Raising Fermentation Temp - Sleeping Bag & Hot Growlers

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tagz

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I haven't invested in a chamber yet, so I've generally been controlling temps with water baths and ice bottles. Works pretty well to keep a steady temperature 5-10 degrees below room temp.

For my latest batch I'm brewing a saison with the dupont yeast which, as most people know, can be finicky and requires pretty high temps. So, to manage my fermentation this time around I've been using a down sleeping bag and growlers filled with hot water. Ive been able to take the carboy from 76 to 86 at a nice gradual pace over 4 days.

One hot growler left over night seems to increase the temp of the wort 2 degrees. The sleeping bag is also protecting the carboy from swings in daily temperature. Anyway, just thought I'd pass along in case anyone is looking for a good way to increase temperature without a chamber.
 
Sounds like some great advice to me, next month I will be brewing using the same yeast to make the Rye Sassion from last years HBT competition, I need to find a way to keep the temp up in the mid 90's, so keeping in a closet outside inside of a sleeping bag just might be the trick!
 
Try an aquarium heater, I throw one in when fermentation slows to make sure the yeast clean up. They have wide ranges for temperature.
 
I've got a saison that stalled out i think. Hard to say though, could've been my mash temp because i added a us-05 starter that didn't do a damn thing. Actually it had to be mash temp. Amylased it so now it's dropping slowly but surely. I thought it'd be done a week ago and it's all I got going right now so i'm kind of pulling my hair out. I'm in Georgia and our power rates suck right now so the house stays about 78. Kept it in the laundry room for a weekend while the animals were gone. It is usually about 82 in there. I used a buddy's propane brew stand which he recently discovered fluctuates about 5 degrees randomly throughout his brews so it absolutely had to be the mash temp but he seems to disagree. He has a pretty decent margin of experience on me so I don't know. There is the slight possibility that the dupont yeast is still chugging along really slowly. I'm at about 1.011 and I'm aiming for 1.003-1.
Any thoughts?
 
One hot growler left over night seems to increase the temp of the wort 2 degrees. The sleeping bag is also protecting the carboy from swings in daily temperature.

Where do you put the hot growler? Do you just sit it next to the fermenter and then wrap both in the sleeping bag?
 
Yeah. I set the carboy in the bag (on a table, ground was chilly) and place the growler of hot water next to it. Then wrap it up to the airlock. I'm actually using 2 growlers now, because the yeast have stopped producing as much heat on their own. The growlers stay warm for several hours in there and slowly transfer heat.

More work than say a chamber or aquarium pump. But for now it works and costs 0 dollars. :)
 
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