FERMENTATION CHAMBER FOR COLD WEATHER

This channel is designed to offer insight and background on the science, art and practice of making alcohol based products at home.

[OVRCOME]

Promised and delivered! Personally I like to ferment in 6.5 gallon buckets. I've had good success with 50w small fish tank heaters. Probe built in. I just drill a hole in my lid, cut a 6.5 bung and use silicone to run the Bung through the lid. Plug it in and let it do the work. If its REALLY cold I may wrap it with a towel or blanket. Works like a charm!

[Generalleeawesome]

Grain bill is in the mail for the saddle men’s cut thanks for the next idea george!

[kimmole]

Maaan it's good to listen to you again!

[thefattymcgee]

George you beautiful s.o.b. I just had to move all my ferments to the barn cuz the folks got sick of me collecting carboys in my room. Thank you George!

[marknichols]

One of your more clever ideas George. In Minnesota we use this method to keep our well water pumps from freezing (without the PID). So good to see you back

[rjfussell]

Glad your back, last year I thought I was going to beat the cold, it didn't workout, in Colorado we can have a 50 deg temp change overnight, I worked hard to get my first fully cooked fresh corn mash made, it was going great for a couple of days, then it was totally dormant, I did finally get it going again, the cold really changed everything, I realized if you don't have that controlled, don't do it until you do, I made it again with controlled temp, came out great, that was with a new still also, I'm going to make one of those next week.

[jamesspinks]

In New Zealand I mostly need cooling so my ferment in an upright freezer, I have wired up a heat trace used for freezer doors to a pid for the odd occasions when it gets cool. I’ve only made beer so far but plan to build a still next. Loving your how to series, Jessie sent me.

[wernerswardt]

A cheap single bed electric blanket (around $20) does the job very well, fold it once to your fermenter size and have a thermometer on hand. It is very low on power consumption. I've been using it for more than a year now in colder weather and it works like a charm. It has 3 settings if needed

[TigerPat_]

Really Appreciate Your Video, Thanks ! 🐯🤠

[glleon]

George, this was a very clear explanation and application of the need to regulate fermentation temperature. I use an inexpensive under-counter fridge that I cool in the summer and heat with a heating pad in the winter. Yep, with a home made PID controller. I took the front door off the fridge and widened it with some particle board so it will hold two fermenters and provide convenient ports for temperature probes etc. Keeps my beer cold too!

[ohravenous]

This gives me such ideas! I was wrapping thermal blankets around then. This is by far superior to the wrap and pray method. It gets COLD up in these here hills! Thanks George!

[maughan]

When we were at our hiatus or making juice. I used to wrap the barrels in thin mylar and drop a submersible fish tank heater, stainless, you can get them cheap. Never had an issues

[ledzep]

Great info as always. I use a 30cm/12" 45W tube heater in a wooden box under my 25l fermentation bucket, controlled with a cheap Chinese reptile aquarium thermostat. I have plywood walls and lid lined with expanded polystyrene sheets (repurposed packing) and aluminium foil. I agree that having the base walls and lid separate, makes things much easier to manage.

[robertt]

Over time, I constructed 2 Inkbird P.I.D.'s I was always chasing the desired temperature. The fluctuation between the set value and the perceive value would never stay within a reasonable range, no matter how many times I read the instructions to insure I was programing it correctly. I found that the amperage variable controller, for me, works infinitely better.

[koligula]

Hello George, welcome back. I had a mash go convert to vinegar this month, by mistake. I guess when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. In this case, I'll be making a lot of pickled eggs.

[jpcessna]

Glad you're back making videos again. I really missed them.
I recently broke my aquarium heater, so I was desperate for a quick way to maintain the fermentation temp. of my 5 gals. of sugar wash. I placed my 6 gal. glass carboy on a heating pad and set it on medium. It worked great, maintaining the wash temp. @ 77* F. throughout the fermentation!

Thanks again for your videos.

[wldtrky]

Awesome. I can tell im going to need to build a chamber. The PID i already built will work here, so the chamber will be all I need. Thanks George, HAPPY DISTILLING !

[josephallender]

Keep the videos coming! Your the best George, ty

[clintonhoush]

I'm a bit more of a geek and have a server room downstairs. It stays at 75F all year round that I put my buckets in, malt in, etc.... If you have servers of any size, you can put them into a slightly bigger box like George made and use that as your heat source as well.

Servers definitely cost more than a lightbulb though so, keep that in mind.

[gerhardjoubert]

Live the idea mate. Can use this during winter in NZ