I've been fermenting ales and lagers in the house, and I have rooms with good temperature ranges for those. But I haven't found a place warm enough regularly in the winter for DADY or the yellow label yeast I want to try out. So I set out to build a warming / temperature control chamber.
My first attempt was a failure. I got a large plastic pin, lined it with styrofoam insulation and spray-in insulation, with a hole for the chord of a space heater. After my first test run, I found the space heater kept kicking off. Probably not the best idea to begin with.
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Next I got two submersible, temperature adjusting aquarium heaters - one 125 watts, the other 100 watts. I've read a rule of thumb that 1 watt = 1 liter water. Tonight I'm testing both in a cooler in my outside shed, with a weighted bucket and thermometer inside. I'm optimistic that this setup will work, and that I'll only need one heater, hopefully letting me run two fermentation at a time. I expect some big temperature loss with the cracked lid, but I don't want to drill / insulate better until it looks like this concept will work.
Aquarium heaters work really well in aquariums because there are pumps and air stones forcing circulation and ensuring that the temperature is even throughout the tank.
Heat rises, so if you forget to allow for that in your design you may create a problem.
I use heating bands, they can be applied in contact with the fermenter, and they don't necessarily need a room, just a simple blanket to insulate.Attachments
+1 on the bands and I put them near the bottom as heat rises. If it’s really cold I also wrap in a heavy blanket and sometimes an electric blanket.I just read an article about the dangers of drinking that scared the crap out of me.
That’s it. No more reading!
Post time 2022-12-15 04:38:32
