Cold garage

Yesterday I put my spiced ale into the fermentation fridge in my garage. Chiller got it down to 60, I set the controller to 65, I took a reading today, and it's 52. Sooo... I guess it's too cold in my garage to warm up the inside of the fridge to fermentation temperature.

I'm thinking I'll bring the fermenter into the house (~72) until I see krausen, then drop it back in the fridge ASAP. That way the heat generated by fermentation should be enough to keep the inside of the fridge warm.

Other ideas?

what sort of heating element are you using the heat your fermentation chamber?

I just drop a light bulb in there during the colder months to bring it up a bit. Works great, but my garage doesn't get below freezing so YMMV.

Tinga said:

what sort of heating element are you using the heat your fermentation chamber?

Click to expand...

No heating element... up until now I haven't needed one.

Funny - The exact same thing happened to me yesterday. I have a temp controller on my mini fridge but haven't needed a heating element to date. I brought the bucket inside and am trying to slowly warm it up. Hopefully fermentation will start soon. I'm using S 05.

If you have a controller, you could plug in a light bulb or small heater, etc.

If it's that cold down there, though, putting it in the house will probably work too.

Small heaters are like $12 at Walmart...

Try a heating pad plugged into your temp controller, worked great for me a few weeks ago.

Funny thing... I let it go for another 24 hours and I had krausen. So I just let it ferment out.