Recommendation needed - heating mat or pad for a FV?

[jennyss]

Living in an area where summer temperatures often get into the 40's but winter temperatures can fall below 0; I need to buy a heat mat or belt. I have read the thread on mats vs belts; and I think a mat will suit me best with my stand alone FV sitting on a bench in the laundry. Online I have seen  a Mangrove Jack heat pad for $39.60, and a Kegland heating wrap/mat for $11. Which one would be best? 

[ben 10]

Have you an old fridge or freezer you can repurpose as a fermentation chamber?
 

I cannot think how helpful a heat pad will be "cooking" the cold break/ trub/ dead yeast as a way of heating a brew.

[ozdevil]

22 minutes ago, jennyss said:

Living in an area where summer temperatures often get into the 40's but winter temperatures can fall below 0; I need to buy a heat mat or belt. I have read the thread on mats vs belts; and I think a mat will suit me best with my stand alone FV sitting on a bench in the laundry. Online I have seen  a Mangrove Jack heat pad for $39.60, and a Kegland heating wrap/mat for $11. Which one would be best? 

i would also look at a temp controller  with the heat belts so that you can control the ferment   so it doesnt go above your desired temp

i would either go the kegland  heat belt $11 bucks for 30 watt ( kl01953)   , the reason i am in preference is you dont want to be heating thrugh the trube  and you can get the heat belt close to the trub and to allow rise through the wort   

or go the wrap as this can be positioned above the trube  (kl26031)   

and setting it up with either a inkbird temp controller or a rapt temp controller(KL22927) or stc temp controler (KL01946)
the good thing is if you purchase a temp controller and you want to get a good fermenting chamber by fridge or freezer   you have the temp controller already

the reason i say combine the temp controller   is  t.controller will cut off   at say 22°c if you set it at 21.5°c   then using the cool air off winter it will then be allowed to drop to say 20°c before the heat kicks back in   and will give you a more consistant  ferment with temp control.

 

[jennyss]

Thanks @interceptor and @ozdevil  I take your point about not wanting to heat the sludge - Perhaps I just need to use a small heater in the room. I noticed in summer and autumn when I first started home brewing, that the brew kept pretty much the same temp. as the room. I had a thermometer in the room, and the temp. strip on the FV.  On the hottest days I kept the FV and room to 20-22deg with a floor fan, wet towel and ice-bricks lol! As temperatures have started to drop I put a fleecy jacket and heated wheat bag on the FV, keeping it to 18-20 deg.

[Classic Brewing Co]

3 minutes ago, jennyss said:

On the hottest days I kept the FV and room to 20-22deg with a floor fan, wet towel and ice-bricks lol! As temperatures have started to drop I put a fleecy jacket and heated wheat bag on the FV, keeping it to 18-20 deg.

Both these methods work but time consuming & a bit of effort keeping up with everything. You would never look back if you were able to score a 2nd frigde big enough to house the FV.

Gumtree, Garage Sales are good for finding them, if you use FB there is also Market Place. As the guys said a $40 Dual Temp Controller is the ultimate tool.

Cheers.

[jennyss]

@Classic Brewing Co Thanks, but that sounds like the entrance to a rabbit burrow to me!

[Malter White]

35 minutes ago, jennyss said:

Thanks @interceptor and @ozdevil  I take your point about not wanting to heat the sludge - Perhaps I just need to use a small heater in the room. I noticed in summer and autumn when I first started home brewing, that the brew kept pretty much the same temp. as the room. I had a thermometer in the room, and the temp. strip on the FV.  On the hottest days I kept the FV and room to 20-22deg with a floor fan, wet towel and ice-bricks lol! As temperatures have started to drop I put a fleecy jacket and heated wheat bag on the FV, keeping it to 18-20 deg.

While the thermostat controller and ferment chamber (fridge) is great I know you don't have much room, Jenny, so they might not be practical. The fleecy jacket and wheat bag will work fine. Once the wort starts fermenting it generates a bit of it's own heat anyway, so your jacket method will help keep that heat in.

