Fermentation closet too cold

[jack1]

Hi all I am a college student with a very small amount of disposable income and I need to figure out how to raise the temperature of my fermentation closet a few degrees. My house will generally sit at around 60 degrees or so but can drop down to 50 and sometimes even lower if nobody is in the house for a while. How do people generally keep their brew warm in the winter?

 

[NewWestBrewer]

Search the Internet for a heat belt. Looks like a belt and will wrap around your bucket and keep it warm.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D6IUB6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Pelonis-Fan-Forced-Heater-with-Thermostat/21804031

Use the built in thermostat. Should work fine. Just keep an eye on it so that it doesn't get too warm.

MC

 

[Malric]

http://mattmegbrew.blogspot.com/2009/11/cheap-fermwrap.html

You need a temp controller our this will over heat your fermentor.

 

[jack1]

ya I was looking at that and considering it but if I do that I can only have one beer fermenting at a time and right now I have three and i dont really want to drop seventy five dollars (the one that I saw last was about 25 for one) if that's what I have to do, I guess I could cut down on my brewing a bit but really what I'm trying to do is crowd-source an idea to warm the whole closet
and do i have to worry about my bottles too? or are they less susceptible to the cold temps

 

[NewWestBrewer]

Bottles need to be around 70 to carbonate or else they will take forever.

 

[Nightshade]

You could always put a grow lamp in the closet and hook it up to a temp control unit attached to a thermometer in your fermentation buckets/carboys.

Probably cost you more than the heat belt though.

 

[jack1]

just checked out the fan... thats really cheap! pretty much exactly what I was looking for it says It has a thermostat will it cut out when the room reached like 70 or something or do I need a controller

 

[reverendj1]

eBay aquarium temp controller (STC-1000) ~$20 and a reptile ceramic heat bulb ~$15-20. Search the forum for specifics on wiring up the temp controller, it isn't too hard.

Grow lamp wouldn't be advisable, since it would give off a lot of UV light.

You can also use Christmas Lights, like good old Craigtube.

 

[david_42]

The thermostats in cheap heaters are cheap. Used one years ago and had explosive fermentations with lots of nasty fusels. A small light may be all you need. Start with a 7 watt blub and see how that works. Use some tin foil to block the light.

 

[Malric]

The thermostats in cheap heaters are cheap. Used one years ago and had explosive fermentations with lots of nasty fusels. A small light may be all you need. Start with a 7 watt blub and see how that works. Use some tin foil to block the light.

I would go with the heat wrap in my eatlier post over a light or fan. The wrap is cheap, safe and effective.

 

[JonM]

I used to keep my programmable thermostat set so that it dipped to mid50s when I was gone and at night, and mid 60s when I was home. I mostly used 1056 back then, and i fermented and conditioned LOTS of batches under those circumstances and never had trouble getting beers to fully attenuate or carb up.

Sure, letting a fermenting beer get cool an subjecting it to temp swings isn't ideal, but if the budget's tight, I bet you could get away without buying any new equipment.

Also, maybe start using Scottish ale yeast or Kolsch yeast for the next couple months? They like cool temps anyway.

 

[jack1]

That's great news guys thanks everybody I'm going to start out with the lamp idea and see how that works for the next few weeks as temps drop I keep my brewpot that has a thermometer in the closet so its really easy to stick my head in and check