Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

With the temps getting lower, I was starting to think about a heating type thingy.
Is a pad better than a belt or visa versa ???
TIA
Andy

i have a belt but if they are about he same price i would get now the pad.... i have had mine for years.

IMO the belt might concentrate the heat in one area on the sides as it transfers it into the wash and i thought a pad might be a bit more "gentle" but i cannot confirm this.

also if you upgrade to a ferment fridge you could use the pad in the bottom like a space heater that does not need to touch the fermenter and would just warm the air.

in my ferment fridge i use a light bulb in a terracotta pot to warm it up, mine is currently in fridge mode with some beers in it. but this weekend it's going back into ferment mode with a rum wash :)

Having the same delema here Andy......100 km or so south of the QLD border. I'm thinking along the lines of a cheap electric blanket wrapped around a bigger fermenter barrel.......turn it down as low as possible and then wrap an old blanket or doona around the lot ......occy straps should hold it all in place.
SBB

i made a 4 sided box out of 12ml ply, no top or bottom deep enough to hold a lead light with 30 to 40watt bulb works a charm cost very low

bundy wrote:i made a 4 sided box out of 12ml ply, no top or bottom deep enough to hold a lead light with 30 to 40watt bulb works a charm cost very low

out of interest why no lid? would the heat not just rise out (wasted heat) ?

add one of these to a closed box and you have a controlled temp box (as long as you dont need to cool)

it's what i run my ferment fridge with so i can heat and cool



http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Mini-Digital-Tem ... 2c5afd49d6

I am just west of Brisbane, in winter I set the fermenter up on cardboard to act as insulation, then every night I throw 2 hot water bottles in between the two fermenters then wrap 2 heavy blankets around it to keep in the heat. Works well for me.

Maheel
i just sit fermentor on frame, with light inside no need for lid

I've always use a thermostatted box, for beer wort or spirits wash. I reckon a concentrated heat source has a chance of killing some yeast, don't know if it does in practice but controlling the air temp around the fermenter seems to be a better long term solution to me and is simple. Since I undertand electronics, I made a box with an electronic thermostat. It also has a temperature indicator on the outside so I can monitor.

Now, I am in Melbourne and overnight temps can drop to 8 deg in the garage. My heater is some resistors mounted on a heatsink with about 90 watts of heat available with a fan. A temperature probe monitors the temp about 50 mm from fermenter. The box is partially insulated and is about 60mm bigger than the fermenter on the sides with a flip top to access the airlock and lid. For turbo washes, the box cannot be fully insulated as it needs to be able to lose heat on the second day as you will all know the fermentation is very exothermic at this time. In practice, a plywood box with 2 or 3 sides insulated is adequate, depending on the climate.

I have an electronic thermostat I knocked up out of bits out of the junk box. Can be set from 18 to 35 degrees. The advantage is that no monitoring at all is needed. I know the temperature will stay at say 25 degrees for the entire time. This is great for beer wort or bottles too.

Another idea for a controller which I made for my father is using a central heating thermostat. Thes ehave the right range for brewing and can be had by a bulider do renos of older houses for free if you are lucky. The can control usually a low voltage load via a relay. Waterbed thermostats are good too but are mains so you need to know what you are doing around electrics.

Thanks for all the replies guys.
Some fantastic ideas there but........
My problem is, I cant build stuff for shit - I measure 4 times then cut and its still wrong.
So I need to buy anything I will be using.
So back on topic, belt or pad for this numpty that cant put 2 sticks together.

I've never used either belt or pad when brewing beers in the past, I just kept it near the fire place in winter. But assuming that heat rises the pad would be the most efficient, unless the direct heat kills the yeast that settles on the bottom and I could be entirely wrong.

maheel wrote:add one of these to a closed box and you have a controlled temp box (as long as you dont need to cool)

it's what i run my ferment fridge with so i can heat and cool

They look like the goods Maheel. This will be my first cold season fermenting (been in Darwin till now) so I'd better get setup for it. A few questions if you don't mind;

1. Any difficulties encountered when wiring in the control box?
2. What is your heat source?
3. Did you just wire the fridge into the control box as the cooling source?

Cheers, Heffers