I don't think you need to go to using a heater in the room. 

Edited April 27, 2022 by MUZZY

[Classic Brewing Co]

16 minutes ago, jennyss said:

@Classic Brewing Co Thanks, but that sounds like the entrance to a rabbit burrow to me!

It is 

[ozdevil]

1 hour ago, jennyss said:

@Classic Brewing Co Thanks, but that sounds like the entrance to a rabbit burrow to me!

sometimes for the greater good you have to duck down a rabbit hole and hope it isnt a big burrow  

i think the cooler months are ideal   for brewing specially for those like yourself that have very little room (i know that feeling my partner hates it as i have taken over her craft room and is slowly making its way into her side of the bedroom)     i  still ferment in the cooloer months when fermenting fridge is in use by another fermenter and  i just put a sleeping bag over it or use a jacket  that i have with my snubby fm as the snubby is 99% of time in fermenting fridge    

a heat belt with a temp controller is not a huge expense   $50 dollars on a wifi  inkbird temp controller (cheaper again if you get a second hand one)
a new heat belt as i mentioned $11 bucks you cant go wrong

if your keeping room temp in the cooler months to the wort    happy days  you dont need any gizmo's  so stay out of the burrow

warmer months you may struggle in both directions and this is where the fermentation chamber  comes into its own   which means brewing all year 
and you not struggling  

So Muzzy's suggestion might be your better option

@jennyss going down the rabbit hole

[frederickT]

Hi Jensys,

Thanks for asking this Q. I don't have the same temperature range that you have - thanks to a lot of concrete walls and floors - but I do have quiet a bit 16-40 so the answers have been helpful to me also. I tried the Kveik yeast Classic suggested and love it but my ambient will starting getting a bit low soon.  And I like saying I am learning Norwegian farm brewing to those who aren't.  

As a fellow laundry brewer, I have a European laundry ie a cupboard and only a trough to put my vat on. Hopefully you have a bigger laundry but in case it helps you or some one else I noticed house keeper comments saying a Target shower duck board fitted into their trough.  It was too big and small for mine but two quick drill holes and couple of nails had it securely secured. 

cheers (literally not figuratively)

[jennyss]

Hi @frederickT,

My laundry is small, but it is the best room in the house temperature wise. No direct sunlight; and sheltered by verandahs and other rooms from the worst heat and cold.  The top of my old twin tub washing machine turns into a work station when mixing or bottling is on 

I am learning that different brews or recipes like different temperatures for fermentation, but I am sticking to Coopers Pale Ale for the moment till I get that down pat.

I probably will get a belt or mat, and use this along with the other 'low tech' methods of blankets or fans.

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 minute ago, jennyss said:

I probably will get a belt or mat

That is called tip-toeing to the edge of the burrow.  

Seriously though Jenny those little things will make life easier.

Cheers.

[Space]

14 hours ago, jennyss said:

Hi @frederickT,

My laundry is small, but it is the best room in the house temperature wise. No direct sunlight; and sheltered by verandahs and other rooms from the worst heat and cold.  The top of my old twin tub washing machine turns into a work station when mixing or bottling is on 

I am learning that different brews or recipes like different temperatures for fermentation, but I am sticking to Coopers Pale Ale for the moment till I get that down pat.

I probably will get a belt or mat, and use this along with the other 'low tech' methods of blankets or fans.

Every other brew I do is a Coopers Pale Ale or Coopers IPA kit.  You can make some lovely beer playing with the fermentables you add and by tooling around with hops.  It's getting impossible to get hold of them in the UK though - everyone is citing supply chain issues.   

Meanwhile, I advise getting a second hand fridge big, an inkbird, a belt/pad.  All you need is 10 minutes, a piece of plank for a shelf and approx 1 foot of duct tape and you've got perfect temperature all sorted.  Shop around and this runs to less than £100 GB.  

[Oldbloke]

There is another option. 

