Need help with tips to warm fermentation temp

[brocker]

Hello Dear Fellow Brewers,

Cheers.

I need help regarding temp control. Is there a way to temp control when my ambient room temp is 10 degcees Celcius. I want to strike for 30-35 degrees for Kveik yeast. Has anyone tried the brew jacket and heater/warmer underneath their fermenter. Or any other way. I see that KegKing.com.au sell those jackets and a heater/warmer. How efficient are they?

Thanks for reading.

 

[hotbeer]

What size and what type FV are you using? A temp controller like a Digiten or Inkbird temperature controller is what a lot of people use to control heating or cooling for their FV. Most anything that provides heat will work or at least help. Small refrigerators are common for cooling. If improvising isn't in your psyche, then the LHBS and online brew suppliers have stuff for you to consider.

For the most part, you probably only need the FV at what ever the ideal temp you choose, only for the time the beer is fermenting. Once it's reaches FG, then there's a wider range of temps that are okay.

 

[brocker]

Thanks for taking out the time to reply.

I have Inkbird and a fridge, but since it's a Kveik i'm looking the solution for its useless to me. I've couple of questions:

I have never used heatmat/seedling mats before. Do you think it can take me to 35 degrees C?
I have heard bad things about heat belt, like heat spot.. getting too hot and all. Is it true?
I've no idea about how efficient electric brew jackets are.

I've never tried warm temp fermentation.

I'm using a 30L FermiZilla Allrounder and NOT fermenting under pressure.

 

[hotbeer]

If you have the inkbird and it's not being used for the fridge, then get a heating pad or heat mat for seedlings from the big box building supply and find out how well they do or don't work. They aren't much money and they might put your fears to rest about the odd ball stuff that happens to one out of many people that never have an issue.

I use to put my 1 gallon FV's inside a cooler with a heating pad and Digiten controller. That worked well for keeping the temps up when cold. But certainly I wasn't trying to keep the temps that Kveik might want.

When your yeast kicks off, you won't need much heat source if you started off at or near that temp. But 30 - 35°C, you'll just have to try. If you want to be certain without experimenting with the inexpensive stuff, then spend the big bucks for a proper made heating system for your FV. Either internal or wrap.

You could try it out with a FV full of hot water if you want to see what it can do without worrying about the beer.

 

[Jag75]

I used to use fermwraps. They work great .

 

[brocker]

All right. Thanks all for the reply. I guess @hotbeer you're right about that "fear" thing so gonna go with the heatmat solution first. Thanks again.

@Jag75 I see. Will look at that as well. Thanks

 

[hotbeer]

Mild and slow heat from what ever you choose to use will help prevent hot spots. Trying to heat anything up fast will be more likely to have hot spots.

So if whatever you use has settings such as HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW, then don't use the HIGH setting till you get to know better how it does.

 

[IslandLizard]

I doubt heat mats and wraps will get your fermenter to 30-35C, even inside an insulated chamber such as a turned-off fridge.
Maybe someone can offer some experiences how those are working in that temp range.

I'd use a small space heater (200W or so) connected to your temp controller (e.g., Inkbird ITC-308), using the "warm channel." The fan inside the heater helps distribute the heat.

Some use reptile radiators, they screw inside a regular light socket and don't emit light, just heat. They're in the 200W range.

Or in a pinch, a regular old-fashioned incandescent light bulb inside a can (to keep it dark). They get stupid hot though, melting or even burning everything that touches or is nearby. They can be a fire hazard.

 

[scogan]

I ferment in cornys and immerse it in a 5 gallon brewing bucket with 2 gallons of water and a fishtank heater which is ok for 32C, very cheap solution if you have a tank big enough ti fit your fermenter in.

 

[balrog]

The seedling mat I have barely gave enough heat to keep some ApfelWein I had in the basement (about 15C) at about 20C.
It is only 15 watt, and I do not think it would have held 30-35C.

It helped my situation VERY MUCH to wrap the heating mat around the carboy and put layers of wrapping (towels & blankets) around all that.

 

[InspectorJon]

There are some ideas for heating a refrigerator/fermentation chamber here. @day_trippr 's setup in post five looks particularly elegant.

 

[Rish]

I have Inkbird and a fridge

Maybe hook up a small heat lamp or incandescent bulb to the Inkbird with a small fan to keep the temp even?

 

[SanPancho]

Been awhile but got my heating pad from the drugstore a while ago for like $10. It’s plastic so cleans easily. Has high/med/low settings. Will wrap around a corny keg, most of the way around the cone of a conical. Definitely will keep those temps up if you cover it with something to help insulate, even just a beach towel.

 

[IslandLizard]

I ferment in cornys and immerse it in a 5 gallon brewing bucket with 2 gallons of water and a fishtank heater which is ok for 32C, very cheap solution if you have a tank big enough ti fit your fermenter in.

Similarly, when I need additional (controlled) fermentation temps, I immerse two 6.5 gallon brew buckets in a large (120 qt?) Igloo cooler filled with water until the buckets just don't start to float. 2 or more frozen water bottles a day easily keep it at 62-64F. When I need heat, an aquarium heater takes over. The whole rig is covered/wrapped with a thick sleeping bag or moving blankets.

 

[InspectorJon]

Has anyone got any useful tips on how to maintain a constant temperature during primary and secondary fermentation?

This thread has a lot of information on the subject.

 

[balrog]

Has anyone got any useful tips on how to maintain a constant temperature during primary and secondary fermentation? Thinking about a heating belt or putting the FV in a water filled container with an aquarium heater? What has worked best for others? Any advice gratefully received.

"Large thermal mass"
That's your friend. Hence the bathtub, into which you submerge your <fermenter/corny keg/whatever> and the surrounding thermal mass of water provides or absorbs heat.

Second thought: generally, keeping temps from swinging too wildly only really matters during the ester-producing part of the yeast's life cycle. This is typically early on, like the first few days after pitching. After a week, keeping temps steady at 68F for instance, is not that critical. Now, you don't want to let temps drop too cool which would make the yeast think it's nap time, but it isn't necessary really to keep temps critically steady all the way through primary and secondary (and a secondary is really only used typically for doing fruit additions or such).