maintain fermentation temp - best way

[kappclark]

It's getting COLD here in VT, (below zero tonight) and I noticed that the closet where my latest batch is going is @ 58 deg...I just pitched yesterday ... slow bubbles, so I moved out to kitchen where it is warmer ...

Got me thinking what is the BEST way to provide a constant and correct fermentation temp - is a simple refrig w/regulator good enough ? I saw a post about using a tall cooler and an aquarium heater ..

Looking for consistency for the little yeasties ..

Any comments ... ?

 

[Dr Vorlauf]

You could wrap it with insulating blankets etc. What typer of beer ? I assume an ale of some sort.


I am actually enjoying my colder basement temps. My basement is now down to a nice 60F. I did a double batch of EdWorts Kolsch a few weeks back and it is loving the ferment temp.

My Stone IPA clone with US-05 well... not so sure. It is fermenting OK gravity dropped from 1.062 to 1.014 in 1 week. I think I will leave it as at 60 F and just let it sit for an extra few weeks. I figure this will give me a nice clean taste? anyone have an opinion on this?

as soon as the basement temp pops us I will go back to wheats etc.

 

[Beerthoven]

I've had very good results using a chest freezer + RANCO controller. The set up cost me $150 total. If you want controllable consistency this is really the way to go.

In the winter I use a 25 watt light bulb to heat the freezer and the controller keeps it from getting too warm. In the summer, I take out the light bulb and let the freezer do its work. Its in an uninsulated out-building (i.e., detached two car garage) and I have constant fermentation temps year round.

 

[malkore]

I'd wrap it in a blanket to start off with. fermentation generates heat, so it might keep itself warm for the few days of active primary fermentation.

 

[Joker]

My thermostat at home is set at 60F so I just set my primaries in a corner with a thermometer next to them and monitor them that way.

Take a thermometer and move it around your house and look for a location that has a constant temp that you need. Or get a brew belt.

 

[Rhymenoceros]

My thermostat at home is set at 60F so I just set my primaries in a corner with a thermometer next to them and monitor them that way.

Take a thermometer and move it around your house and look for a location that has a constant temp that you need. Or get a brew belt.

I actually just got one of those, it keeps it too hot. Its on my bottles to keep them above 70, they are in the same closet with the carboy (its actually, to my suprise, been staying really consistently at 66).

 

[nebben]

I dig the cooler+water+aquarium heater solution. Left home around Christmas for a week and turned the heat down to 50F. 3.5G port wine stayed at about 69F the whole time.

 

[kappclark]

I have recently been taking the fermenter upstairs, where the temp is abt 65-69...

Right now the Irish red ale is bubbling away!

When I setup in basement permanently, the brewbelt or aquariun heater strategy will RULE

 

[OLB]

Thanks to suggestions here, I'm also doing the cooler + aquarium heater. It's been a great help keeping consistency. The only problem is that most of the heaters I looked at had a minimum temp of 68. I would prefer to keep it closer to 63 or 64. Still better than the 10+ degree swing I use to have from moving it around to keep it in the right neighborhood.