Temp control?

[Pirate Ale]

Any suggestions for keeping a fermenter warm enough in a garage when the weather turns cooler? My fermentation chamber does great at cooling in the summer, but it has no heating gear.

 

[Bobby_M]

If you can change the fan to be turned on in a cold condition, you can just run a 20 watt lightbulb in the old cooling chamber. You just need to be certain the bulb will never be able to touch the foam.

 

[IowaStateFan]

A heating pad works great. You know, the kind old folks us on their backs. I got one at Walgreens for about $12, used an old belt to "tie" it to the fermenter and covered the whole thing with an old sweat shirt. I was doing lagers so I only need to keep it above 40 or so, but the low setting worked fine for that. I suspect the higher setting would keep things in the ale range, depending on your ambient temperature.

 

[malkore]

yeah i'd just rig a light bulb or a heating pad on a basic lamp timer. trial and error will help you determine the on/off cycles.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Actually, if you place the fermenter inside during the daytime and close it up it'll be isolated from the outside air temp and not affected by the temperature change at night, right?

 

[Beerthoven]

I have the same problem you do. Right now I'm using a 25watt lightbulb inside my fermentation freezer, and its working well enough.

 

[Donasay]

You should take up lagering.... that is probably the best thing to do... it doesn't freeze in there correct? It just gets very close? I would lager.

 

[El_Borracho]

Send it down to me, in Miami winter is a chilly 90F

 

[uwjester]

My basement was getting a little too cool a couple of weeks ago, so I put the carboy into a storage bin (like a roughneck, you know the ones you put decorations or baby cloths or whatever in) and dropped in an aquarium heater. I kept an eye on the temp until I knew what the heater was doing and everything worked out fine.

One note, if you submerge your adhesive strip thermometer, you will ruin it. Keep it above water level.

 

[raceskier]

I use a large Rubbermaid storage container full of water and a heating pad as well. I regulate the temperature by the amount of overlap of the container on top of the heating pad.

OBTW. I have been dunking all of my stick on thermometers in the water. All of mine have come back to life after drying out.