Aquarium heater in my primary...

For the most part, I do not put tight lids on my primary. I will just cover them good with cloth that will keep dust and bugs out.

You do have a concern here. It is going slow enough to be of concern. A better rule for when to rack is to rack when the fermentation slows enough that it can be safely put in secondary. This is usually 3 to 8 days. It is time to rack in into secondary now. Obviously it is not fermenting strong enough to be a problem in secondary.

What you are doing is fine. But just go ahead an rack now.

Ray

Matt,

You could use the 'Son of Fermentation Chiller' to heat your must rather than cooling it.

You'd need to modify the fan controller, and perhaps to add an on/off controller for the aquarium heater. X-10 could possibly help you there, depending on how handy you are with your computer.

(This site has a lot of flash and glitter, but if you look deeply enough and past the X10 cameras, you can find some great X10 controllers)

Of course, you'd need to be particularly careful about heating a foamcore box.

Matt, Why not just use a brew belt that wraps around the outside of a carboy or bucket. At about $20, its cheaper than a reliable aquarium heater and does not have to be placed inside the must. Al

Non-bitter answer: I like the control over the must temperature I can get with an aquarium heater -- it's in the liquid and automatically regulates to

Bitter answer: I live in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where there's one brew shop that leaves a bit to be desired. Great guys, but not what you'd call well-stocked.

Practical answer: I already have the heater.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

- Matt

Matt, My apologies, I missed the part when you said you already had an aquarium heater. I'll try to slow down my reading.....:-) Al

You could use a heater belt instead and rig it up with a rheostat so you can vary the amount of heat. But in most cases I'm looking to cool down the must more than heat it up. Except perhaps in the first day or two or perhaps if I have a stuck fermentation.

Don

Don, Do you have any instructions on rigging up a rheostat to a brew belt? Would that make it function similar to a thermostat? Al

I'm not the fastest swimmer on the beach. To me, the Rheostatics are a great Canadian band with rhythm guitarist/hockey enthusiast Dave Bidini.

Would a dimmer switch be a rheostat?

- Matt

Why Yes!

Controls the amount of power going through the circuit. Would a heat belt have that much control? Most are either on or off depending on the setting of the non-adjustable thermostat.

Sean

I'd be worried about using an aquarium heater, they operate thermostatically in an on-off manner, i.e. when they're on, they're on full power. While this might result in good regulation of the temerature of the bulk must, the temperature around the heater will be quite high when it's on.

I'd be happier with the temperature moderated by a bulk [like a chunk of concrete] outside the must, rather than using the must itself.

Geoff, North Loburn New Zealand

I bought a good aquarium heater on e-bay, and put the fermenter in a tub of water with the heater in it. I sit the fermentor on small pieces of wood to allow water circulation. The water evens out the heat, and I can keep the must at 70 deg F. Put the fermentor in the tub, add must, put in water maybe halfway up side of fermenter, turn on heater. 24 hours later, the must is at temperature and you add yeast. I think Brew belts get up to 90 deg F or more, so some people think they apply high spot heat.

I used a floating thermomter to set my aquarium heater, and to check the must before pitching yeast.