Keeping the Bottles Warm

I'm going to be bottling my porter tomorrow (3 weeks in the primary). Because of the temperatures I'm going to be putting them in a rubbermaid tote that has a lightbulb inside for warmth. I'm using brown bottles, but should I be worried about the light shining directly on the bottles for 3 weeks? If it's a problem should I just put a foil barrier or something else to protect them?

I wouldn't worry about it too much, but I know the porter will take a bit longer to mellow in the bottles and it would be even longer given the ambient temperature of the room they'll be in is about 60F.

is the glass brown? than you should be fine with flourescent light. incandescent emits all sorts of wavelengths as well as some infared, uv etc.

Fluorescents won't give off much heat. I haven't even bottled my first batch yet, so I don't have much to offer, but I'd use a barrier or find another method,

Where do you live, Alaska?
If you are heating the place and keeping it at 68-70 you should be in good shape. If it's on the colder side it will just take longer for the bottles to fully carbonate.

incandescents would be much better as they contain much more IR and significantly less UV. if you put it in a container though, it may actually get too warm, or you would have unbalanced temps throughout. as as note, halogens have a higher UV content that regular incandescents, but still not as bad as most fluorescents.

Its the UV that really causes problems with beer as is is a higher energy wave capable of breaking chemical bonds causing skunking and things like that. to see how damaging UV can be, well there's skin cancer so that's no good or an easy example would be classrooms type settings with colored paper and bulletin boards. the paper fades a lot more in rooms with fluorescents.

quick pic to show a spectrum breakdown

Love the diagram. Nothing like a Stefan-Boltzmann curve to take me back to my astrophysics roots.

schweaty said:

Where do you live, Alaska?
If you are heating the place and keeping it at 68-70 you should be in good shape. If it's on the colder side it will just take longer for the bottles to fully carbonate.

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No we live in Pennsylvania, but we never set our heat in the house higher than 62F for the winter (60F at night). Saves us a ton of money for just an extra sweatshirt or blanket.

I actually brew and store in our basement, which, this time of year, is about 60F. Maybe I'll just put them in the tote with a blanket and keep it near the furnace. Temps run a little warmer there.

Weezknight said:

Maybe I'll just put them in the tote with a blanket and keep it near the furnace. Temps run a little warmer there.

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Sounds like the best idea to me! Just curious, how did you keep fermentation temps in the high 60's?

I live in Maine, in a 245 year old house. Insulation means another sweater. Its pretty hard for me to keep anything warm. What I have done with success is to put the bottles in a Rubbermaid container. Fill it up to the curve of the neck of the bottles with water. Then use a fish tank heater to moderate the temps. You'll have to rig something to hold the thermometer at the right depth, yet keeping it from being submerged. (learned the hard way there... killed one).

Worked well for me at least. You probably want to add a little StarSan or something to keep any algae from growing.

Jason

dpittard said:

Sounds like the best idea to me! Just curious, how did you keep fermentation temps in the high 60's?

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JasonTerry said:

Then use a fish tank heater to moderate the temps.

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I place my fermenter in a tote filled with water, and then use a submersible aquarium heater, which keeps the temps at 65F-70F.

Since JasonTerry said it will work with the bottles, too, I guess I'll use the same method for conditioning.

Thanks!

Weezknight said:

I place my fermenter in a tote filled with water, and then use a submersible aquarium heater, which keeps the temps at 65F-70F.

Since JasonTerry said it will work with the bottles, too, I guess I'll use the same method for conditioning.

Thanks!

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Just don't get the caps wet, they rust.

or put oscars in with the beer. ive lost 20 heaters to various oscars playing with them.