I work in my shop doing my washes, etc. and have a heater that keeps it so me and the dogs are good (55° to 60°) in the winter, but it's going to inhibit my ability to have washes and mashes work off. I have a temporary set up right now with a small heater, an Inkbird and some moving blankets for the conicals that works pretty good. I have two new fermenters I made out of 14gal salt barrels that I need to keep warm and was thinking about a set of these fermentation heaters and several dollar store fuzzy blankets might keep my stuff working. Has anyone tried these? I did a couple of searches and didn't come up with anything.
I eventually want to build an enclosed, insulated fermentation box to hold all four fermenters, but that's a little way out and I have washes that I need to keep warm now. This is the new fermenters; I thought the pad type might work good for these. The bottom of the fermenter is about 12" the pads are 11.8".
What do you guys think?
Rusty
"Knowledge is a paradox; the more one understands, the more one realizes the vastness of his ignorance" - Viktor (Arcane)
Rusty Ole Bucket wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2024 7:01 am
I work in my shop doing my washes, etc. and have a heater that keeps it so me and the dogs are good (55° to 60°) in the winter, but it's going to inhibit my ability to have washes and mashes work off.
Is the shop kept at 55 degrees all the time ? If so, there are lager yeasts that are quite comfortable in that temp range.
________________
I drank fifty pounds of feed-store corn
'till my clothes were ratty and torn
You can just make a heat tent using objects and a tarp or whatever else you have at your disposal. Even blankets if you want. That will create a makeshift enclosure. For instance you can use a table, put the fermenters under it and cover the table with tarps, blankets, cardboard, etc... Use a small space heater and your temp controller. It will do a fine job at maintaining temp. Just don't point the space heater directly at a fermenter or have it too close to anything. The goal is to heat the air, not to heat the fermenters directly.
I built a box out of OSB (oriented strand board) because it was the least expensive wood. I use a temp controller, a small space heater and a small fan to recirculate the air. When the space heater kicks on, so does the fan. When the heater turns off, so does the fan. This has worked perfectly for me ever since I first started distilling and still does to this day. I have no interest in insulating this box because it doesn't seem to require it. The heater rarely kicks on and I've never had any problems. For the first 2-3 days I set the temp to 75F because fermentation generates its own heat. After a few days I bump the temp up to 85F.
greggn wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2024 10:21 am
Is the shop kept at 55 degrees all the time ? If so, there are lager yeasts that are quite comfortable in that temp range.
Eehh... not really, it's gonna dip below that at times. I have propane heat when I'm in there but don't leave it on of I'm not in the shop. I'm not confident it would be warm enough all the time.
Salt Must Flow wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2024 10:30 am
You can just make a heat tent using objects and a tarp or whatever else you have at your disposal. Even blankets if you want. That will create a makeshift enclosure. For instance you can use a table, put the fermenters under it and cover the table with tarps, blankets, cardboard, etc... Use a small space heater and your temp controller. It will do a fine job at maintaining temp. Just don't point the space heater directly at a fermenter or have it too close to anything. The goal is to heat the air, not to heat the fermenters directly.
I built a box out of OSB (oriented strand board) because it was the least expensive wood. I use a temp controller, a small space heater and a small fan to recirculate the air. When the space heater kicks on, so does the fan. When the heater turns off, so does the fan. This has worked perfectly for me ever since I first started distilling and still does to this day. I have no interest in insulating this box because it doesn't seem to require it. The heater rarely kicks on and I've never had any problems. For the first 2-3 days I set the temp to 75F because fermentation generates its own heat. After a few days I bump the temp up to 85F.
That's what I have going on now, SMF. I used a piece of 1/2" pvc, made a bow and screwed it to the conical rack, I have a moving blanket over it with a tiny Wally World heater on the Inkbird under the blanket.
My plan is to do something like your locker, in fact it was the inspiration for my idea. I eventually want a built in closet/ locker like that, but first I have to rearrange my shop. For now, I have access to free plywood at work, I think I'm going to grab some tomorrow and "wall in" my conical rack and add taller sides to the salt drum dolly. I think I might try to roll them together, they're both on wheels, then throw the blanket on top with the heater in the bottom. That should do the trick for now. I think I'm going to skip the heating pads for now and try to keep all for fermenters warm with the little heater.
Rusty
"Knowledge is a paradox; the more one understands, the more one realizes the vastness of his ignorance" - Viktor (Arcane)
Rusty Ole Bucket wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2024 5:34 pm
I think I might try to roll them together, they're both on wheels, then throw the blanket on top with the heater in the bottom. That should do the trick for now. I think I'm going to skip the heating pads for now and try to keep all for fermenters warm with the little heater.
Rusty
There Ya go. With the barrels up off the ground, heat can get underneath.
Rising convection currents from the warm bottom and Co2 work together to keep the fermenter stirred up.
Same here, ferment in the shop with thermostat at 60°. I place boards down to get them off the concrete and use submersible fish tank heaters. Most preset (non adjustable) ones are set to about 78°. 50w for up to 10gal, 100w in my 25gal.
Brewbob
1"x24" CM
2"x52" Slant Plate
2"x18" Pot Still w/ Liebig
2" modular
I have two 7gal buckets in plastic totes. One upside-down on top. Gentle warmth from wrapping germination mat around each bucket. 20w each, so not a high power deal. Blanket over the top keeps them at 75 in my 45-50F shop. Stuffing towels around them in the tote keeps them at 90F for YLAY
Broken down fridges and freezers come with doors and insulation and are often free. If your local recycling center has them cheap or free, take a tape measure and have a look for something that will hold your fermenters.
Put the word out when you are looking for something, my local pub is a great source of knowledge and helpful tradesmen.
I place a small element below the fermenter. I also add a fan because heat rises.
In an incubator, control the temperature of the incubator, not the wash. I have known newbies to put the probe in the wash then have the element cook the door seals before their wash got up to temperature.
This is what I went with.
I considered building a heated cabinet, but I just didn't have the room for one in my set up. It's kinda pricey, but it's nice I like it. My shop is not heated. Temps got down to 25F the other night and temp in my fermenter held just fine.
VEVOR Drum Heater Cover,55 Gal Drum Heater Blanket 145° F Adjustable Oil Pail Heater Band 5kg 84inch Barrel Heater with Temperature Controller, Oxford Cloth, Top Cover, for Oil Drum, 1.3KW, 120V
Stump Lake wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 9:22 am
Sometimes I do. It really pisses off my wife.
I was caught at 130am two nights ago sleeping in the shop while mashing, my wife took pics to show me the next day while adding a few things to my chores list.
And I agree, nice setup!
Brewbob
1"x24" CM
2"x52" Slant Plate
2"x18" Pot Still w/ Liebig
2" modular
I have a commercial glass door cold case retailer ( the soft drink refrigerator you see in stores and gas stations ) that I picked up for a song as they believed the compressor had failed. The problem was actually the failed condenser fan which I replaced for under $50 and it has served well as an insulated fermentation chamber, a curing chamber for charcuterie, and sometimes even as a refrigerator ever since being repaired! It gets far more use unplugged than running.
