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What is the best way to keep your washes warm?

Bet if ya did a little reading you would find out some answers.Try preparing wash section on parent sight

I use an electric blanket rounf the outside of the drum in winter time. But will be building a heated cabinet for my now extended family of washes/mashes.

florida... hell no... been there... don't like it...

brew belt, heat tape... heat strips... lightbulbs... heating pads....

its pretty easy, you can spend a lot or a little...

I just use a small spare bedroom, close the door and use one of those $20 ceramic heaters. Works like a charm. Can keep my mash's from 68(room temp) to over 100F if I really wanted to.

rap mine with a sleeping bag and put an aquarium heater in it. take the top off when its 30deg outside and steam comes off the 70deg mash. sorta funny.

I bought a 50 watt submersible aquarium heater, drilled a hole in the top of my fermenter and siliconed it in. Working like a champ. Maintaining a 76 degree temp.

thats the way. cheap and hard to beat. be sure and unplug the heater when you drain the mash. heater will burn up if not submerged.

Joe if I understand you correctly you have a heater directly submerged in your mashing vessel? If so this is a bad Idea, I did this and eventually the alcohol ate through the plastic and burned the heater, could have started a fire.

I would go with a bucket in bucket type system if your going to use an aquarium heater, theyre designed just for water. Sorry if I misunderstood.

africaunite how long did it take to do this? i have been using mine for just over a year. the plastic is on the ends and the middle is glass. it may be time to replace. havent thought of that.

Probably about 3 months of continuous use, my mashs at the time were high alcohol turbo yeast sugar mash's, usualy around 15-17%. That plays a big role too, either way it will never sit well with me and I have to warn you its not a good idea.

my mashes never go much over 10%. i will defineantly be checking mine. thanks for the advice. i would have never thought of that. even though the should be designed to blow a fuse if they leak since they are to be used in a dwelling.

AU, thanks for the info. I got the idea for an earlier post for Uncle Jesse. It sounded like a solid idea. But now that you mention it, that could be a concern.

Link up the post to UJ, I dont want to double cross him. I was in the other room when it happened, there was a loud pop and then a bit of black smoke. Your probably right about the fuse, thats probably what saved me. Im no electrician though.

AU, I'm not sure how to post the links, but here are some of the posts

Mash, Ferment and Distill
-damn hot weather
-How to keep my wash warm during fermenting

Research and Theory
-UJSM inputs and outputs[/url]

Sometimes you just to have to get practical. You and your wife snuggle up to it, hug it loveingly, with a great big warm hug, and it will perform like..... nuf said.

When doing beer I leave the carboy or two on top of the fridge. Keeps it just about perfectly regulated.

If you're going BIG then I'd suggest to spend the $$ on purpose built stuff.

I found one of the posts by UJ and he dosent mention putting the heater directly in the wash I would take it to be a double boiler type set up, large rubbermaid container 1/2 full of water with an aquarium heater then put your fermentation bucket in the tub of heated water. I dont want to put words in his mouth though.

Thats an easy and effective solution to keep your mash warm, so for me it dosent make sense to risk putting the heater directly in the mash.

I like your idea AU, I think I will try it.

Let us know how it works, how high does the aquarium heater heat up to?

The heater is factory set to stay between 76f and 80f. It is maintaining 76f.

My post seems to have disappeared. It should have been at the start of the thread, between punkin at 5:48 and junkyard dawg at 6:31 am.

It just said:

Move to Florida?

Ive had one disappear before, but it was sarcasm and didnt have to do with the topic. The sarcasm was to one of the powers to be as well
Sorry

I built a frame 14" square from 2x6 lumber. Mounted 2 light bulb sockets on the inside and use 2-100 watt light bulbs. Both are wired to a dimmer switch which allows me to keep the heat regulated. Have 3-30 gallon fermenters set up this way. Works great.

I've tried heating blankets, but a junk refrigerator, with a small light bulb connected to a thermostat works for me.

I have no problem with keeping my mash/washes warm. It's the opposite in this climate.

~r~

bronzdragon wrote:I have no problem with keeping my mash/washes warm. It's the opposite in this climate.

~r~

Same here.

Moving to Florida or Aussie isn't an option. Here in the beautiful Ozarks it is 32 at night and 50's to 60's in the day time. I can't afford to keep the house at 80. But, I do like some of the ideas here.