Heating a Keezer in the Winter

Northern Brewer General
1

My fermentation chamber is a freezer in the garage hooked to a temp controller.

Since the garage is not insulated, the freezer won’t be able to hold temp in the low 60s for fermentation if the ambient temp outside is colder than that.

I was thinking about buying a simple lightbulb assembly and hanging it on the side and hooking that to the temp controller instead to create a heating element of sorts during the colder months.

Does anyone have experience with something like this?

Will it work?
What size lightbulb would you use?

Any concerns with this approach?

Thanks for the input.

2

The 1st concern is the light effecting the brew.

2nd, which happened to me, is the bulb burning out and you not checking it for a couple of days.

My suggesting is a $30-50 ceramic style space heater.

http://www.sears.com/portable-ceramic-h ... 212819000P

And when not used in the brewery, it works great to heat the bathroom in the morning!

3

I use a 50 Watt heating cable designed for heating reptile cages. Does the job well; a don’t see why a light bulb wouldn’t work- just cover up your glass carboys if there are any in there. Don’t forget to switch your temp controller to heating mode.

4

Great advice. Thanks gents.

5

Yes you can mitigate the light by covering the fermenter. But you can not avoid the light burning out and the temp plummeting.

Reptile heaters are another good option.

6

I added a light y bulb socket to my lamp holder, so if one bulb does go out , I have the insurance of the second bulb. [attachment=0]31C7WazpftL.jpg[/attachment]

7

I suppose I could just ferment in the basement in a swamp cooler during the winter months too. :shock:

8

I will be pulling my small chest freezer up from the basement to add to my existing upright beer frig on the first floor.
I will use it for 5 gallon lager fermenting and applying CO2 to my backup 2 kegs under temp.
My beer frig is a 3 tap beer frig.

If anyone has good experience with a heater element, please let me know.
The fact that this will be in my house may mean that I don’t need one…
I just purchased an Inkbird Dual Stage Digital Temperature Controller.
I may not need the 2nd relay…

Background:
My wife kept putting food into my beer frig and freezer so I purchased her a new frig.
Existing frig goes into the garage (she can use that as well), will hold beer for me as I brew.

Freeze in the basement is now mine…
&:wink:

9

If it’s inside I doubt you’ll need a heater.

10

My basement is mid 50s in winter. I have a CVS heating pad with a proper on switch. It still has a 2-hour shutoff though. I’d rather have a reptile mat or seedling mat if they’re available without the auto-off, although my controller rarely calls for heat for more than 15 minutes at a go, so the auto-off is more of a hypothetical concern than an actual issue. I programmed around it too in the controller.

I also tried a ceramic heater initially; it was too strong. The 7.1 cu ft freezer gained 10 degrees in under a minute.

11

Don’t they actually make a gizmo you tie around your fermenter that is designed for heating? Sneezles61

12

A few of them…one is a belt…the one i have is a full on wrap.

13

Fermenter heaters are essentially the same thing as seedling heaters, except they’re more expensive.

1 Like
14

You know, I don’t worry too much about any of that stuff… I have an “almost” beautiful down stairs that doesn’t get too cold nor too warm… Is that called geothermally protected? Sneezles61