Brew belt too warm?

[Penge]

Hi all

I'm 7/8 days into brewing the "Festival Golden Stag" kit - ie I'm almost ready to keg.

I've had the FV in my kitchen with a brew belt I was given. The FV has one of those stick-on strip thermometers (which I know aren't v accurate) and which has been showing 26 degrees throughout.

So, I have two questions...

Is that too warm? The brewing instructions suggest a max of 25 degrees.

Does anyone have any tips for reducing the temp slightly, eg by putting some cloth between the brewbelt and the FV/keg?

Any help or advice appreciated! Cheers

 

[evanvine]

Your only real answer is to use an STC 1000 to control the heating Belt, Pad, Aquarium heater or water bath!

 

[Penge]

Okay, will look into that, cheers.

 

[stuart180]

Your only real answer is to use an STC 1000 to control the heating Belt, Pad, Aquarium heater or water bath!

Hi Evanvine,

Can I ask how this bit of kit works?

As I have a heat pad which I'm using on a 24hr time switch (basically I have it come on in the evening for an hour or so to maintain my 20c(ish) Temp.... really it's a bit of a game to keep checking it all the time.
If this STC 1000 would solve it, then I'd defiantly get one.

*(Sorry Penge, hope you don't mind me asking on your thread)

 

[Stapsin]

The heating belts whilst good are irritating that they cannot be thermostatically controlled unless you link it to the STC as said. But the higher up the FV you position the belt, the less heat it transfers to your brew, the lower down the opposite. In my opinion 26 degrees is too hot though, yes.

 

[Penge]

Thanks Stapsin, will try positioning it higher on the FV/keg, good idea

 

[Stapsin]

Thanks Stapsin, will try positioning it higher on the FV/keg, good idea

No problemo. Usually a couple of inches from the top works fine. You might even find you don't need the heating belt tbh. Fermentation itself creates quite a bit of heat. Depends on the normal temp in your kitchen but you could experiment next time and not use it.

 

[evanvine]

If this STC 1000 would solve it, then I'd defiantly get one.

This is quite a clever device, ideally suited for Brew Fridges/Cabinets.
It has a single sensor and two outputs; one for heating and one for cooling.
In this way it keeps your brew temp in quite a narrow bandwidth.
I fit "Thermowells" to my FVs, this enables zero contact with the brew and you are still able to fit a fermentation trap.
There are many articles about them on the Forum.

 

[graysalchemy]

26 is way too hot, you need to keep it below 21c. And remember fermentation is exothermic it produces its own heat. Some sort of temp control is needed and a better set up would be a water bath with an aquarium heater in it.

Hope the brew turned out OK :thumb:

 

[marksa222]

Your only real answer is to use an STC 1000 to control the heating Belt, Pad, Aquarium heater or water bath!

Hi Evanvine,

Can I ask how this bit of kit works?

As I have a heat pad which I'm using on a 24hr time switch (basically I have it come on in the evening for an hour or so to maintain my 20c(ish) Temp.... really it's a bit of a game to keep checking it all the time.
If this STC 1000 would solve it, then I'd defiantly get one.

*(Sorry Penge, hope you don't mind me asking on your thread)

I use an STC-1000 with a heat belt and it works a treat. It's a temp controller that you wire yourself. It comes with a temperature probe, which I put on the side of the FV and selotape some bubble wrap over. This then measures more accurately the temperature of the beer rather than the outside.

I wired mine up to have 2 trailing sockets, one for a heat source, one for a cooling source (not used yet, but will start to use a chest freezer for lagering in future). The heat belt is plugged in to the heating source and wrapped around the FV. I set the STC-1000 to 20 degrees (or which ever appropriate for the style of beer) with an allowance for 0.5 degrees. When ever the heat drops below 19.5c, the heat source turns on until it gets back up to 20c and then turns off... so my last brew was kept within 0.5 degrees C of the desired temperature without me having to do anything to it. I put a blanket over it to insulate it a bit.

Cheap as chips to put together and gets you much better control of fermentation. A lot of what I've read suggests that one of the best way to improve your beer quality is to accurately control your fermentation temperature, and this can be done without big investments.

 

[Maysie]

26 is way too hot, you need to keep it below 21c.

My thoughts exactly.

Although the Coopers Stout kit I have on at the moment suggests up to 27C for fermentation in the instructions!!!

WTF? :shock:

 

[evanvine]

Cheap as chips to put together and gets you much better control of fermentation. A lot of what I've read suggests that one of the best way to improve your beer quality is to accurately control your fermentation temperature, and this can be done without big investments.

Unless you want to directly cool your brew with something like a line chiller + product coil!

