maintaining temperature

[peteoc]

All,

While I've not done my own brew yet I do have my order in and hopefully it will be shipped tomorrow :)

1 Question that is going round my head at the moment is maintaining the temperature - I've gone for a coopers diy kit as my first try and reading that I should try and maintain 22 deg C.

Now this is where I come into my element, I can easily knock up an electronic temp probe which will regularly check the temp and I can also turn on an incandescent bulb (read old lamp) to generate a bit of heat.

Now the question I have is, how do I distribute this heat throughout my mix rather than 1 side receiving the brunt of it every time it drops say 2 degrees?

cheers

Pete

 

[GavH]

Not sure how you'd do it uniformly with a bulb? A lot of folk sit their FV in a sink or basis of some sorts filled with water and immerse a Tropical Fish tank heater in it. Some even put said heater straight into the wort. The other alternatives include the Brewbelt and a Heatpad the FV sits on. The 'whole hog' option is to use an old fridge connected to an STC-1000 temperature controller. Google 'brewfridge' and you'll see.

 

[winnywood]

Use a electric blanket with a thermostat or temp controller.

 

[nobyipa]

if your using a bulb to heat your fermenter you need the fermenting bucket in a wardrobe box container or whatever insulated is better
and heat the container box your fermenter is in.

:drink:

 

[winelight]

And finally... ignore the 22C the Coopers instructions say and go for 18C instead. For most people just somewhere around the house is good enough without any additional heat.

 

[danb]

I use a bulb in both of my fridges and a 40w bulb works brilliant. Can definitely recommend it as a cheap alternative to using a tube heater.

 

[PaulCa]

And finally... ignore the 22C the Coopers instructions say and go for 18C instead. For most people just somewhere around the house is good enough without any additional heat.

+1 Coopers yeast works fine at 18C, though it will take longer than the week to ferment out properly.