Sour mash chamber heating

[Mark_tries_brewing]

I am looking go get into brewing sour beers via sour mashing. To do this I want to use un-crushed grain and keep my mash tun in a heated chamber for 24 to 48 hours. I have a wood box in my home that at this time of the year is empty, and I can add additional insulation if needed, but just think of it as an insulated space in the 6-8 cu ft range (maybe 10 but I don't think so). In order to maintain the temps over a few days I want to keep 120F ambient but am not sure of the best way to achieve this. I plan on using a STC-1000 for the control but not certain on the right heat source. Something tells me a space heater at those temps isn't really safe, but I don't know so I came here to ask. I also didn't think the other ideas I've seen of using a paint can heater or reptile heater (50w or 100w seemed to be the most powerful I could find) would be enough for this temperature but have no experience to base that on. Please help!

 

[gandelf]

A light bulb; cheap, safe and easy.

 

[IslandLizard]

That's a really good idea. I've been puzzling over how to keep the sour mash warm for those days.

I've used a space heater under a propped up tarp to cure a concrete pad. That worked like a charm. I'm sure they can raise the temp of a (small) space to 120°F and still operate. Are you concerned about the safety of the heater? They do pull more than 1100W, so that's outside the range for a normal ST-1000, although it has 120V/15A relays, the soldered-over PCB pads may give out.

 

[CadillacAndy]

I use a space heater and a dead refrigerator. The space heater has a thermostat on it and I put a container of water in with it with a normal thermometer in it to really monitor the temp. I've used this setup several times without any issue at all. Keeping it around 110F has been pretty easy even without a real temp controller.

 

[Mark_tries_brewing]

I feel like most space heaters, as you said, have a thermostat. What kind of heater do you have that will set to 110F?

 

[CadillacAndy]

It only goes to 90F, but the liquid is at least 10F warmer because the heater goes off of the air temp in the fridge and the liquid holds temp better than the air.

 

[Mark_tries_brewing]

I am thinking I might go the route of a ceramic heat emitter bulb normally used for reptiles. The bulb and fixture together should be about 30 bucks and hopefully will be adequate. There are 250w heat emitter bulbs but couldn't seem to find one that would hold up so going with 150w and crossing my fingers.

 

[Cyclman]

I use a space heater with a temp controller to raise my ferm temps towards the end of fermentation. In an insulated space, I think it'd hit 120 easily and I don't think it would be terribly unsafe, with a temp controller.

I am addicted to sours, just bought a Love Child #4, but think I may start with sour mashes, then move on to inoculating my wort in secondary. Just bought the American Sours book, plan on learning from that too...