keep a 5 gallon igloo warm for sour

[winovino]

Hey all, wondering if anyone has had any experience with this.

I am in the mood for a quick sour but my ferm chamber is currently full and i really want to do a sour mash over a kettle sour.

I have a 5 gallon round igloo mash tun that i use specifically for sour mash.
I also have a spare temp controller that is sitting on a shelf.

What im considering is ordering a wrap around fermentation heater and wrapping the igloo.

The dimensions of the 5 gallon cooler is pretty close to a 6 gallon carboy so i believe that part should be fine.

What i'm concerned about is the heater being in direct contact with the plastic cooler. i'm pretty sure the wrap around heaters are designed to be used with glass.

I'm also worried that the r value of the cooler may prevent much of the heat from actually entering the vessel.

Anybody have any input?
Thanks!

 

[TexasWine]

I have to imagine that this will not work very well due to the insulative properties inherent of the cooler. If I were to try it I'd use a regular fermenting bucket, wrap it in a heating pad, the type you'd use to treat an injured muscle, and then insulate that with a sleeping bag around the side and some towels on top and bottom.

This is exactly what I used to do when I fermented in my keezer. It would hold a steady 65-70F in a 36F keezer. Worked great. I would have to imagine this would also work for the sour application if the surrounding temps were warm enough, like room temp.

Insulate and tape the temp probe somewhere on the bucket where the heating pad doesn't touch. That should give you a very accurate reading of the temp in the bucket and not be thrown off by the heat from the wrap.

Hope this helps.

 

[cod3ck]

I've never done this, but I came across this article (http://blog.craftbeertraders.com/how-to-sour-mash-w-gose-recipe/) and the heat controller seems promising? It's designed for their mash tun, but I don't see why you couldn't drop it in a standard cooler (with maybe some modification)?

 

[CoreyD]

I used a heating pad under a stainless steel pot Then draped a blanket over the top to hold the heat I . I think an electric blanket would work better, since it can be set to one temp for continues heat. Heating pads tend to reset after a certain amount of time. I did have success with mine, but had to turn it back on every 2 hours or so to keep the temp up.

 

[TexasWine]

Heating pads tend to reset after a certain amount of time. I did have success with mine, but had to turn it back on every 2 hours or so to keep the temp up.

You have to find the kind with a manual switch. The switch usually has three settings; low, medium and high. This style does not reset and will run indefinitely.

For example...

Sunbeam 732-500 King Size Heating Pad with UltraHeatTechnology https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FGDDI0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[CoreyD]

You have to find the kind with a manual switch. The switch usually has three settings; low, medium and high. This style does not reset and will run indefinitely.

For example...

Sunbeam 732-500 King Size Heating Pad with UltraHeatTechnology https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FGDDI0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Wish I'd seen that one when I bought the one I have. Mine shuts off after an hour. I did by it for muscle pain, which it is perfect for. It did work out well draping a blanket over the pot to retain heat. After 2 days, only resetting the heating pad 4 or 5 times each day, I had the perfect acidity I was looking for. Not sure what the numbers were since I don't have the stuff to test it with. With the next sour I will.