Warming a fridge in the winter

[rich]

OK, I ferment in a spare fridge in my garage with a johnson controller. As it gets colder, how do those of you who ferment in a chamber like this heat it in the winter? I don't want to use fermen-rap, thermowells or anything like that, I'd like to warm the whole chamber because I usually have two or three beers going at a time.

Thanks

[Henning1966]

Hey rich if ya keep your carboys covered or if it is a bucket you could get one of those refective lamps put it in there plugged into the controler. It would turn it on and off as needed right?

[JMUBrew]

Rich,
One of the guys in my club rigged up his Johnson controller with a dual outlet box. (The outdoor kind with the flip covers over the outlet) He's got it wired so each outlet can work seperately. (He got the idea from another guy at Siebel this summer when he took their class) Works great for both a HERMS and the fridge.

For a fridge setup, he's got the fridge plugged into one outlet and a line connecting to a 60 watt bulb (Obviously he's going to have to cover carboys...). When it gets too cold, the bulb will kick on...when it's too warm, the fridge kicks on. (Guy that he met at Siebel used a hair dryer instead)

I'll see if I can't get the parts/plans from him about how to wire it up if you'd like.

JMUBrew

[Gucci Pilot]

Rich, I use a reptile warmer that I bought from Petco for about 30 bucks. I have a dual controller that I run it on, however, you really don't need it. Most of these heated reptile rocks have a thermostat (not very accurate) and you can just leave you desired fermentation temp in the controller plugged into the fridge. Works great for me, I can usually get 25 - 30 degrees above ambient during a Jersey winter.


Darin

[BrewBum]

I use the light bulb, but i don't think you have to worry about covering the carboy because typically light bulbs don't put off the UV light to skunk the beer. It is a safe option to cover it though and not hard to do just in case.

[Sven]

I use a fermwrap. But I tape it to the door of the fridge. I know of people who have had success taping one fermwrap accross two carboys as well.

[northern brewer]

Here is a picture of the method that I have been trying out.



The heating pad is on the right side of the fridge. It is attached to the second stage of a two stage temp controller. It has worked great through a couple of batches so far but the temperature has not gotten much below freezing yet this year (only a couple of nights). I am thinking that I might have issues with too cold of fermentation temps once winter rolls around. Hopefully I will still be able to maintain a temp in the low 50's so at least I can make lagers in the wintertime.

[Thirsty Mallard]

It sure is wierd to see people prepping for winter. December is a perfect time for me to brew my ALES...