Conditioning underwater

[chefmike]

The ceramic heaters emit infrared range... which would work. They screw in to light bulb sockets and will heat objects. I would have it pointing at a pizza stone or something and let that heat the space instead of pointing it at the bottles, which would get hot (the caps... not sure the glass would at all).

A heating pad also works. I used one back when I lived in Colorado... I just set it to come on 15 minutes every couple of hours. It was in the crate under the bottles, in contact with the glass. Carbed up no problem.

 

[Hardleft]

If you use a light bulb, cant you just throw a box or a blanket over the beer?


On a different note, does anyone know how bottle carbing at 85 degrees affects the beer?

 

[FlyingHumanoid]

The Tub in Tub incubator with the fish tank heater as Okie suggested has been tried and tested before. Not for keeping beer at an approximate constant temperature, that I know of, but for other endeavors. It's cheap and works wonders. Also hydrogen peroxide should work just as well as bleach in the water. Might actually be safer alternative to actual bleach.

 

[iamfoamy]

Oh cool (warm actually), keep us posted!

I experimented with a 6-foot long soil heating cable (Gro Quick) buried in a layer of sand inside a 10" x 20" cooler. I placed 25 bottles upright on the sand and I've found that it is able to keep the bottles in the 70 to 74-degree range when my basement is 60-degrees. It has a built-in thermostat that turns on when the soil goes below 74. It only uses about 20 watts when on. I'm on day 4, and so far so good.

 

[Revvy]

I experimented with a 6-foot long soil heating cable (Gro Quick) buried in a layer of sand inside a 10" x 20" cooler. I placed 25 bottles upright on the sand and I've found that it is able to keep the bottles in the 70 to 74-degree range when my basement is 60-degrees. It has a built-in thermostat that turns on when the soil goes below 74. It only uses about 20 watts when on. I'm on day 4, and so far so good.

Oh that's too awesome!!! Take some pic of your setup!!

 

[iamfoamy]

Here is a picture of bottles being warmed in a cooler using a soil heating cable. I hope I attached it correctly.

 

[Revvy]

Here is a picture of bottles being warmed in a cooler using a soil heating cable. I hope I attached it correctly.

Looks great!!!

 

[RunBikeBrew]

Question
Has anyone ever tried this
I have a large tropical fish tank, and I keep it at 75 deg no problem year around. My thought was, get a plastic tub that would fit a small batch of bottled beer, and put a fish tank heater in it, and a small filter (w/o a actual filter in it) to keep the water moving and stirred up, and submerge the batch into the water. That way they can all be kept right on at 75 deg, even though my house is only about 66 in the winter. Any thoughts on this??? Thanks.

This is precisely the setup I use for bottle conditioning. My basement is in the low 50's in the winter and I condition around 75F. Keep the water level below the caps (rust), put a splash of bleach in the water, and don't put it directly on a concrete floor (use a few layers of cardboard).

 

[springer]

instead of submerging the bottles why not use the fish tank heater in a gallon of water inside a cooler . I did something like this with a Saison beer I had it in the garage on the second floor in August thought it would stay nice and warm. Then we had a real cold snap low 40's at night instead of a cooler I used the old chest freezer and the warm water bottle.

 

[The0Bob]

I've got a 50 watt aquarium heater keeping 4 cases at a constant 70 degrees F in my guest bathroom's tub. Works great in the winter in Colorado.