Brewing temperature

[Beer-Kosh]

Thank you. I’m assuming I could also use a heater from a fish tank? I’ve got one of those and I can adjust it. I’ll think about using it on my next brew.

Worth a go, should work ok as long as it has been sanitised first.

 

[Ale House Rock]

I used fish tank heaters for years with no issues until one of them came apart in the FV. I could hear a faint buzzing in my room and after much snooping around, when I switched the heater off, the buzzing stopped. When I opened the FV, the glass tube of the heater had separated from the rest of it. Worryingly, it was still electrically live sitting in the brew. The brew had to be discarded and that kinda put me off fish tank heaters. On the bright side, at least I did not electrocute a tank full of fish!

 

[Rwilts]

When I was using a fish tank heater I put it in a builders trub full of water and put the FV inside that , so there was no direct contact ..

 

[Ale House Rock]

When I was using a fish tank heater I put it in a builders trub full of water and put the FV inside that , so there was no direct contact ..

That's a good idea.

 

[Sandimas]

I still use the fish tank heater in a builder's trug, works well, been doing this for 10+ years.

 

[Rwilts]

I still use the fish tank heater in a builder's trug, works well, been doing this for 10+ years.

Maybe I got the idea from you a long time ago

 

[GazzaW57]

An update on the brew is that it’s now been brewing for 12 days and there seems to be little in the way of fermentation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still happening. I did a hydrometer reading just now and it’s 1012, which is just a little below the required finished reading of 1008 in the instructions. I’ll probably leave it another couple of days to see if it reduces further. If it’s still 1012 on Monday, I think I’ll add the hops and think about bottling it two days late.

 

[GazzaW57]

As an update, I bottled the IPA around the middle-ish of November. I had thought about drinking some of the bottles at Christmas, but I was a bit busy over the festive period so tonight is the first time I’ve sampled a bottle or two. All I can say is that it’s flipping lovely. I’ve just opened the first bottle: I kept the beers in my shed, which, being in Wales, is cool to say the least. The beer pours wonderfully out of the bottle, the main body is a lovely amber colour and it’s got a very nice head. I’ve also made a rather tasty Scottish beef casserole today, and this beer is going to be a very nice accompaniment. I’m not sure the 40 pints I have in the shed are going to last very long, so I may be getting another Youngs American IPA kit next week!