Just a thought

I've been doing a bit of thinking, dangerous i know. i've got a bearded dragon at home, and spare heat mat, if i placed a layer of material between it and the fermentation vessel, could it serve as a heater to adjust or maintain the temperature of the wort?

any thoughts?

Bigniall666 said:

I've been doing a bit of thinking, dangerous i know. i've got a bearded dragon at home, and spare heat mat, if i placed a layer of material between it and the fermentation vessel, could it serve as a heater to adjust or maintain the temperature of the wort?

any thoughts?

Click to expand...

What temp is your room? The reason I ask is that you want to ferment ales at around 60°F and would not want heat added.

B

it varies, depending on how long the heating is on each day, but roughly about 16-18 degrees, could be higher if the heating is on for longer

I'd say no heater because you want to hold your fermenting beer steady around 16°C. Too warm a fermentation can give unpleasant flavours to the beer.

B

birvine said:

What temp is your room? The reason I ask is that you want to ferment ales at around 60°F and would not want heat added.

B

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at the moment, i'm using a coopers original series larger kit, but apparently the yeast is a mix strain, larger+ale yeast, and the instructions provided say 18 degrees celcius or 65.4 F, will still ferment anything under 16 deg C or 60.8 F, and it will stall.

at the moment the brew is sitting on 60.8F, and if it drops again, i may need to bring the temperature back up to within range

With your room in the 16-18° range I would say you'd be ok. Lager yeast actually works at lower temps than ale. Is there any sign at all of fermentation?

B

Bigniall666 said:

at the moment, i'm using a coopers original series larger kit, but apparently the yeast is a mix strain, larger+ale yeast, and the instructions provided say 18 degrees celcius or 65.4 F, will still ferment anything under 16 deg C or 60.8 F, and it will stall.

at the moment the brew is sitting on 60.8F, and if it drops again, i may need to bring the temperature back up to within range

Click to expand...

Yeast activity is exothermic so the actual fermentation will be warmer than the ambient temperature.

B

birvine said:

With your room in the 16-18° range I would say you'd be ok. Lager yeast actually works at lower temps than ale. Is there any sign at all of fermentation?

B

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i've passed high krausen and i'm conditioning at the moment, yeast is still relatively active, with significantly reduced CO2 production. i may pick up some agars from uni, for future sterility testing

I would not worry whatsoever about the temp. By the sounds of it everything is just fine, the room temp is perfect and the beer will turn out great. Once the fermentation is at the 3-4 week period, check the SG to see that it has stabilized, then bottle and condition. And is is at this point that you will want a warmer room for the botles to condition over a few more weeks.

B

As unfortunately i'm under time constraints i will unfortunately have to bottle on the 6th or 7th of january as i'm heading back to uni to do exams but it will be fine, i will allow a little longer for conditioning in the bottle

N