Bottle carb in a cold house...

[Kerryon]

To earn her kibbles, I put my cat to work incubating the temperature in my bottle carbing container. House is 63 degrees, container is 67-69 degrees. I do give her union required string chasing breaks....

 

[jekeane]

This makes me laugh. My cat would vomit on my beer...

 

[Jako]

haha this is the best.

 

[Jayjay1976]

My cats would definitely gack something up on my precious beers, and I can't have that so
I use an 18W seedling mat in the bottom of a cooler with a temp controller set to 80. I can only squeeze about 30 bottles in there though. Its enough to get half the batch ready to drink in two weeks and the rest can take 3+ weeks at mid-60s but oh well. I drink a lot of undercarbed, room temp homebrew.

 

[Smellyglove]

Haha, I (and prolly the cat too) don't hope there will be bottle bombs.

After winter set in I don't have a good space to carb anymore, so I've gone to the step ordering som stuff so I can bottle carb in a plastic box full of water with a thermostat, a little pump for recirc and two submerged aquarium heaters.

 

[Kerryon]

My cats would definitely gack something up on my precious beers, and I can't have that so
I use an 18W seedling mat in the bottom of a cooler with a temp controller set to 80. I can only squeeze about 30 bottles in there though. Its enough to get half the batch ready to drink in two weeks and the rest can take 3+ weeks at mid-60s but oh well. I drink a lot of undercarbed, room temp homebrew.

Petromalt... for the gacking.

I do use a heating mat in the container to get the temp up to 68-70 degrees then turn it off and let Lulu keep the heat in. She does an amazingly good job. Not many jobs she can do without opposable thumbs, though she is a good behind the couch dust bunny catcher occasionally!

 

[Kerryon]

Haha, I (and prolly the cat too) don't hope there will be bottle bombs.

After winter set in I don't have a good space to carb anymore, so I've gone to the step ordering som stuff so I can bottle carb in a plastic box full of water with a thermostat, a little pump for recirc and two submerged aquarium heaters.

I did worry about the possibility of a bottle bomb but figured with 4 layers of a thick towel, if it should occur, it would at most scare a few whiskers off of her.

I'm going to look into your aquarium heater set-up idea... would provide a bit more comfort regarding constant temperature and perhaps the water would soften any bottle bombs (?). Any suggestions on a good heater or what to look for?

 

[ncbrewer]

Here's a video that I've seen:
I haven't tried it. I set two cases next to a heat register with a lean-to tent made of a towel to keep some heat where I want it. It helps just enough to get by in the winter.

 

[Smellyglove]

I did worry about the possibility of a bottle bomb but figured with 4 layers of a thick towel, if it should occur, it would at most scare a few whiskers off of her.

I'm going to look into your aquarium heater set-up idea... would provide a bit more comfort regarding constant temperature and perhaps the water would soften any bottle bombs (?). Any suggestions on a good heater or what to look for?

I just bought some off aliexpress from china. Dirt cheap.I just looked at price and specs actually.

Yeah I've realized I need very good temp-control during bottle fermentation for my hefes, and I believe a submerged setup should at least in theory give me that control. Heating just ambient air in a small compartment has never worked for me, overshoots.

 

[Smellyglove]

It's funny how the cat in the first pic looks as he's like "Really? I'm not impressed" and in the second pic "I'll mess you up badly if you try to reach for one of my bottles".

 

[Zimm9]

Thanks for the laugh. My cat will come into the kitchen on brew/bottle day but thankfully stays out of the way while observing my chaos. Haven't gotten her to actually do anything helpful, though.

 

[Jayjay1976]

This calls for a feline brew-buddy thread..

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I'm going to look into your aquarium heater set-up idea... would provide a bit more comfort regarding constant temperature and perhaps the water would soften any bottle bombs (?). Any suggestions on a good heater or what to look for?

I use a 300w Aqueon off of Amazon ($24) and a $6 Harbor Freight pond pump, in a rubbermaid tub. In my finished basement, on the floor, the temperature stabilizes at 60° in winter (on a concrete floor), and I pushed my last two Belgians up to 82°. Works really well for fermentation control, and I expect it would work just as well for bottle conditioning.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I did worry about the possibility of a bottle bomb but figured with 4 layers of a thick towel, if it should occur, it would at most scare a few whiskers off of her.

Well, I mean, they have 9 lives and all. I just.. wouldn't lose any sleep.

 

[passedpawn]

Very funny.