experiences with keep fermentation warm in cold climate?

[calgary222]

I currently brew in my detached garage and then drag 10 gal batches from my garage, up 8 stairs and then down to the basement for fermentation. I have the space outdoors though for a fermentation chamber. Most examples I see are from further south where the challenge is staying cool enough - I am wondering if anyone has found a good solution for keeping temps up when the outside temp is as low as zero Fahrenheit (-17 Celcius).

I already have the STC-1000 I bought a while ago, just in case, but am wondering:
Is a big chest freezer best or better to build something with 3" foam insulated panels?
Is a small electric heater decent/efficient or are there better options?

Thanks!

 

[TheMadKing]

I live in WA state and plan to put a terrarium heater in my ferm chamber that I'm building now. It's just a small single carboy mini-fridge chamber though.

 

[PKnotlost]

I went to a controller and a brew belt. I was tired of complicated things, so I brew belt the bucket wrap with some insulation bubble wrap i got at lowes, plug it into the controller drop the probe between the bucket and insulation and it works perfect. Im sure you can overthink this but im not, as it just works. If your in a total non insulated environment (i'm in a cold cellar so it only gets down to 50F, I would set the buckets into the freezer chest for added insulation. I know of another guy who dose that and it works great.

 

[fuzzy2133]

Best thing to do is build a box out of foam insulation like an SOFC and like TheMadKing said use some sort of heater (brew belt or light bulb in a paint can). I do not deal with temps nearly as cold but definitely easier to heat a small space compared to a basement.

 

[Sailingeric]

I have one of these my wife uses sometimes for kombucha. I wrap it around my bucket and plug it into my temp controller. It wraps about 2/3 around my 8 gallong bucket and it can get saisons up to 80 no problem. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008OHZ1C8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 She found it somewhere else for about half the price.

 

[normonster]

That's damn cold so I don't know but two seedling heat mats in a fridge does great for me.

 

[calgary222]

Thanks Folks. I think I am too cold for a brew belt, I could see a situation of local heating and a wide temp variation - but I already have one and it might be worth a test with water (once this Chinook passes - its a balmy 44 today).
I like the idea of SOFC or insulating foam - I'll keep an eye out for some used sheets, thinking that way I can keep the chambers on wheels and just wheel into the front of a box...
Similar to keezers and cooling fermentation chambers, I am thinking though that a forced air or heat source and a fan may be necessary, especially if I build it to take three vessels...
I will resurrect this thread once I find some materials.

 

[namepending]

I did a side by side fridge conversion, it's in a detached garage and it's typically 10 degrees at night in winter, sometimes a lot colder. I have a Wal-Mart space heater and two computer fans circulating air. No problems in a couple years of using it. I stack two buckets on one side of the fridge and the top bucket is usually about 2 degrees warmer but that's about the only quirk.

 

[fuzzy2133]

If you do decide to wrap your fermenter with a blanket or sheet just check on it a couple times a day. I know people do it all the time with out any issue (low amount of heat with a wrap around style heater) my concern is if something goes wrong (blanket starts to melt) and results in a fire.

 

[BlueHemlock]

I use this in my upright freezer with great results: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00538G5PI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[namepending]

I use this in my upright freezer with great results: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00538G5PI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Yup that's the exact one I use also

 

[Doed]

I have a chest freezer in my un-insulated shed running on a STC-1000. I use an old hair dryer for heat in the winter. It will get down into the teens during the winter here. The hair dryer works fine and does not run that often or for very long when it does kick on. So for me the chest freezer works fine.

 

[helibrewer]

FlexWatt heat tape driven by an STC-type controller works really well. I use this in my ferm chamber all the time. FlexWatt

 

[MikeInMKE]

I built a box out of this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Thermash...-Rigid-Foam-Insulation-Board-787264/100549260

The bottom is double layer, but the other walls are single layer. It is taped together with aluminumized foil tape (be sure to clean all of the manufacturing lube on the rigid foam board, first) with the joints sealed on the inside using silicone caulk, with the bottom being separate from the rest of the box, and seals up with peel-and-stick weather stripping.

It has enough room for two carboys, a Lasko heater (linked above by someone else), and a couple of mason jars full of sanitizer for blow-off tubes.

It's in my garage, with an IPA and a Cream Ale, keeping them both at 60 degrees in my Wisconsin freezing cold attached garage. The heater runs occasionally, and is keeping the temperature of the beer at 60 degrees, plus or minus a tenth or so of a degree.

Cheap? Eh, the rigid foam was $15.25, the roll of aluminized tape was left over from a different project, the hacked STC-1000 was $20, plus the enclosure, cord, etc., the weather stripping was a few bucks, as was the tube of caulk. I figure I've got at least $50 into what was originally intended to be a lagering chamber (Maibock! Doppelbock! Oktoberfest!), but which works equally well as a fermentation chamber during winter.

If you want some measurements, I can get those to you about two weeks from now, after the beers inside it are kegged.

 

[helibrewer]

I built a box out of this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Thermash...-Rigid-Foam-Insulation-Board-787264/100549260

The bottom is double layer, but the other walls are single layer. It is taped together with aluminumized foil tape (be sure to clean all of the manufacturing lube on the rigid foam board, first) with the joints sealed on the inside using silicone caulk, with the bottom being separate from the rest of the box, and seals up with peel-and-stick weather stripping.

It has enough room for two carboys, a Lasko heater (linked above by someone else), and a couple of mason jars full of sanitizer for blow-off tubes.

It's in my garage, with an IPA and a Cream Ale, keeping them both at 60 degrees in my Wisconsin freezing cold attached garage. The heater runs occasionally, and is keeping the temperature of the beer at 60 degrees, plus or minus a tenth or so of a degree.

Cheap? Eh, the rigid foam was $15.25, the roll of aluminized tape was left over from a different project, the hacked STC-1000 was $20, plus the enclosure, cord, etc., the weather stripping was a few bucks, as was the tube of caulk. I figure I've got at least $50 into what was originally intended to be a lagering chamber (Maibock! Doppelbock! Oktoberfest!), but which works equally well as a fermentation chamber during winter.

If you want some measurements, I can get those to you about two weeks from now, after the beers inside it are kegged.

I did a mini version of this for my yeast starters. I use a 5L flask and like to keep the starter in the cold garage so the stir bar doesn't drive the wife crazy.

 

[GeorgeH2013]

I use this in my upright freezer with great results: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00538G5PI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I got a 15.7cf chest freezer yesterday, and I am thinking of going this route. Just seems so simple. You put anything in front of it to deflect the heat? You use a fan to move the air around?

 

[BlueHemlock]

I got a 15.7cf chest freezer yesterday, and I am thinking of going this route. Just seems so simple. You put anything in front of it to deflect the heat? You use a fan to move the air around?

Nope. None of the above. It just sits on the floor of the freezer.

 

[GeorgeH2013]

Thanks BlueHemlock. I got this all set up yesterday. I got a little fan, but haven't put it in yet. Just the small heater. Set it to 66F, and taped the probe to the outside of one of the carboys I set in there. It took about an hour to get it to 66F, and it stayed almost right on it all night. Pretty sweet. I'm stoked on it!