Ss Brewtech Unitank- maintaining temp in a garage!

[abrewer12345]

morning-
we have our Ss rig shipping this week and we’re trying to work through something. We live in the northeast and we’re brewing in a garage. Any suggestions on how to keep the unitank in the high 60’s through the winter months? just an old fridge? hit me with some ideas. cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

How cold does the garage get under the worst circumstances?

If you don't have the temp control kit, the first thing that comes to mind is using some sort of heat belt or fermwrap wrapped around the fermenter where ports don't interfere. Hold in place with bungee cord, wire, whatever.

Another is to insulate the environment in which the fermenter sits. A fridge is a good idea if you can get one into which the fermenter will fit. That would also allow for other methods of heating besides a heat mat.

A third, if you have some way of applying heat directly (Fermwrap/heat mat/etc.) is to wrap the fermenter in a moving blanket or sleeping bag or similar. Pic below.

In my garage, temps can fall to the 40s. I have the temp control kit from Spike, and it includes a heat mat shaped to fit the conical bottom. Recently I was fermenting a Kveik yeast batch and tried to get the temp as high as I could--but the best I could achieve was 75 degrees. And that was with wrapping the fermenter with the moving blanket.

******

How were you planning on maintaining fermentation temp control? What heating/cooling mechanisms were you planning on using?

Pic of moving blanket:

 

[logdrum]

Like mongoose33, I have the Spike w the temp control package. I also live in the NE (Ohio) and ferment in my garage that regularly drops into the40’s. I wrap the entire fermenter in an old sleeping bag-the same one I wrap my mash tun in-and can get temps into the 80’s. Also helps w cold crashing.

 

[Vale71]

morning-
we have our Ss rig shipping this week and we’re trying to work through something. We live in the northeast and we’re brewing in a garage. Any suggestions on how to keep the unitank in the high 60’s through the winter months? just an old fridge? hit me with some ideas. cheers!

Have you thought of buying the temp control kit from SS Brewtech?

 

[abrewer12345]

Have you thought of buying the temp control kit from SS Brewtech?

we havent' received the kit yet, but we bought the 3v electric kit and the unitank system. is the orange piece a heater? haha

 

[abrewer12345]

Have you thought of buying the temp control kit from SS Brewtech?

looks like it is, do you have any experience with it? or anyone else in this thread? how much temp can i get out of that piece?

 

[Vale71]

we havent' received the kit yet, but we bought the 3v electric kit and the unitank system. is the orange piece a heater? haha

Yes it is. It really depends on how cold your garage gets. Keep in mind that during fermentation you'll also have the heat from fermentation to help you along. You should test your system before you start looking for additional insulation that might not actually be needed.

 

[sleev-les]

I'm running Spikes with the temp control kit in my garage. I have their insulation jacket and I'm able to keep the temp right where I need it in the winter, with the garage sometimes hitting low 40's.

 

[mike.stout]

Please delete sorry....

 

[czmkid]

I have three 7 uni’s that I keep on my back porch in Central Texas. It got down below freezing and my tanks kept a steady 66-65 with no additional wrapping or covering. Fear not! The same can be said if you are planning on using glycol in the hotter months.

ambient air temp in the left tank. Right tank is toasty.

 

[Jtvann]

It gets cold in my garage. I did this once just as a proof of concept and it worked, but just too dang cold for me to want to spend time out there. My beer did fine.

If you got the Ftss2 system, you can plug the pump into the heating port of the controller. I used a cooler and put a small fish tank heater inside. Kept the water set at 85. Pump warm water through the coils and it works great. It was single digits at night and this still worked. Your blow off solution will probably freeze though if you're not using vodka or something.

The heat pad from the ftss2 won't work much better than about 20-25 degrees below your desired temp.

 

[abrewer12345]

we got the full electric rig, 3v with RIMS and the unitank. what am i looking at for an electric bill increase per brew session?

 

[Jtvann]

You won't notice anything at all really. I think a full brew day uses less than 2 dollars for me.

 

[eric19312]

this is working just fine for me

Garage was in low 40s a few weeks ago and I was fermenting a kveik in the mid 90s. I have a small reptile bulb (25 watt I think) in that flashing tube. Freezer is well insulated. I think its funny that people go with glycol so they can see their blingy conicals but then have to wrap them in all kinds of crazy crap to control temperatures. I guess there are other good reasons for glycol but the old tried and true fermentation chamber works even better on a big stainless fermentor than it did on plastic buckets or plastic/glass carboys. The stainless is a much better heat transfer conductor and just a little air circulation from that computer fan on top of the flashing tube helps keep tems rock stable.

 

[augiedoggy]

this is working just fine for me

View attachment 661808

Garage was in low 40s a few weeks ago and I was fermenting a kveik in the mid 90s. I have a small reptile bulb (25 watt I think) in that flashing tube. Freezer is well insulated. I think its funny that people go with glycol so they can see their blingy conicals but then have to wrap them in all kinds of crazy crap to control temperatures. I guess there are other good reasons for glycol but the old tried and true fermentation chamber works even better on a big stainless fermentor than it did on plastic buckets or plastic/glass carboys. The stainless is a much better heat transfer conductor and just a little air circulation from that computer fan on top of the flashing tube helps keep tems rock stable.

I wrapped my blingy homebrew conicals with blue discharge hose and silicone heating strips for temp control.. not for bling factor but for efficiency... this way I can (and did) control all 3 (potentially 4) conicals using a single 1/3hp chiller vs buying and taking all that room up in my house with 3 or 4 fridges running... Both types of setups have their advantages and yeah I see your point about most wanting the bling... thats why I am so suprpized no one has a cost effective real jacketed/insulated home brewing sized conical... I know they could be built cost effectively because I just bought 3- 3.5bbl stainless unitanks with dual zone jackets that are fully insulated and complete with accessories like sight glasses and carbing stones they still were under 2 grand each.

 

[czmkid]

That works fine for you because you only have one tank. That how I started 12 years ago w/. Two ss brew buckets and a shelf in my old fridge. No way I’m fitting three 7 gal blingy unitanks in a fridge. That’s why I went with a glycol system for the summer and the ftss heating pad for the winter. Besides I like brewing outdoors on my patio. Only thing wrapping my tanks is the neoprene it came with....

 

[verboten]

I have a germination pad under my neoprene jackets, it will keep thing about 15-20 degrees above ambient without help.

I now have all 3 fermenters held at temp in my un-insulated garage, I just have them wrapped in towels individually and then covered with sheets all together. The chiller temp is with the unit not running at all for the last 3 days.

 

[verboten]

I have a germination pad under my neoprene jackets, it will keep thing about 15-20 degrees above ambient without help.

I now have all 3 fermenters held at temp in my un-insulated garage, I just have them wrapped in towels individually and then covered with sheets all together. The chiller temp is with the unit not running at all for the last 3 days.

They wouldn't attach for some reason