Heating Pad and contact heat concerns

[Tall_Yotie]

Greetings all!

So, I have a brew that I am trying to keep at 75F. Unfortunately it has dropped to 69F/70F, and fermentation has come to a crawl (2 SG point drop in 24hr, need another 7 points to target FG, one bubble every 30 seconds last night). I want to get the temp back up, if anything so I can have a consistent recipe to brew.

I would normally move the carboy to a warm water bath, but I screwed up my back so doing a lot of lifting is out of the question. I was considering using a heating pad, set to low, to warm up the carboy. put a blanket between the carboy (plastic bucket) and the heating pad, and another blanket outside to contain the heat.

My concern is that the heating will be uneven, and that the warmth of the heating pad to the beer touching the sides will be too much and cause damage and off-flavors. Is this a real concern, or as long as it is a low heat setting and I shake around the carboy from time to time I should be fine?

Thanks for any thoughts! I hesitate to call it a stuck fermentation or to call it complete, only a 67% AA and I am expecting 75% at the end, so not looking to do any of that repitching attempts.

 

[Cowbizzoy]

If those brew belts don't cause problems from uneven heating, i can't see how a heating pad underneath would be problematic....

Also i trust when you say shake the carboy, you really mean very gently swirl, right?

 

[dallasdb]

I have used a very heavy snow jacket and a small heater blowing in the direction of my carboy. I brought the temp from 55 degrees to 70 overnight. I turned off the heater and it held for the most part the entire fermentation. It dropped to around 65 at the end of the week.

Plus I read somewhere that the temp strips can be low by as much as 5 degrees during active fermentation.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Nah, I stick it in a paint mixer and let 'er rip!

It is a gentle swirl. I get the bottom stuff back into suspension in case there are sugars and yeasties trapped under there. With a good CO2 layer I don;t worry too much if I give it a little more shake than considered gentle though.