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Warming my fermenter

Wildrover

Grandmaster Brewer
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Well, I'm starting to deal with home brewing issues here in North Dakota that I never dealt with in Florida.  My unfinished home brewery has been hovering around 60-62 degrees.  I made a porter this weekend that needs to ferment around 67 degrees.  So, I took out our never used sleeping bag and wrapped the bucket.  I also added some old sheets and some old towels in hopes that this will help keep the temp around the fermenter where it needs to be.  I'm hoping that with the heat given off during fermentation and with the sleeping bag etc.  wrapped around the fermenter I should be fine? 

I don't think we're at the point yet where we can justify turning on the heat.  Its actually quite nice in the house with some long pj's and some slippers.  My thoughts are that the heat will be on soon enough and for long enough that I should hold out on turning it on as long as possible and I can't justify turning it on simply to heat a room for homebrewing, especially when the temp is so close to where it needs to be. 

thoughts?
 
I used a Johnson Digital Temperature Controller in conjunction with an electric heating blanket wrapped around the bucket one time.  It worked quite well.
 
+1 on the Johnson Digital Controller - set it and forget it. I then added $25 for the stainless steel temp probe well and $25 for a brew belt. Works great on my plastic bucket primary. After 1 Winter trying to control fermentation temps with a space heater in the spare bedroom/office --- I said forget that.

Figure about $25-$30 a batch and if it gets really fouled up on primary fermentation it may taste marginal or you have to dump it. I figure I've saved $150 in supplies and power - plus I totally control fermentation by +/- 1deg.

Check out Northern Brewers
 
Wildrover said:
My unfinished home brewery has been hovering around 60-62 degrees.  I made a porter this weekend that needs to ferment around 67 degrees.  So, I took out our never used sleeping bag and wrapped the bucket.  I also added some old sheets and some old towels in hopes that this will help keep the temp around the fermenter where it needs to be.  I'm hoping that with the heat given off during fermentation and with the sleeping bag etc.  wrapped around the fermenter I should be fine? 
You seem to understand the difference but to make it clear for others. . .
60-62F should be a good ROOM TEMP to ferment most ales at because the heat from fermentation should raise the WORT TEMP several degrees and wort temp is the critical temp for fermentation.  You can measure this temp with a probe on the outside of your fermenter but below the liquid line, just put a piece of foam over it to keep room temp from influencing the reading.  The stick on thermometers are adequate to measure this temp.

Control of the fermentation is the KEY to brewing outstanding beer.

Fred
 
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