First brew - preperation.

[Brewski]

I was hoping to have got this brew started by now but the aquarium heater I ordered for my FV water bath arrived with a broken tube.

Not to be put off, whilst waiting for a replacement heater, tonight I decided to put everything together and find a place for it to live (in the utility room amongst the leftover Christmas tat).

The water bath is made of 2 identical large plastic tubs, one sat inside the other for insulation.
To further insulate the water bath, one tub lid is in place, with a large hole cut out of it, just big enough to fit snugly around the FV.
Above the tub lid, the FV is lagged using the protective bubble-sheet it came packaged in.
The top of the FV will be insulated with more bubble-sheet.

Too much insulation? Maybe, but it's a chilly room - down to 14 at night and it'll get colder - and I want to make it as heat efficient as possible so the heater has to work as little as possible.

I'm not sure how high to suspend the FV in the water bath. The heater will be on the centre of the floor of the waterbath and I'd like to give it some headroom so I was thinking around two bricks off the bottom?

Hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the replacement heater to arrive. Once it does, I'll keep this post updated as the brew progresses.

 

[belch]

At what angle will the heater be mounted? ( don't seem much room in the tubs to get it anywhere near 90 deg)

How do you control the temp level at the upper liquid level in the FV ?

A FV bath would be considered a temp stabiliser rather than a heater so insulation can be a problem, ie when the yeast is at it's most active you may need to cool the ferment (,you don't give max daytime temp).

Your min ambient temps i would consider ideal for a non insulated bath ( £5 flexi bucket ,50w heater , ) for the first week of ferment & if feeling a little tight may insulate for the remaining time in the fermenter.

 

[Fil]

blech - the heater can sit horizontally under the bucket between the bricks/blocks it sits on, and will be effective even if only the bottom few inches of the fv are sat in the warmer water

Nice prep Brewski, -Shame about the busted heater, best laid plans ...... .. you never know you may have enough insulation on that to maintain a good temperature exploiting the exothermic yeast activity??

i would get the brew on, if the insulation isnt enought to maintain a 18-19C temp, the fermentation will continue as long as the temp dont drop too low and even then the yeast will just go dormant and will revive and continue fermentation ok with a warmer temp..

calibrate the heater before use too the dial controls on em are not known for being accurate, u could set it to 20C and discover too late its heating to 30C.. If you get one with a wide discrepency between set temp and actual temp the easiest fix is to use a 2nd more accurate controller like an stc1000..

happy brewing and suppin

 

[belch]

blech - the heater can sit horizontally under the bucket between the bricks/blocks it sits on, and will be effective even if only the bottom few inches of the fv are sat in the warmer water

Effective as a heater yes but as a temp regulator very unlikely. ie how many central heating stats do you see at floor level / immersion heater stats at bottom of tank etc.

 

[Brewski]

Thanks for the comments. Good news - I've had a response from the people I bought the heater from and a replacement is on its way.

Fil - cheers, I was thinking about getting it started without the heater but I might as well hold off for a few more days. Thanks for the tip re high temps - I'll be sure to monitor it carefully for the first few days.

Belch - I have a thermometer sticker stuck about 2\3 of the way up the side of the FV. I'll ignore the heater's thermostat temp (and the water bath temp) and just adjust the heater over the first few days until the thermometer sticker on the FV holds steadily around 20 degrees.

 

[belch]

Belch - I have a thermometer sticker stuck about 2\3 of the way up the side of the FV. I'll ignore the heater's thermostat temp (and the water bath temp) and just adjust the heater over the first few days until the thermometer sticker on the FV holds steadily around 20 degrees.

unless you have a max/ min thermometer ( stick on thermometers are not known for their accuracy) you will have little idea as to what the FV temps are during the ferment process, day & night could vary considerably. ie if the floor temp drops the heater will kick in whether or not the FV is at the correct temp.

 

[Brewski]

The temp strip will be accurate enough for my needs and the water bath will be unaffected by the floor temp (it's on a 3ft wooden stool).

I don't have a min/Max thermometer (and I don't really want to hang a probe in my FV) but I will be checking the temp on the sticker very often over the first few days and nights to make sure it sits around 20 degrees.

I don't want this to turn this into a complex discussion about thermodynamics (a topic for another thread perhaps?) but I can't see any reason why this won't work.

 

[belch]

Go for it.

 

[Brewski]

The replacement heater arrived sometime after Christmas and as the chaos of Christmas/New Year chaos subsides, this evening I finally got around to kicking this off.

John Bull IPA kit
+ 1Kg Beer Enhancer
+ ~850g dextrose

I used 10 x 2L bottles of water to bring it up to approximately 23L (according to the markings on the FV). OG surprisingly low at 1040 and it was a lot colder that I anticipated at this stage - only ~16C.

I pitched the yeast anyway, sealed up the FV lid's thread with petroleum gel, stuck in the stopper and airlock and it's now warming up in the water bath, which I had pre-heated.

