This is how we brew in New Hampshire...

Well... this is how I brew in NH. It's a wee cold in here (40 degrees) but all I needed was an aquarium heater and a trash can!







Transfered into a secondary carboy today after 7 days, its almost there! Anyone else forced to ferment in the cold like this?

Sean from NH

man that's a great call. i figured out how to temp regulate in the heat (fridge and thermostat) but hadn't figured out the winter yet. I like your idea and am going to try it. Do you get good temp regulation with the heater i.e. if you set the heater to 75 does the fermenter stay at 75???

The heater has a + and - knob that doesn't have heat increments. In my warehouse its prooobably in between 40 and 50 degress. I have the heater set at ALMOST full and its a consistant 65-66 degress. Works like a charm.

And from all the numerous resources I've searched this is the BEST way to brew ales in the winter without a heated room.

Only problem is you can only brew 1 batch of ale at a time so I'm sticking to lower gravity ales. Though I just realized I can probably brew a lot of lagers now, too bad I don't like lager.

The heater was 25 bucks, and those trash barrels can get a bit expensive, but I got this one for free. I think they're 50 or so bucks. Good luck!

Sean From NH

Well you could always switch to a lager in the winter months I wish it was 40° here in michigan but, tomorrows high is 18° I just adjust my styles to the temp and it works pretty good

I see that's how you ferment...but where are the pictures of the brew house?

Yup, that's how we ferment in northeastern Vermont too.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/northern-brewing-aquarium-heater-47986/

Heh, Glad to see I'm not the only one. Once this batch is done I might brew some lagers.

Zymurgrafi, I like your use of the wider bucket, pending my budget I plan on getting one that will fit 2 carboys.

Heinz57, my brew house is currently my workplace, which is a commercial kitchen I run. I have to keep my brew gear packed away so I never really have it set up for picture taking, but here are a few...




Boiling some priming sugar for a batch of cider.



Siphoning the cider to my bottling bucket.

Sean From NH

It did almost get down to 65 last night...in HI

That is a great idea. I rent an old house and once winter hits the place never gets above 55-60. This could be a great solution! Any idea of how much per month it is costing you to run it?

Its wattage is between 50-100 watts, I can remember the exact wattage but I know its in between that. So Its like leaving a light bulb on I guess. I just started doing it this way so no idea really how much it will cost in electricity, but we run space heaters all the time in our building so this thing is the least of our concerns.

Sean From NH

I just don't brew ales in the winter

Until I get myself one of these aquarium heaters

Kai