BeerBorg

I bought a small accent lamp and put a 25 watt bulb in it to use as a heater in my fermenting box. Not perfect but much more convenient than swapping out hot water bottles every four to six hours. But now I thought of something that I should have thought of before; Is the incandescent light going to skunk my beer? The beer is fermenting in a normal, food-grade, white bucket and the lamp shines the light straight up next to the bucket so it's not really shining directly on to the bucket. But both are in an enclosed bead-board box so I'm kinda worried.

I don't think an incandescent light puts out enough ultra violate rays to be a problem there.

And I wouldn't think it would penetrate the bucket either.

I think the bucket will save you. While generally instructions say "ferment in a dark place", I suspect that many use a well lit corner of the kitchen. But, you could put a can over the bulb

I don't think it'll be a problem in the bucket.

The UV thrown off by an incandescent is very, very minimal in most cases and shouldnt be a problem. I have never bothered covering my secondarys in the basement where all I have are incandescents. A CFL on the other hand is a different story.

my fermenter was always in the open before my chiller box, under an incandescent light. as mentioned they don't give off significant ultraviolet light. now cfc's, tube lights... they do in fact give off uv light. is it enough to skunk a beer? don't think so but I could be wrong.

CFMs are just small florescent bulbs. And florescent bulbs do give off enough UV rays to skunk beer. It takes longer than the sun but they will skunk it. Even if it is in brown bottles. The beer in brown bottles just takes longer. I don't know about LEDs.

I just checked and LEDs do not put out any UV radiation at all.

I've always put the lamp under the fermenter on a shelf unit with a lose cover. As in the lamp on a shelf below, the fermenter above, the shelf in between keeps most of the light off of the fermenter, but the heat still gets up there.

Don't pet stores sell ceramic bulbs that don't produce any light only heat?
I have a 60 watt incandescent bulb in my mini fridge. I worry that it's skunking my beer.

I also have a heat mat. I stuck it to the wall of the fridge but it wasn't strong enough in this cold winter to keep the temps up to 65 degrees. I might buy another one and connect it in series to the first.

Banjo-guy wrote:Don't pet stores sell ceramic bulbs that don't produce any light only heat?
I have a 60 watt incandescent bulb in my mini fridge. I worry that it's skunking my beer.

I also have a heat mat. I stuck it to the wall of the fridge but it wasn't strong enough in this cold winter to keep the temps up to 65 degrees. I might buy another one and connect it in series to the first.

You're worried that a bulb that turns on when you open the door, and off when you close the door, is skunking your beer? I can safely say, no, it's not.

If you're thinking a heat mat will overcome a refrigerator that's running, it won't. If you're using it with the frig off, and in a cold environment (garage?), that's also a challenge. A controller, with a paint can / lightbulb setup would be ideal.

RickBeer wrote:

Banjo-guy wrote:Don't pet stores sell ceramic bulbs that don't produce any light only heat?
I have a 60 watt incandescent bulb in my mini fridge. I worry that it's skunking my beer.

I also have a heat mat. I stuck it to the wall of the fridge but it wasn't strong enough in this cold winter to keep the temps up to 65 degrees. I might buy another one and connect it in series to the first.

You're worried that a bulb that turns on when you open the door, and off when you close the door, is skunking your beer? I can safely say, no, it's not.

If you're thinking a heat mat will overcome a refrigerator that's running, it won't. If you're using it with the frig off, and in a cold environment (garage?), that's also a challenge. A controller, with a paint can / lightbulb setup would be ideal.

I use a temp controller. The freezer is never running when the heat lamp is on and the opposite is true.
I'm not talking about the light that comes on when you open the fridge door but a light that I hooked up specifically to provide heat to the temp controller. I use a clamp on light that is hanging over the LBK. It shines right at that LBK. It was just a quick fix that I came up with when the heat mat wasn't working.

I'm not up at night worrying about it but I think there must be a better solution.

Ah. Putting the light in a paint can is the solution. Gets you the heat, without light.

If I use a 1 gallon paint can in my dorm size mini fridge there would be no room for the fermenter. That's the main reason I tried a reptile heat mat. The mat can be mounted on the wall of the fridge. It takes up no real space.

If I had one or even three heat mats and the collective wattage added up to 60 watts I would be in good shape.
Two mats might be enough. They come in S,M,and larger wattages.

Why not put the heat mat under the fermenter so it is warming that directly rather than the air and walls of the fridge? I used to do that before I went the paint can route.