Brew Belt for carbonation

[AGat]

Hi, am looking for some advise. I am a noob confined to my garage for home brewing.

Taking advantage of the warmer summer weather, I have completed two brews that I am very pleased with. I have a water bath and fish tank heater for my fb that works well and have chosen to barrel my beer using a King Keg.

I have allowed the beer to carbonate in the keg in the house as the temperature day and night has been pretty warm. Come the colder months the house temperature will be down as no heating will be on wile I am at work.

I am considering using a brew belt on the King Keg and keeping it in the garage during carbonation. Has any one had any success with this? The water bath would be no good as the tap on the keg would be submerged in water and I am worried that this could lead to contamination?

Thanks

 

[SANGER_A2]

Hi, am looking for some advise. I am a noob confined to my garage for home brewing.

Taking advantage of the warmer summer weather, I have completed two brews that I am very pleased with. I have a water bath and fish tank heater for my fb that works well and have chosen to barrel my beer using a King Keg.

I have allowed the beer to carbonate in the keg in the house as the temperature day and night has been pretty warm. Come the colder months the house temperature will be down as no heating will be on wile I am at work.

I am considering using a brew belt on the King Keg and keeping it in the garage during fermentation. Has any one had any success with this? The water bath would be no good as the tap on the keg would be submerged in water and I am worried that this could lead to contamination?

Thanks

I bought a brew belt from Aliexpress for £5.12 brand new. I have pics and details here. I had to put a UK plug on it, but I've got loads of random plugs lying around. It works great - especially when paired with an STC-1000. The prices change all the time so you'll have to search for one yourself. I used to use it with a timer switch, but it the brew tended to get too warm, even with it only coming on for one hour every 4. Worth buying an STC-1000 on aliexpress too as it's only £7-8. It'll save you money on electricity in the long run. Aliexpress is kinda like Ebay, only it's just people from foreign countries, who are often the manufacturers of the products. Just buy from a seller with 500+ positive feedback (1+ stars or a crown).

 

[AGat]

thanks SANGER_A2

have you had any experience at using the brew belt directly on a pressure barrel to produce required heat to carbonate the beer?

 

[Spapro]

I use a heatbelt on my kingkeg in the garage and it works ok for carbonation after kegging.

I run mine off a timer, so its on for 15 mins, then off for 15mins, throughout the day/night, this seems to hold my keg at 19-20°C - I have a stick on LCD thermometer stuck to the side of the keg. My timer is one of those plug in things with pins you push in around a dial for on-off, one pin for each 15 minute segment.

I run the belt around the middle section (recessed) of the keg and also kind of insulate the keg a little by wrapping a wollen blanket around the lower area and draping a doubled over towel over the top of the keg. From memory if I don't insulate a little the keg loses temperature a bit (in the cold garage over the autumn/winter).

Be careful about wrapping the keg entirely with blankets etc, the area around the heatbelt wants to be non-covered to avoid the risk of fire from overheating I guess.

Edit: this is the heat belt I bought a year ago, mine was blue in colour when it arrived but is the same belt from this same seller:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Heater-Be...wrap-around-/321831122981?hash=item4aeea13825

 

[SANGER_A2]

thanks SANGER_A2

have you had any experience at using the brew belt directly on a pressure barrel to produce required heat to carbonate the beer?

Nope. Sounds like spapro will be more helpful in this case. I would use an stc-1000 to control the Temps rather than a timer. You don't have to plug anything into the cooling part of it. I tried a timer switch when fermenting and even when I set it to be off four times as much as it was on the temperature went up and up and up. If the temp rises too much, the pressure will get really high and set off the prv. You can use a cylinder jacket for insulation as I documented here.

 

[AGat]

Thanks to you both. You have been very helpfull