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Date: 12 Oct 2006 13:06:02
From: Gerard Eberlein
Subject: Wintertime Fermenting
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It's already snowing here in Michigan ans during the summer I was using a
fridge to keep my ferments cool. The fridge is in the garage, which is
warmer than the outside temp but too cold to ferm ales in, the fridge is set
for 62 but the temp is reading 55 today and it's only 31F ouside with a wind
chill of 18F. Not good for ales. I don't lager, seems like it takes alot
longer than ales so my questions now are:
I've looked into this
http://morebeer.com/product.html?category_id=&product_id=16674&addqty=1& But
I called and they said there is no way to thermostatically control it.
sounded to me I would have more temp control using a regular 3 setting
heating pad than one of those.
Second, moving the fridge inside is not even an option, otherwise I would
have done that long ago.
I do have a fridge temp controller but since the therm wrap only heats to a
maximum of 20f above ambient and I forsee 0 degree and lower temps in the
coming months I don't think it would be able to keep the temp even close to
60F in the fridge.
Indoors the only room that I thought might stay cool in the winter is foiled
by the fact our furnace is in the room and it actually gets pretty warm in
there I found out today, close to 70, which would be on the warm side.
Any help/suggestions on this would be much appreciated.
Gerard
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Date: 12 Oct 2006 19:51:18
From: Bob F
Subject: Re: Wintertime Fermenting
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"Gerard Eberlein" <dormouse@charter.net > wrote in message
news:0CuXg.1711$kb2.589@newsfe03.lga...
> It's already snowing here in Michigan ans during the summer I was using a
> fridge to keep my ferments cool. The fridge is in the garage, which is
> warmer than the outside temp but too cold to ferm ales in, the fridge is
set
> for 62 but the temp is reading 55 today and it's only 31F ouside with a
wind
> chill of 18F. Not good for ales. I don't lager, seems like it takes alot
> longer than ales so my questions now are:
>
> I've looked into this
> http://morebeer.com/product.html?category_id=&product_id=16674&addqty=1&
But
> I called and they said there is no way to thermostatically control it.
> sounded to me I would have more temp control using a regular 3 setting
> heating pad than one of those.
>
> Second, moving the fridge inside is not even an option, otherwise I would
> have done that long ago.
>
> I do have a fridge temp controller but since the therm wrap only heats to
a
> maximum of 20f above ambient and I forsee 0 degree and lower temps in the
> coming months I don't think it would be able to keep the temp even close
to
> 60F in the fridge.
>
> Indoors the only room that I thought might stay cool in the winter is
foiled
> by the fact our furnace is in the room and it actually gets pretty warm in
> there I found out today, close to 70, which would be on the warm side.
>
Stick a thermostatically controlled space heater into the fridge.
Bob
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Date: 12 Oct 2006 14:15:24
From: Scott L
Subject: Re: Wintertime Fermenting
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Gerard Eberlein wrote:
> Indoors the only room that I thought might stay cool in the winter is foiled
> by the fact our furnace is in the room and it actually gets pretty warm in
> there I found out today, close to 70, which would be on the warm side.
Only 70? You can get away with the El Cheapo method. Buy a few big
Rubbermaid tubs (or galvanized metal tubs) at a local hardware store,
large enough to each contain a single carboy/bucket with about 6 inches
of clearance all around. Place the fermenters in the tubs and fill them
with as much water as you conveniently can.
Now you can control the fermentation temperature by dropping chunks of
ice into the water bath the fermenters are sitting in. I use 16 oz
plastic water bottles frozen in the freezer. At the height of indoor
summer temperatures (for me, 85-90 in the house, we have no AC), I need
to change the ice twice or three times per day. I keep four bottles in
the fridge, and switch them out with thawed bottles as necessary.
For an environment of only 70 degrees, I'd expect you only to need one
or maybe two small frozen water bottles per tub, changed once a day.
Check the temp occassionally to make sure you're not over/under
shooting. Aim for a water temperature of about 61 or 62 degrees since
the wort temperature will be several degrees higher than that, due to
yeast activity.
Super cheap, easy to deal with, and you can use the tubs for other
purposes when it's not the season.
Scott
(Prolific apologies if this posts twice -- Google Groups did something
weird and I'm posting again in case the first time screwed up)
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Date: 12 Oct 2006 18:40:02
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Wintertime Fermenting
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On Thu, 12 2006 13:06:02 -0400, <dormouse@charter.net > wrote:
> It's already snowing here in Michigan ans during the summer I was using a
> fridge to keep my ferments cool. The fridge is in the garage, which is
> warmer than the outside temp but too cold to ferm ales in, the fridge is set
> for 62 but the temp is reading 55 today and it's only 31F ouside with a wind
> chill of 18F. Not good for ales. I don't lager, seems like it takes alot
> longer than ales so my questions now are:
The temp controllers (Ranco, Johnson, etc) usually also come in a unit which
has both a high and a low controller in it. One thing I've heard of
people doing is using one of those and putting a heating element inside
the fridge (like an incandescent light bulb) to warm up the ambient air
inside it. When the controller detects that the ambient is too low, it
turns on the heating element.
