With the days getting shorter and colder, I need a way to keep my bottles warm. An entire batch just about fits into 2 crates (12x 745mL (25oz) bottles per crate). These crates are common in bottle stores in NZ. They come filled with cheap beer and are returnable with a refundable deposit.
That rectangular thing on the floor is a very old 18W heat pad I found abandoned on the street one day that was manufactured locally by a hot water cylinder company.
The wooden board is there to keep the heat in, and the metal mash paddle to space the wooden board so the bottom bottles right by the heat pad don't get too hot by the warm air trapped below. The cardboard sheet is also to slightly insulate the bottom bottles.
After a ton of trial and error I can keep the bottles between 20C-24C (68F-75F) most of the time, with the bottles closest to the heat pad the warmest. Unfortunately I don't have a big enough box to build a cardboard "hot box" and with this whole nationwide coronavirus shutdown, it's been hard to source materials.
Next upgrade: Big 30W heat pad with STC-1000 temp controller. Just have to convince the GF to let me take it away from our kombucha brew setup.
I thought I'd share a few pics of my setup:
That rectangular thing on the floor is a very old 18W heat pad I found abandoned on the street one day that was manufactured locally by a hot water cylinder company.
The wooden board is there to keep the heat in, and the metal mash paddle to space the wooden board so the bottom bottles right by the heat pad don't get too hot by the warm air trapped below. The cardboard sheet is also to slightly insulate the bottom bottles.
After a ton of trial and error I can keep the bottles between 20C-24C (68F-75F) most of the time, with the bottles closest to the heat pad the warmest. Unfortunately I don't have a big enough box to build a cardboard "hot box" and with this whole nationwide coronavirus shutdown, it's been hard to source materials.
Next upgrade: Big 30W heat pad with STC-1000 temp controller. Just have to convince the GF to let me take it away from our kombucha brew setup.
I thought I'd share a few pics of my setup:
