Fermentation Problem

Here is my issue. I have been kicked out of the first floor of the house as far as brewing goes. My wife is tired of seeing Carboys laying around in primary or secondary stages. So I am banished to the garage the problem is my garage temp hovers constantly around 60 degrees. I need to build somethin I can put a few carboys in and regulate the temp. I am looking at a warming unit but what the hell do I build? Anyones advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

I hear you! I'm thinking about just getting rid of the wife and sticking with the beer making in the kitchen.

I was getting ready to bottle up a batch of Belgian Witbier. The bottles were all ready to be filled and everything was sanitized. Next thing you know she decides she wants to be in the kitchen and starts giving me her attitude. It's not like she even had anything planned...I was just "In her way".

Your safest bet it probably some heating tape wrapped around the carboy along with a temperature probe attached to a thermostat that turns on the power when the carboy get too cold. Or maybe a peltier device with the hot side blowing inside an insulated box attached to the same type of thermostat device as above.

 

This idea just popped into my head (im sure its been done many times as it seems pretty easy and is probably not that expensive.) If you go to the HW store and get a sheet of ply to make a box to store your fermentors (they can cut it to size for you if needed) assemble it with a couple screws then get a heat bulb (pet stores uses them for reptiles... Heat without light) Its prettymuch a ceramic bulb that emmits heat and hook that up to a dimmer switch.. with a little tinkering you can get it up to temp and keep it there without a problem....or rather, should be..

Edit: this is if you have a couple frementers to deal with...

 

Find a new wife??
i'm just sayin'

 

I love my wife. I brew the beer and she brews the wine!

You may be able to just consider doing a closet in the garage with some insulation. Maybe something like a heat lamp for easy heat. Heck if you are a computer nut set up a server room!! Beer and Computers! My two favorite passions.

 

Basiclly what you need is a lagering chest that instead of cooling you heat.. most likely using the above mentioned lizard heat lamps... heck you could set it up to do lagering too and then just flip the switch depending if you want to heat or cool..
Check the DIY section.. there are a few projects in there.. I think Yuri made one and has a link in his Sig..


SpamDog

 

you can use a heating pad under the carboy and wrap a dry towel around it to help keep it warm, its worked for me in the past.

 

That's a problem I'd love to have as my garage hovers in the 130's.

Lagering/fermentation chest with a Ranco controller.

 

If this is a common temp for you (60F) I have two great solutions for you. First is put your carboys in a big rubbermaid bin filled with water. Put a submersible aquarium heater (25 watts is enough) and throw it in there set to 67ish. Cheap and setandforget.

The next one is to get a used waterbed heater. They come with a temp controller and I know the temp range is typically 65-100F.

If you're really broke, try the first idea but you can manually add hot water when necessary. Not as consistent but I've done this just to get fermentation kicked off. Once it actively ferments, you get a few degrees above ambient anyway.

 

That's brilliant, man.


eager_brewer: Post your location. We get alot of questions where your geographic location can help answer the question and where others can learn if they live in a similar area. We have members from all over the globe now.

I think I'll start a thread.

 

Get your wife into brewing? Me, I had to get my husband into it...

 

I was reading through some old threads and came across one asking the same question.

It mentions something called a FermWrap which is a heater that wraps around your carboy or bucket. I did a search on google and found many places that sell it for around $30.00

 

Nice. This never occurred to me and now I have to air out my sleeping bag which I was wrapping my carboys in because it smells like rhino farts from the Apfelwein. I think I even have a old aquarium heater around.

My big concern with this technique though, is lifting the wet, filled glass carboy out of the tub. Maybe I'll just save this for when I use my Better Bottle.

 

And, Paint.NET is a nice alternative to Photoshop that isn't as insance as the GiMP.