Heat Regulation

I was wondering if anyone had any good cheap idea's for regulating the temp on a fementer. I am going to brew in my basement and i can't keep it warm down there. Any suggestions?

I put my fermenter in an Igloo cooler, and surround it with water and use an aquarium heater to keep it at 66 or so. It depends on what I'm making- my Irish Draught was fermented cooler, my Tongue splitter a bit warmer. It works well for me!

My LHBS sells this thing that wraps around your fermenter and plugs in to keep your wort warm enough for fermentation. You might check to see if your LHBS has something like it. I've never used one before, but it seems like it would work well.

I think nukebrewer is thinking of a brewers belt. I'm sure they work though i don't know how they regulate to a certain temp. Also, you can't really use them on glass carboys, or you aren't supposed to anyway.

I know a few brewers who have dedicated fridges for fermenting. They have the fridge plugged into a temp controller so that it will kick on when it needs to drop the temp down. They will switch it up in the winter and plug a heating pad into it instead and this will generally keep the chamber close enough to ideal temp without too much hassle. If in doubt, though, find some corner closet upstairs for the first few days of fermentation and then move it to the basement with some heavy blankets around it.

YooperBrew said:

I put my fermenter in an Igloo cooler, and surround it with water and use an aquarium heater to keep it at 66 or so. It depends on what I'm making- my Irish Draught was fermented cooler, my Tongue splitter a bit warmer. It works well for me!

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This is what I am doing also. I found this pictured somewhere here, but don't remember where. My basement has been holding @ 50 degrees this week. Yesterday I put some 70 degree water in my cooler with a aquarium heater. the heater has yet to come on, and my water temp after 18 hours is holding @ 66.

I put my fermenter in it @ 9:00 pm last night. My first ever batch btw. Wish me luck!

Thumper said:

Yesterday I put some 70 degree water in my cooler with a aquarium heater. the heater has yet to come on, and my water temp after 18 hours is holding @ 66.
I put my fermenter in it @ 9:00 pm last night. My first ever batch btw. Wish me luck!

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Remember that fermentation will generate lots of heat in the fermenter. The fermenter can heat up, but it will be several hours before you see a temp rise in the water bath. The temp of the fermenter is the critical part. I use those stick on thermometers on my fermenters and adjust temps as needed to hold the desired temps in the fermenter.

how long do those stick on thermometers last? Several washings? One washing?

Donner said:

how long do those stick on thermometers last? Several washings? One washing?

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At least 30 washings. I don't usually submerge them. I put them near the top of the fermenter, but where they will always be in contact with the wort. Brewers I know have covered the temp strips with clear packing tape to help protect them from water.

so you put them on the inside? Or on the outside but low enough to be 'touching the wort'?