beer temp has dropped below 50F, how do i warm it up again?

hello there guys,

i have a small situation. i am currently brewing a 23l keg of NZ draught. made this brew about 3 days ago, sat it on the heat pad in the garage with a fleece blanket wrapped around it to keep it warm (it's winter here in NZ).

yesterday, another member of my household turned off my heat pad to have a spare plug socket to use the clothes dryer and never put my heat pad back on.

i went to check on my beer this morning to discover it was below 10c (or 50F).
i know that the yeast will just be sleeping for now and will make up once i get my beer back up to temp.

my question is HOW? i am not allowed to bring it in the house as other household members complain of the smell.

i have heard wrapping an electric blanket around it can help. do you guys have any other suggestions?

for the record, i do not have a hot water cupboard (where the water heater is kept) because that stays up in the roof cavity of my house, and i do not have heated floors. just tiles and carpet.


any help would be greatly appreciated


J

What?!?! Doesn't like the awesome smell of beer fermenting! Crazy.

Nothing wrong with the electric blanket idea, just how did you plan on regulating the temp though? It seems like it would be easy for the brew to get too hot. You could rig up a sensor to run into the vessel and have the blanket plugged into a switch controlled by the thermostat. Too hot, open, too cold, closed. Any hardware store should have everything you need.

thd2146 said:

What?!?! Doesn't like the awesome smell of beer fermenting! Crazy.

Nothing wrong with the electric blanket idea, just how did you plan on regulating the temp though? It seems like it would be easy for the brew to get too hot. You could rig up a sensor to run into the vessel and have the blanket plugged into a switch controlled by the thermostat. Too hot, open, too cold, closed. Any hardware store should have everything you need.

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hahaha i know right? the woman i live with used to live next to a brewery while she was pregnant a few years back and cannot stand the smell.

i dont think i'll rig up a sensor, i dont have the funds or the knowledge to make something like that sadly. so you reckon to get the beer back up to temp, just wrap the electric blanket around it, and take it off when the beer is up to about 20c (68F)?

That would do it. I'd rouse the yeast once the fermenter is warmed up, as well.

If you could get an adjustable aquarium heater, you could set your fermented in a cooler or large plastic container and fill with water (or to the level of beer in the fermenter). Its called a swamp cooler but it can be used to warm too.

Just get nose plugs for the other household members, problem solved.