Using a Bucket Heat Belt

Has anyone tried using a heat belt on their fermentation bucket? Does it work or does it get to hot for fermenting?

 

I haven't tried (or even looked at a heat belt), but I would guess that if it doesn't have its own thermostat type control, you will need to add an external controller (same as people use on chest freezers).

 

I use a heat belt on my fermenter but the fermenter is inside a chest freezer. Both the heat belt and the freezer are plugged into an STC-1000 dual stage temperature controller. The temperature probe is padded up against the fermenter's exterior. This gives me precise control no matter what the ambient temperature is in my basement.

I started out with just the brew belt since I started brewing in the winter. But even with the fermenter being left down in the basement the brew's temperture got too high sometimes (especially since my kids play down there and my wife would turn up the heat).

If your fermenter is going to be left in an area that is consistantly colder than your desired fermetation temperature then just a brew belt might work but you'll want to keep an eye on it.

 

But you do have an external temperature controller controlling the heat belt right? I think that is OP's question.

Although you bring up a good point...if you have a temperature controller on the heat belt, that will NOT keep a room cool!

 

I'm assuming I could add a dimmer switch control to it so I can adjust the heat

 

I just got a "brew belt" for my bucket fermenter. My basement area where I set up my "operation" has been running 58-60 in the wintertime. The belt without temp control has raised the temp of the wort to about 68-70. So the belt with no temp control seems to give a bump of 8-10 degrees. Works great in my opinion. Although I'm confused by the directive in the instructions that you can't use it for more than 8 days straight.

 

I use to use a heating belt on all of my beers. My wife used them on her wine, so I assumed it was standard operating procedure. Back then, I was just brewing near-expired pre-hopped LME kits in a bucket using the kit yeast. I ended up with undrinkable nail polish remover. It's one of the reasons I stopped brewing for so long.

When I got back into it and realized I'd been fermenting waaaay too hot, I haven't touched a heating belt since, and my beers have been delicious.

If your fermentation area runs cold, then I would cautiously recommend a heating belt, as long as it's connected to some sort of automated temperature control (i.e., STC-1000).

 

It doesn't need to be hooked up to a controller. You can plug into into the wall and it will heat. But it will continue to heat until you unplug it from the wall, it does not have an internal temperature sensor.

 

Right. That's the problem. In my experience, if you just leave it perpetually plugged in, the beer gets way too hot and the yeast produces an abundance of fusel alcohols, rendering the beer undrinkable. The only way I would ever consider using a heat belt would be in conjunction with a temperature controller.

 

I think the cold room use case works too. If you can take a 10 degree bump and still be in temp range the belt with no controller should work fine. In my case I felt 58 degrees ambient was a little cool for US05 and especially most Wyeast strains. I'm more comfortable with 68. I also saw elsewhere posted that you can use some wood shims to reduce the area of contact of the belt to the bucket for less temp increase.

 

I use a plain ol' heating pad wrapped with a bungee cord on my buckets. Works like a charm. Best used during the cold months though. The pads have 6 heat settings and I can set them to shut off after 2 hours, or have them stay on indefinately.

Gary