my heat? Thanks!
 
My house is pretty cold and I am worried that my beer isn't going to come out right... I just transferred a double IPA to the carboy, and brewed another IPA last night. The thermometer on the carboy is reading 57 and the bucket is reading 64. Any ideas on getting the temp up without raging my heat? Thanks!

try wrapping your carboy in a blanket as an insulation layer. put it in the warmest spot in the house, say the laundry closet or something.
 
If you have a hot water tank or furnace room or something, beside the hot water tank area is a good place to try it. Mine stays around 64 no matter what season just due to the gas heating the water tank.

Depending on your yeast though, some can totally handle 57, like I regularly do Nottingham dry yeast at that temp now and it works great, just slower.

Worst case, hug that fermenter all day long, like it had hypothermia.
 
try wrapping your carboy in a blanket as an insulation layer. put it in the warmest spot in the house, say the laundry closet or something.

Yup this is usually enough. If not you can go to the next level and wire up a 25 dollar ebay temp controller and hook up a heat belt, ceramic heater or an older analog electric blanket without any safety shutoof.

This is a homebrewing heat belt available online or at every LHBS.

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This is the ubiquitous Ebay temp controller wired up with several different sockets, there's only about 100,000 threads and wiring diagrams on here to help folks, including mine,
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You can even but it all into a light blocking chamber made from a rubbermade bin, and even use it to lager on a sunporch or in a garage if you live in a cold clime for any part of the year...

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You just pretty much tape the temp probe to the side of your fermenter, and when it drops below your set temp the heater will come on, and stay on as long as it needs.
 
Thanks! They are both wrapped in blankets- I figured I should do that knowing that my house is generally cold. Unfortunately, I live in a big old house, and the hot water heater is in the basement, which is freezing. There really isn't one room that is warmer than any other. Looks like I'll be hugging them like they have hypothermia. Shoot!
 
Thanks, Revvy- I'm going to hook something up tomorrow. I appreciate the help.
 
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