I use one of these (I already had mine for another purpose) to turn a incandescent globe on a few times over night in cool weather.  Certainly not precise but works for me. You could use it plugged into the $11 heat pelt and wrap it all up in a blanket. $10 @ bunnings. Experience will teach you how long to run it. I run mine about 1 hour every 3

[thebeerpig]

Yet another option that I’ve been using successfully for the last 40 odd years in my 4 fermenters is the humble aquarium heater. The modern day ones are made of stainless steel and have a knob on top that makes adjusting the heat output extremely easy. A 50 watt stainless steel heater sells for around $15 -$20 on ebay.

Because the aquarium heater heats the wort from the inside out, the fermenter can be plugged into a socket just about anywhere in cold weather (within reason) with or without insulation and the fermentation will hold the set temperature and won’t stall.

For anyone who wants to fit one and give it ago, you need to drill a hole in the fermenter lid around the same size as the cable, then cut the plug off the cable and thread it through till the heater hangs close to the bottom of the fv. Then hold in place with a cable tie each side of the lid and seal the entry point both sides of the lid with blu tack to make it airtight. Last thing to do is get someone that knows what they are doing to fit a new 3 pin plug ($3-30 with fitting instruction leaflet @ Bunnings).

[DavidM]

Well that is Clever.

If I was not set up, I'd be buying one of them.

thanks for Sharing.

[Oldbloke]

Fish tank heaters have been used for years. Very good. I used a few glass ones but they never lasted long. So went to a globe system. But SS looks attractive, less fragile.  One of my concerns with them is that they can potentially introduce a bug, but decent sterilisation should fix that.

[thebeerpig]

18 hours ago, oldbloke said:

Fish tank heaters have been used for years. Very good. I used a few glass ones but they never lasted long. So went to a globe system. But SS looks attractive, less fragile.  One of my concerns with them is that they can potentially introduce a bug, but decent sterilisation should fix that.

Yep, the fragility of the glass ones meant sooner or later they ended up getting broken. Another downside of the glass ones was the need to remove the glass tube from the heater if you wanted to get at the temperature adjustment screw in the bi-metal strip.

When my father learnt home brewing from library books in the early 70‘s I’m guessing sanitisers weren’t available as he just used running hot tap water to sanitise his heater, and rolled some hot tap water around the inside of the fermenter to sanitise it.

He taught me how to home brew with the first Coopers kits when they came out and I’ve been using his “keep it simple” sanitising technique ever since. So far I am yet to have suffered from an infected wort and have also yet to have any of my stainless steel heaters stop working .

[jennyss]

Awesome @thebeerpig. My father started home brewing in 1988 when he retired; and is still brewing. His brew notebook is up to Brew No. 100! 

My choices for temperature control of my FV are widening. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

5 minutes ago, jennyss said:

Awesome @thebeerpig. My father started home brewing in 1988 when he retired; and is still brewing. His brew notebook is up to Brew No. 100! 

My choices for temperature control of my FV are widening. 

 Go for it Jenny - you know you want it 

 

 

[thebeerpig]

9 hours ago, jennyss said:

His brew notebook is up to Brew No. 100! 

Looks like you've got some catching up to do  

[Oldbloke]

I bottled my first, a lager on 20/5/1988.  Im now up to brew number 612. 

[DavidM]

13 minutes ago, oldbloke said:

 Im now up to brew number 612

Well Done.

I bottled today and it was 61

Does that mean I'm only 2 behind You...

[Korbo]

On 5/4/2022 at 1:23 PM, thebeerpig said:

Because the aquarium heater heats the wort from the inside out

Won't the wort near the heater be warmer than the rest of the wort? or not?

[jennyss]

I have posted in 'What's in your fermenter' that I have just made my 5th brew.  After all the varied and good advice on temperature control; I have dragged a small column oil heater into the laundry where the FV sits. Twenty hours later the brew temp is 20deg, room temp is 20deg and the outside temp is 5deg. However, I may be in for electricity bill shock! I did buy a Morgans brand heat mat.