treehouse
Well-Known Member
I live in a fairly primative cabin on the coast of Northern California and have had some pretty low temperatures for brewing my favorite ales. Since I heat with a wood stove (naturally), temperatures at night can fall into the lower fifties. My last batch using Wyeast 1098 was scary with some start and stop fermentations. Every thing of course turned out fine and the ale is quite smooth and good.
However, I want to make an ESB using Wyest 1968 and don't want to go through the paranoia of a possible stuck fermentation again. Therefore, I bought a "Brew Belt" to ease my mind. Does anyone have any experiences with these devices? I read on one thread that they should not be used on a glass secondary. Is the temperature control unprecise or what?
Of course I could just make lagers but I want me ales! Go figure.
MOD NOTE:
Treehouse, it is only necessary to create one thread. If you put it in the wrong place or whatever, just ask a mod to move it. I have merged the 2 threads and added your comments from the previous thread:
However, I want to make an ESB using Wyest 1968 and don't want to go through the paranoia of a possible stuck fermentation again. Therefore, I bought a "Brew Belt" to ease my mind. Does anyone have any experiences with these devices? I read on one thread that they should not be used on a glass secondary. Is the temperature control unprecise or what?
Of course I could just make lagers but I want me ales! Go figure.
MOD NOTE:
Treehouse, it is only necessary to create one thread. If you put it in the wrong place or whatever, just ask a mod to move it. I have merged the 2 threads and added your comments from the previous thread:
I live in a cabin and heat entirely with wood and thus have problems with keeping my temperatures consistent and up to good ale fermentation temperatures. At night the cabin can drop to 55 degrees or even cooler. I purchased a "Brew Belt", a sort of plastic electrical thing that is supposed to fit around the primary and keep temperatures higher than ambient. According to the directions, the "Brew Belt" (made in Canada by ABC Cork Co.) will warm the fermenting wort to 75-80 degrees. This seems a bit high to me. I would perfer 65-70 degrees. Has anyone got any experience with these devices? Do they work?
Also I read on this forum somewhere that it might not be a good idea to use these on a secondary, glass fermenter.
Please advise.
Thank you,
Tree House