That would imply replacing your current controller though, which would
get kind of expensive.
John.
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Date: 12 Oct 2006 15:16:59
From: Gerard Eberlein
Subject: Re: Wintertime Fermenting
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"John 'Shaggy' Kolesar" <spam@shagg.net > wrote in message
news:slrneit37f.2st.spam@weizen.shagg.net...
> On Thu, 12 2006 13:06:02 -0400, <dormouse@charter.net> wrote:
> > It's already snowing here in Michigan ans during the summer I was using
a
> > fridge to keep my ferments cool. The fridge is in the garage, which is
> > warmer than the outside temp but too cold to ferm ales in, the fridge is
set
> > for 62 but the temp is reading 55 today and it's only 31F ouside with a
wind
> > chill of 18F. Not good for ales. I don't lager, seems like it takes alot
> > longer than ales so my questions now are:
>
> The temp controllers (Ranco, Johnson, etc) usually also come in a unit
which
> has both a high and a low controller in it. One thing I've heard of
> people doing is using one of those and putting a heating element inside
> the fridge (like an incandescent light bulb) to warm up the ambient air
> inside it. When the controller detects that the ambient is too low, it
> turns on the heating element.
>
> That would imply replacing your current controller though, which would
> get kind of expensive.
>
>
> John.
I have a johnson controller...I've never tried it to control temp getting
too low though. I wonder if it would work? I just put a home style heating
pad in a while ago with the fridge still hooked to the controller...maybe I
will test it with the heating pad and see what happens. If I do it that way
and it works should I be concerned with lack of air circulation causing
mildew and stuff in the closed fridge since the fridge won't be pumping air
in on a regular basis? Thanx.
Gerard
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Date: 12 Oct 2006 19:40:31
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Wintertime Fermenting
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On Thu, 12 2006 15:16:59 -0400, <dormouse@charter.net > wrote:
> I have a johnson controller...I've never tried it to control temp getting
> too low though. I wonder if it would work?
Only if the one you have will let you set it so that it toggles the power
on based on the probe being too cold. That's the opposite of how most of
us use them in a fermentation fridge. I don't know if your model will
let you "reverse" the logic in it. Some of the digital ones do that. Is
yours a digital or analog model?
http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=16666
There are also ones that have two power cords coming out of it, one for
heating and one for cooling. IE, a dual controller.
http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=16664
> I just put a home style heating
> pad in a while ago with the fridge still hooked to the controller...maybe I
> will test it with the heating pad and see what happens. If I do it that way
> and it works should I be concerned with lack of air circulation causing
> mildew and stuff in the closed fridge since the fridge won't be pumping air
> in on a regular basis? Thanx.
I don't know, but you might want to keep an eye on it. Did you put the
heating pad actually around the fermenter, or just loose in the fridge? I
don't think you'd want to wrap it around the fermenter. The intent of the
heating pad would be to warm the air, not the beer directly. Otherwise
the probe from your controller isn't going to reflect what the beer is
doing.
John.
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Date: 12 Oct 2006 16:13:38
From: Gerard Eberlein
Subject: Re: Wintertime Fermenting
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"John 'Shaggy' Kolesar" <spam@shagg.net > wrote in message
news:slrneit6os.2st.spam@weizen.shagg.net...
>
> I don't know, but you might want to keep an eye on it. Did you put the
> heating pad actually around the fermenter, or just loose in the fridge? I
> don't think you'd want to wrap it around the fermenter. The intent of the
> heating pad would be to warm the air, not the beer directly. Otherwise
> the probe from your controller isn't going to reflect what the beer is
> doing.
>
>
> John.
Yea I put the pad in loose, thinking of taping it to the inside wall of the
fridge, not on the carboy, maybe even under the blowoff bucket which may in
essense keep the water in the bucket warm as well as adding heat to the
fridge without actually touching the carboy. Seems like a cheaper
alternative to a ferm wrap and the pad has low, medium, and High settings so
seems more controllable. Will let you know how it goes. ATM I don't have a
beer in ferm, just testing out if this will even work. Thanx for the advice.
Gerard
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Date: 12 Oct 2006 20:40:27
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Wintertime Fermenting
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On Thu, 12 2006 16:13:38 -0400, <dormouse@charter.net > wrote:
> Yea I put the pad in loose, thinking of taping it to the inside wall of the
> fridge, not on the carboy, maybe even under the blowoff bucket which may in
> essense keep the water in the bucket warm as well as adding heat to the
> fridge without actually touching the carboy. Seems like a cheaper
> alternative to a ferm wrap and the pad has low, medium, and High settings so
> seems more controllable. Will let you know how it goes. ATM I don't have a
> beer in ferm, just testing out if this will even work. Thanx for the advice.
I've never tried that, but it'd be interesting to know how well it works
incase I ever do run into that situation.
John.
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