Heating Pad?!?

[liquidavalon]

Greetings fellow cider makers/brewers...

I started my new single gallon 'tester' batch last night using pasteurized unfiltered apple juice. I used only 1/2 cup granulated white table sugar and pitched a packet of Nottingham Ale yeast. Within 2 hours it was 1.11min between bubbles, so I know that the yeast is working.

I am not rich by any means and cannot afford to keep the heat on in our apmt going 24/7...and I live in Oregon, about 60 miles from the coast so it is mild winter temps here...

When I woke up this morning it was cold in the kitchen and I noticed that the fermentation bubbles were still slow...so I threw on a heating pad...not one for brewing, but human use. I taped it around the gallon carboy and turned it on to level 2 ( settings are 1,2,3 ) and within 15 min...the bubbles were 16 seconds apart...another 20 min later...they were 14 seconds apart.

I tried doing a search on the forum and have come up with a wide range thoughts but nothing specific to this subject...All this to get to this one question: Should I continue to use it or should I take it off and let nature due its course...what is everyone's opinion??

 

[ehedge20]

If it works then keep it up. Just make sure your cider/beer is not getting too hot. You might want to invest in a temp controller.

I would think putting your batch in a tub of water with a heating pad underneath would be a more efficient manner of heating the batch evenly.

 

[liquidavalon]

I would think putting your batch in a tub of water with a heating pad underneath would be a more efficient manner of heating the batch evenly.

Thanks, that actually sounds like a good idea...that way the heating pad isn't directly touching the glass. Thanks again.

 

[CadillacAndy]

I totally misread what you suggested. I read it as "put the heating pad in the bucket of water with the jug." Just to clarify for everyone's safety - the heating pad should NOT contact the water or any liquid at any point.

 

[liquidavalon]

I also misread it at first but then re-read it:

1) Get a tub ( or bucket ) and put water in it.
2) Put heating pad under tub.
3) Put carboy in tub and turn on heating pad.

 

[ZeroSum79]

I did the same thing. I live on Whidbey Island in Washington State and we do not heat our house much. So keep the fermenter warm I wrapped an electric blanket around it and turned it on to a medium setting. Be careful with this. I checked the temperature after a week and it was 90. Keep the setting lower than you would expect. Hoping to bottle mine in the next week or so.

 

[liquidavalon]

I did the same thing. I live on Whidbey Island in Washington State and we do not heat our house much. So keep the fermenter warm I wrapped an electric blanket around it and turned it on to a medium setting. Be careful with this. I checked the temperature after a week and it was 90. Keep the setting lower than you would expect. Hoping to bottle mine in the next week or so.

Thanks. The fermentation is really going well right now. I have it down to the lowest setting.

Do you think that I have to keep the heating pad on it all the time or only when it gets cold? I would hate to take it off then put back on ect ( thinking that it might upset the balance not being at one constant temp )...just wondering outloud if I should take of the heating pad now that it is going good...bubbling once every second.

 

[buffalo]

If you found a good temp with the heating pad i personally would leave it alone until its done fermenting,otherwise i would assume it will go back to the same issue you had before as soon as the temp drops again.

 

[CadillacAndy]

I've found that it helps to keep the temperature as consistent as possible. My basement is a little on the cooler side (60F), but it's a constant temp almost all year round. My ferment times are a little longer than I'd like, but it's constant.

 

[liquidavalon]

I would like to keep it on all the time, but it is one of those ones that shuts off automatically...then I would be turning it on then auto going off and not keeping a consistant temp. I might just leave it off now that it is fermenting bubbles at one a second but as buffalo stated, if the temp drops I'd be right back at the beginning issue and I certainly don't want 'off flavors' in the cider due to inconsistant temps. Quite the boggle.

 

[ajbram]

i have a tub of water with an aquarium heater in it... I can set the temp and forget it. I like to do most of the fermentation on the cool end of the range for my yeast strain, then bump up the temp at the end to stretch my attenuation a bit.

