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Wildrover

Grandmaster Brewer
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So I have an indoor outdoor thermometer in my downstairs homebrewery.  It's been saying that right now the temp in there is around 61-62 degrees.  Yesterday I brewed a bitter which should be fermenting around 67-68 as I understand it. 

Right now I have the fermenter in a tub but instead of putting water in it to keep it cool like I did in Florida now I have it surrounded with old blankets towels and a sleeping bag.  I pitched when my starter was at high krausean and I now have active fermentation in the airlock.  Does anybody think I need to do anything else?  I was thinking about getting a cheap aquarium thermometer and maybe a cheap pump and putting the fermenter in some water and have the thermometer warm the water a bit to keep it where it needs to be? 

Thoughts? 
 
Wildrover

Oh yeah - I've had all kinds of jerry-rigged / Rube Goldberg ideas and plans to try to control primary fermentation temps during the Fall/Winter. We're in Oregon which is more moderate than where you are at - but it does get cold here and we prefer a cooler indoor temp in general. So my brews were consistently diving to the low 60s very quickly - I like to ferment between 68-70deg.

And I did consider an aquarium heater + pump -- get a new plastic trash can -- put in a few gallons of water - put the fermenter in the trash can - then use the aquarium heater and pump. But when you start adding costs you're well over $50 - but it could work.

What I did do was buy a brew belt for $25 and use one of those timers for turning things off and on. I would have to experiment with 1 hour on 2 off - or 2hr on 2hr off etc. It worked but you have to watch it closely or you will over or under shoot on the temps.

Ultimately I coupled the brew belt with Northern brewers Johnson digital temp controller ---
 
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