Cold Brewing

[NumbSkull]

Put your bucket in a tub of water and heat it with an aquarium heater.

Mort

[Brancid]

I'm with Mort. That's a great way to do it. That's what I'm using for temp control right now. It's not the greatest but it's a hell of alot better than no control at all.

[awalker]

I'm with Mort. That's a great way to do it. That's what I'm using for temp control right now. It's not the greatest but it's a hell of alot better than no control at all.

Its also a lot better than no fermentation at all


As its hit 10oC (50f) in my garage now, it keeps the ferment going nicely.

[Thirsty Boy]

Skip the tub of water and put the aquarium heater right in that fermentor. ALL the heat goes into the beer and they have built in temp controllers. Accuracy might be up or down a couple of degrees, so test it out in a fermentor full of water first. Once you nail the adjustment, they maintain a pretty damn solid/steady temp.

I put one of these jobbies in my fermentor even when my main problem is keeping the brew cool, that way if the ice blocks or the T'shirt and fan cool things down too much, the heater kicks in and levels things out again.

Only good for ale temps though, unless you run it through a seperate temperature controller.

PS. If you are gonna go with a tub of water, float some chunks of foam on the surface of the water in the tub. Really cuts down on the heat losses.

Thirsty

[awalker]

Thirsty Boy I have seen you could put it straight in (the heater that is), to your fermenter.
I was worried about flavours from the plastic in the beer
Or are they inert as far as this goes?

Sorry its early here not sure if I am making any sense

[Thirsty Boy]

Thirsty Boy I have seen you could put it straight in (the heater that is), to your fermenter.
I was worried about flavours from the plastic in the beer
Or are they inert as far as this goes?

Pretty much inert I reckon. I certainly haven't noticed any off flavours. Also I have recently discovered stainless steel aquarium heaters with external temp control (in case you want to turn the heat up gradually through a brew for say, a belgian) Which I may well upgrade to soon.

Most aquarium equipment is basically food grade, the little fishies are kind of sensitive to leached chemicals etc and turn up their toes at the drop of a hat. Temp controllers maintain a fairly stable temp for the same reason, tropical fish are delicate.

That doesn't mean I would use aquarium chemicals or filters (I wouldn't) but heaters and pumps and chillers. No probs. Or at least no probs so far

Give it a go. $10.00 temp control that works great.

Thirsty

[awalker]

Thanks Thirsty

I will give it a go on the next batch

Adam