 

[Penge]

The instructions with the Festival Golden Stag kit suggest between 20-25 degrees for both primary and secondary fermentation. So at 26 I'm only a touch over (and the stick on thermometer isn't accurate as I say).

Will have to wait and see how it turns out, but if I can get the temp down to nearer 20 then I will.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[stuart180]

Your only real answer is to use an STC 1000 to control the heating Belt, Pad, Aquarium heater or water bath!

Hi Evanvine,

Can I ask how this bit of kit works?

As I have a heat pad which I'm using on a 24hr time switch (basically I have it come on in the evening for an hour or so to maintain my 20c(ish) Temp.... really it's a bit of a game to keep checking it all the time.
If this STC 1000 would solve it, then I'd defiantly get one.

*(Sorry Penge, hope you don't mind me asking on your thread)

I use an STC-1000 with a heat belt and it works a treat. It's a temp controller that you wire yourself. It comes with a temperature probe, which I put on the side of the FV and selotape some bubble wrap over. This then measures more accurately the temperature of the beer rather than the outside.

I wired mine up to have 2 trailing sockets, one for a heat source, one for a cooling source (not used yet, but will start to use a chest freezer for lagering in future). The heat belt is plugged in to the heating source and wrapped around the FV. I set the STC-1000 to 20 degrees (or which ever appropriate for the style of beer) with an allowance for 0.5 degrees. When ever the heat drops below 19.5c, the heat source turns on until it gets back up to 20c and then turns off... so my last brew was kept within 0.5 degrees C of the desired temperature without me having to do anything to it. I put a blanket over it to insulate it a bit.

Cheap as chips to put together and gets you much better control of fermentation. A lot of what I've read suggests that one of the best way to improve your beer quality is to accurately control your fermentation temperature, and this can be done without big investments.

Excellent, thanks for the reply.

That sounds perfect for what I need, I will order up the parts I need and have a go a putting it together. (Will post the results when done).

Cheers.

:

 

[graysalchemy]

Don't follow kit instructions all they want you to do is brew your beer as fast as possible so that you get another one on. They don't give a Sh*t about the quality issues this will cause as they think you have no expectations of your brew and will be pleased with whatever the outcome.

If you want to brew decent beer don't take to much notice of the instructions and have a route around this forum. :thumb:

 

[Crastney]

I used a brew belt once wrapped around/between three DJs - I controlled the temperature very inacurately just by plugging the socket into a timer at the wall socket. The sort that you put on lamps in your lounge to persuade burglars that someone is in the house. I set it to go on for 15 minutes then off for 15 minutes. It still probably got too hot. Since then I've used an aquarium heater in a water bath, set at the minimum of 18, which worked fine. Most of what I make is normally just left at room temp for ages (months) anyway, so I'm not too fussed about temp apart from in the initial stages. My brews are never put anywhere where the temp gets above about 21 anyway (north facing unheated utility room once past initial fermentation).

sounds like you should raise the height of the brew belt to start with, for a free easy fix, then look at aquarium heater in a water bath, or STC100 if and when you feel the need.

 

[photek1000]

As mentioned, a STC-100 is what you need, I use mine purely for heat at the moment with a brew belt I got for Christmas, the FV and belt sit underneath an old curtain to hold the heat in and the STC regulates the temperature.

It held at a lovely 18°c for my last brew and is now keeping my keg warm conditioning, but this time i have left it loose and not touching the barrel just warming the air around the keg under the same said curtain.

It means I can brew in the winter in the garage, when it comes to the summer though I'm going to have to try and sneak a freecycled fridge into the equation :-)

 

[winelight]

18C is the temperature to go for (please throw away kit instructions in future and read these forums instead) and as has been said, simply moving the brewbelt up and down as appropriate is a good way of controlling the temperature. An STC-1000 is a good idea too and will have future applicability if you move to a fermentation fridge one day.

The reason the temperature matters is that it is not simply a matter of yeast turns sugar into alcohol, but rather that it produces a whole load of different alcohols and other chemical substances and the relative proportions of these, and hence the quality/flavour you end up with, vary at different temperatures (and depending on the yeast strain).

To get 18C though, somewhere in the house should be good enough at this time of year. A degree or two either way isn't too critical.

 

[stuart180]

Just a quick update, got all the parts for the STC 1000 delivered Friday. Managed to get it all built that evening... the moment of truth come the next morning ..... and hurray! up and running.

Thanks for the advice evanvine & marksa222, owe you a pint!

Here's my set up (in the loft conversion).

 

[evanvine]

Pleased to have been of help Stuart. :thumb: