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- Jan 14, 2015
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Hey gang, so I am wanting to try my hand at brewing some saison style beers, which will require fermentation temps much warmer than my man cave (aka "garage") will get anytime in the next several months. Due to that I was looking for a cheap and simple way to get my wort up to the recommended fermentation temps and keep it there.
My main fermentation chamber is an SCT-1000 that is wired up both to a converted mini fridge and fermwrap. The probe goes into a thermowell on my fermenter, and I want to use a thermowell on this one too. For this one, since I don't really need cooling, I was planning on repurposing a large, thick styrofoam box, like the ones you get when you order a large quantity of meat online and they ship it to you packed with dry ice. I happen to have one laying around and my fermenter with airlock fits in it nicely.
The problem I'm having now is:
1) Finding a cheap heat source
2) Finding a cheap way of controlling the heat source that has a probe I can use in the thermowell
Should I just bite the bullet and go ahead and wire up another SCT-1000 even though I don't need the cooling aspect at this point? I'm thinking now that I've been through that once before I could probably put one together for $40 or so.
As to the heat source, would a brewbelt or fermwrap get a saison up past 75 (80? 90?) in a garage with an average temp of about 50 this time of year? Something cheaper that would get the job done better?
Really open to any comments or suggestions!
My main fermentation chamber is an SCT-1000 that is wired up both to a converted mini fridge and fermwrap. The probe goes into a thermowell on my fermenter, and I want to use a thermowell on this one too. For this one, since I don't really need cooling, I was planning on repurposing a large, thick styrofoam box, like the ones you get when you order a large quantity of meat online and they ship it to you packed with dry ice. I happen to have one laying around and my fermenter with airlock fits in it nicely.
The problem I'm having now is:
1) Finding a cheap heat source
2) Finding a cheap way of controlling the heat source that has a probe I can use in the thermowell
Should I just bite the bullet and go ahead and wire up another SCT-1000 even though I don't need the cooling aspect at this point? I'm thinking now that I've been through that once before I could probably put one together for $40 or so.
As to the heat source, would a brewbelt or fermwrap get a saison up past 75 (80? 90?) in a garage with an average temp of about 50 this time of year? Something cheaper that would get the job done better?
Really open to any comments or suggestions!
