Temp control - heat options?

[Kealia]

While brewing my current pale ale I realized that I don't have a good way to control heating my beer during fermentation.

I have a wine fridge and a Johnson Controller that I use for controlling cooler temps (60 or so down to about 38 for cold crashing and lagering). What I don't have is a way to heat things up to brew in the 68 - 72 range so I'm thinking about fixing that and looking for input on options.

I prefer to buy it vs build it so DIY projects like paint can heaters are out. I know some of you use the STC-1000 dual-stage controller to switch between heating and cooling, but what are you using to actually deliver the heat?

[BlackDuck]

Have you seen the brew belts?

http://www.amazon.com/Brew-Belt-Ferment ... B001D6IUB6

Not sure how well they work, I've never used one.

[Kealia]

They say to not use those with glass carboys. Maybe a FermWrap?

I'm also curious about how thwermowells work. Does the probe from a JC fit into the tube that goes into beer? I think this is likely a simple answer but I'm a bit confused here [emoji44]

[BlackDuck]

I would think a FermWrap would work. I believe my brother uses one for wine.

[John Sand]

I just move mine near the furnace, or a baseboard. But I've read of reptile heaters, or fish tank heaters in a water bottle, in your chamber.

[Inkleg]

Ok, sorry bout that. Had a reply almost ready 2 hours ago when some friends knocked on the door.
I use this heat tape. I use it two ways, with Saisons I'll wrap it around the bucket, for ales I just prop it up along the walls of the fridge. I got 3ft along with the electrical cord and added "please assemble" in the instruction box when I ordered.
I also have a thermowell I use that works great.

Thermowell.JPG (71.44 KiB) Viewed 2133 times

[Kealia]

So the ThermoWell actually reads the temp and plugs into the controller to tell it whether to heat or cool?

[Inkleg]

You need a bung with two holes in your using a carboy. I ferment in buckets and have two different bung holes, one for the air lock, the other for the thermowell. The thermowell goes into the beer and the sensor slides into the center hollow part of the thermowell for true wort temperature.
I don't think the JC will do both cool and heat, it will do one OR the other. These are STC-1000 ramped up a notch. Screwy has one and I love mine. You set the temperature or PROFILE (that's the kick ass thing about these controllers), plug your fridge into one outlet and your heat source into the other and let them battle it out. OK, they really won't fight it out, they will work with each other to keep your beer fermenting within the range you have set and will even cold crash if you want it to.

[Kealia]

You need a bung with two holes...

Ok, now that we have that out of the way...seems like I could buy this package form him: STC-1000 + Fermentation Kit w/LED (includes thermowell and fermwrap heater) $139.99 USD. What is the LED? Is it just pretty lights or do they serve some function?

Finally, he mentions STC-1000 + w/o LED (2 temp sensor version) $105.00 USD. What would you use that one for? I'm feeling very noobish here.

And it may be more to buy this all from him, but I don't mind spending a few extra bucks for an all-in-one and to support another home brewer.

Thanks for the info.

[jimjohson]

if your gonna get the STC why not use a paint can heater? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxMGTAkIP28 Been using one in my chamber for a couple winters now, works fine.

[Inkleg]

You are correct, the one w/LED is if you like flashy lights, none of mine have it. The STC has a light on the control read out panel that lights up in either heat or cool mode.
Some people ask for a dual sensor controller to also monitor the ambient temp as well as the wort. Again not needed.
He also has some listed under the DYI Kits, that cost less. Just depends on how much you like to or can do projects like that. Every brewer has their depth of what the want to do in this hobby. Looks like he also carries the heat wrap too. I've been following these posts and if you contact him he will customize or itemize just about any way you'd like.

This is just one of the many different options of controllers out there. I just started with a plain STC-1000 that I built myself, so it's the only thing I know. Paul has recently purchased a different controller, so maybe he can chime in about it to.

Though one thing I really like about these flashed units is the profiles that can be programmed into them. I have Bela's IPA set on Pr 1 my Ale profile. It started at 65* has held there for 6 days before rising to 72* for 48 hours (because even ales benefit from a D rest) and it is now ramping down to cold crash at 40*, and the only thing I've (after a one time loading of the profile) is select the program and select run.
Wow I got long winded, guess I'll go to work now.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I absolutely love my BrewsBySmith Fermentation Kit and swear by it as the only way to go for accurately controlling fermentation temperature. I'm on my third or fourth batch of beer already, I think it's given me even more incentive to brew now if that's even possible. I've written a few articles on setting up and programming the STC-1000+ that's flashed with alphaomega's v1.06 firmware upgrade, it's a lot easier to do than it may appear to be at first glance.

My insulated wooden fermentation chamber is in a 'most of the time' unheated garage and seeing the red LED glow let's me know the heater's on right from the doorway without going in the garage. I've put the fermwrap underneath my plastic Ale Pales and put a DIY paint can type heater in there too. I set the hysteresis to .5 a degree to limit the temperature swing to within 1 degree of the set point and use a 3 minute delay to prevent chatter between the hot and cold outlets. Next on my agenda is to setup a 'program' to include automatically raising the set point temperature a few degrees near the end of fermentation.

[Beer-lord]

I'm late to this party but I've seen some heat mats on some websites that people use to warm their fermenters. Some even wrap them around the fermenter instead of sitting them on the mats.
Sorry I have no experience with this. Mother Nature gives us more heat than we need.

[Kealia]

This is all really helpful, thanks.

I'll check the FermWrap prices to see if he's much more than buying it separate but that is the way I'm leaning at the moment. And the ability to set a profile and have it adjust the temp over time I think just put me over the hump to buy this. I'll do a bit more reading but I'm certainly leaning heavily towards that now.

I'm not a DIY guy for most things, so plug-and-play sounds great to me. I don't mind spending a few extra $$ for that convenience.

[Inkleg]

The videos he's has we're done by Willconrad and are a great tutorial on how to operate them and set profiles. I don't have the site up right now, but there is a spread sheet to that helps with profile layout. Not sure if it's there or on Wills site. I'll look when I get a moment.