Fermenting in fridge/freezer - when ambient/room temp colder than desired?

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RoaringBrewer

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Well, I know you can obviously use a freezer/fridge and temp controller to ferment things at a more precise temp when you need things colder than the surrounding environment/room (doing this in near future - lagerator out of chest freezer)...

But what about when you need warmer? I want to ferment primarily out of my basement, but this basement will be 55F-ish in winter. What if I want to brew an ale and need 70F temps in this scenario?

Specifically:
1) Will the inside of an unplugged chest freezer be much warmer than its surrounding environment - say 10-15F? I mean, it is an insulated box, right? I guess I could monitor the temp and do trial and error to find out, but its not yet cold enough. My guess is that this won't work and it will be room temp inside the unplugged freezer eventually...

2) If not, I will need some way to generate heat into the chest freezer. I guess the best way to do this is with a small heater, or maybe even just a light bulb, hooked up to one of the digital temp controllers (that can control cooling or heating)? Any fire risk by doing this?

I guess if there is no acceptable means to doing this, I will just continue to ferment my ales upstairs in the house where we keep it 67-68F or so... and just do my lagers in the chest freezer.
 
I use one of these:

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWER_S_EDGE_SPACE_HEATER_P518.cfm

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Speaking of the brewbelt - if I want to use this method for heat alongside a digital control - would it be possible to run the digital control probe right into the wort (once sanitized of course)? Anything I need to do to "waterproof" the probe?

I can't see how you would control a brewbelt otherwise b/c it primarily heats the fermenter and not so much the surrounding 25 cuft of chest freezer I'll be using as my chamber... I have a feeling if I put the brewbelt to controller, but put the probe just out in the open in the freezer that brewbelt would stay on and on and on and maybe even overheat the ferment...
 
I haven't delt with this issue before, but I know they make two stage controllers.

One stage controls the heat, one stage for the fridge.

Seems to me that a cheap heating pad plus freezer both hooked up to the controller would be the ultimate all-weather fermentation chamber!


Also, I remember reading some tests done by someone...think it was the brew strong crew. They did a comparison of the temp with the probe on the glass of the carboy, vs the center of the liquid. The difference was less than a degree!
 
I haven't delt with this issue before, but I know they make two stage controllers.

One stage controls the heat, one stage for the fridge.

Seems to me that a cheap heating pad plus freezer both hooked up to the controller would be the ultimate all-weather fermentation chamber!

That would be the ultimate... everything I've seen on HB sites though has been single-stage controllers (and those are $80-90+) so can't imagine how much dual stage will cost me.

But I am going to look into it.

EDIT: Hmm... morebeer has dual stage for $129. Not bad I guess.
http://morebeer.com/view_product/16664/102282/Ranco_Digital_Two-Stage_Temperature_Controller_-_Wired
 
That would be the ultimate... everything I've seen on HB sites though has been single-stage controllers (and those are $80-90+) so can't imagine how much dual stage will cost me.

But I am going to look into it.

EDIT: Hmm... morebeer has dual stage for $129. Not bad I guess.
http://morebeer.com/view_product/16664/102282/Ranco_Digital_Two-Stage_Temperature_Controller_-_Wired

The Love TSS2 is $69 but will require more craftiness and parts to either build a box for it or mount it in the fridge/freezer door.

EDIT: The probe is also separate and costs $6.
 
You can get a two stage Ranco for 100 direct from their store. That is what I did. Then build out a chamber around a mini-fridge.

I'm sure you could use a house heater, but I liked the idea of getting one specifically designed to work in the small space. Plus, it sticks to the side of the fridge. If you use a brew belt, you would probably want to stick the probe directly to the outside of the vessel. I wouldn't put the probe in the liquid, unless you use a thermowell.
 
I'm not much for electronics, so I am going for one of the pre-wired versions where you just plug in the fridge and/or heater to the thermostat and thermo into the wall. The dual, pre-wired ranco is $119. I guess it is worth it to have such precise control of ferment temps...
 
Wow, if I were motivated to be as crafty on brew-projects as you guys I could come up with something, I am sure. Actually it's not so much the lack of ingenuity on my part, it's the lack of time at this point. We have a new (to us) house and redecorating/refinishing/improvement projects so that it fits our high standards is consuming most of my time right now, LOL.

I think I have decided to just go with a single stage Johnson digital controller (pre-wired for efficiency purposes!) and a thermowell. In winter I will use it to heat with my brewbelt, inside of my chest freezer and in summer I'll use it to brew lagers in the freezer... For fall and spring when the temps are "just about right but not perfect", just about right will have to work, LOL.

Thanks for all the recommendations though!
 
Walmart has a tiny portable heater with a fan built in for $9. I'd put that inside the fridge and run it with the controller.

As opposed to brew-belt you mean? Any particular reason? Because it's more even/uniform temp throughout the freezer, whereas the brewbelt will concentrate some heat wherever it is wrapped around carboy?

If I didn't already have the brewbelt I wouldn't have thought about using it (esp. when a $9 heater is cheaper), but I do own one and thats why I threw it out there...
 
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