I have a very cheap (~£2 shipped from HK) digital thermometer probe hanging roughly halfway down inside the water bath and a thermometer sticker on the side of the FV.

Water bath currently 22.2C, FV ~16C.

Edit: 1.5 hours later, the FV is up to ~17C so it's heading the right way. Water bath still holding 22-22.5C so it looks like I've got the heater dialed in, if only I'd paid more attention to the wort temperature as I was topping it up...

 

[Fil]

its worth calibrating any thermometer at 2 points. Using water its fairly simple to get 2 known temperatures.. iirc 60% crushed ice 40% water mixed and stood for 5 mins and mixed again should provide a 0C source (aviod touching ice with the probe)

and the steam rising off a rolling boil should be as close to 100C as u will get,
the liquid wont be 100C but just under..

atmospheric pressure/elevation and water purity will have a nominal impact and you can google those easily enough if your calibrating a precision thermometer.

pages 17 and 18 in this pdf detail the tests
https://www.labfacility.com/cache/f.../fileLibrary/2013/8/Thermapen-Guidebook-2.pdf

 

[Brewski]

Watching the airlock...

 

[matt78]

Brewski, Im totaly new to brewing and have just got a couple of kit brews under my belt but the water bath that you are using is just what ive been planning on using for my next brew. Please keep us informed as to how well you manage to regulate the temp and what success you have with the fermentation, i think its the route i will be taking on my next brew.

Its all trial and error for me but learning all the time and i do manage to drink all my brews even if some of them make me pull some strange faces whilst drinking them!

good luck with the water bath.

 

[Brewski]

Thanks Matt, it's my first brew but I'll do my best!

On the brew front, It wasn't doing much - FV temp stuck at around 18C - so a couple of hours ago I turned the heater up a bit. The airlock is now bubbling, IT'S ALIVE! :pray:

Temps are now: water bath 26.5-27C, FV 20C.

 

[Brewski]

Quick update: I checked the FV before hitting the hay last night and it had crept up to 22C. Rather than risk it getting too hot over night I decided to see how it would manage under its own steam now that fermentation has begun, so I switched the heater off. To my surprise, this morning the FV was still showing 22C and the airlock was bubbling away nicely. I've now removed the insulation to see if I can get it to drop a degree or two.

So far, so good. :thumb:

 

[clibit]

If the surrounding water was 26 ish the beer will have been held at 22 by it. What temp is the room?

Despite having made a lot of beer over the last few years, I am still pretty primitive. I like being a frugal, simple kind of brewer, with minimal equipment, and I just put my FV in a place in the house where it will stay between 16 and 24 ish. Temp controlled brewing is a relatively recent concept, and English yeasts are developed by and adapted to English conditions. That said, in the summer I either don't brew or I use a temp tolerant yeast, like Mauribrew Ale yeast. I don't brew during very hot spells. But there's other, outdoor stuff to do then.

20 litres of liquid will not change temp quickly unless the surrounding air or water is significantly different in temp. I live in a long thin terraced house with central heating so the temp of the rooms doesn't even fluctuate massively. It's never below 14C in the morning before the heating comes back on, even at the coldest times, and it never seems to get above about 22/23 in the house. So I maintain 18 - 22 with my fermentations without having to try.

 

[Brewski]

The room is currently about 17C. The water bath and FV have reached equilibrium over night with both showing 22C. Now that the fermentation is very active - the airlock is bubbling every 1 to 2 seconds and keeps lifting the airlock lid - it's keeping itself warm but the heater is ready for when it slows down or we get a very cold spell.

I'm with you on the primitive approach - there's something very satisfying about doing something well with very little kit.

 

[Brewski]

End of day update.

Now that the FV and water bath are both up to temp things are a lot simpler (lesson learned: don't let the wort get so cold when adding the water).

The FV kept itself at 20C all morning & afternoon without the heater or insulation. I put the bubble sheet jacket on it early evening when the ambient temp started to drop and flicked the water bath heater on (thermostat set lower than before at 22C) at about 9:30 this evening. The FV has barely moved from 20C and the airlock continues to chug every second or two. :thumb:

Something I should have made clear earlier, and is very important for anyone considering using a aquarium heater like this:

1) PLUG THE HEATER INTO A RCD.
2) UNPLUG THE HEATER EVERY TIME BEFORE YOU STICK YOUR HANDS IN THE WATER BATH.

It'll stop you dying and stuff.

:electric:

PS. if you do, can I have your beer?

 

[clibit]

18 to 20 is good. Better than 22.

 

[Brewski]

Yes, 20C for the FV is what I'm aiming for, it only crept up to 22C as I was getting a feel for things. Hopefully it'll be a fairly solid 19-20C from now on.

Last night was the coldest so far this winter apparently but this morning my FV was sat nicely at about 19C in the unheated utility room. :thumb:

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Ive mentioned this on a couple of other posts......Even better than a builders type trug is a plastic B+Q dustbin (£7.00) Just place your FV in the bin, top up with warm tap water, place your fish tank heater inside. If you can throw a old quilt over it even better.