 

[liquidavalon]

i have a tub of water with an aquarium heater in it... I can set the temp and forget it. I like to do most of the fermentation on the cool end of the range for my yeast strain, then bump up the temp at the end to stretch my attenuation a bit.

How long do you ferment with cool temps and warmer temps? and what benefits have you seen with this process? Thanks

 

[ajbram]

How long do you ferment with cool temps and warmer temps? and what benefits have you seen with this process? Thanks

Depends on the batch and the yeast. my basement is pretty cool (around 56 right now) so if i'm using ale yeast I'll let if go in the cool as long as it will go. When it starts really slowing down I bump the water bath up to about 65 or so. The benefits seem to be that at the cooler temp, you don't get the fusel alcohols and off flavours that you do when your fermentation runs too hot. By warming it up at the end you stretch your yeast attenuation a little longer and let the yeasties clean up after themselves a bit better. When it's hot in the summer, I can do the opposite... tap water is about 63 max in the summer (good St. Lawrence River Water) and the basement gets up to about 70 or so... I'll ferment it in a cool water bath til it starts to slow, then leave it in the warmer air for a few days.

 

[liquidavalon]

Depends on the batch and the yeast. my basement is pretty cool (around 56 right now) so if i'm using ale yeast I'll let if go in the cool as long as it will go.

ajbram - Thanks for the advice and giving me the 411 on your process. I am using ale yeast, Nottingham in fact and it is cool in my house, probably 55 or so and it is bubbling at 1 per min. Not sure about the night when it gets lower in here...closer to 50.

Now when you say that you let it ferment in the cool as long as it will go...are you going for a dry cider or more of a 'Woodchuck Amber' cider...cause the woodchuck sweetness is what I am going for. Beings that I don't have a hydrometer or access to one...it is hard to guess when to cold crash it ect...**kind of a newbie here**

 

[MontyKi]

what hazard is presented by heating pad in contact with glass? It's been dipping below 60 F in my basement, so I ran a for-humans heating pad for some days, seemed to help keep the airlock bubbling rate up, but I don't wanna cause a fire!

Monty

 

[ajbram]

ajbram - Thanks for the advice and giving me the 411 on your process. I am using ale yeast, Nottingham in fact and it is cool in my house, probably 55 or so and it is bubbling at 1 per min. Not sure about the night when it gets lower in here...closer to 50.

Now when you say that you let it ferment in the cool as long as it will go...are you going for a dry cider or more of a 'Woodchuck Amber' cider...cause the woodchuck sweetness is what I am going for. Beings that I don't have a hydrometer or access to one...it is hard to guess when to cold crash it ect...**kind of a newbie here**

I find its best to let it go dry and then backsweeten. You get more consistent results that way. Definitely invest the 6 bucks on the hydrometer. when the gravity hasn't dropped in 3 days, you're done. Backsweeten to taste, add a little more to prime and carb, then stovetop pasteurize when its carbed....

 

[BoomerCreek]

I use a seedling heating mat and wrap the carboys in blankets. The mat is the perfect size for 2 carboys sitting next to eachother. My basement hovers in the high forties to low fifties at night in the winter. With two blanket layers the carboys hit the mid seventies. With a little messing with the blankets I was able to keep it in the high sixties.

 

[liquidavalon]

Despite it getting in the low 50's in the house...the fermentation is still bubbling at one bubble per second. Starting to have that sulfur smell everyone is talking about, not worried about that.

 

[liquidavalon]

what hazard is presented by heating pad in contact with glass?

I actually read that putting a heating pad made for human use around your carboy or bucket doesn't heat evenly with some of the internal coils coming in contact with the glass on the carboy and some not...therefore it would heat certain areas more than others...ie hotspots.

Frankly, I think that is unsound information because look at a brew belt...a thin piece of heating element strapped around a fermentation bucket or carboy heating just that inch or two of space initially as the heat spreads out...doesn't seem to bother that.