Okay so the question I pose is how do you keep your temps warm in a freezing garage? I have a chest freezer I use for lagering in the summer. Would the brew pad heater do the job in combination with a temp controller?
How cold does the garage actually get?
My basement is generally low 50’s, an arthritis heating pad in a 7.1 cu ft freezer can easily hold mid-60’s. In mid January I raised the controller to 72 in order to speed up bottle conditioning of some beers I wanted for a Super Bowl party. So a heating pad with a temp controller in your freezer should let you keep a beer at least 20 degrees over the surroundings.
So if it’s an attached garage that leeches some of the heat from your home, you may have a similar situation. If it’s an uninsulated detached garage, you may want to look into a smallish ceramic space heater.
You’ve got the right idea. A controller with a sensor that modulates a heater is the way to go. The key thing is to have enough insulation so that you are not trying to heat the entire outdoors with your set up. I built a box in my outside shed out of 10 cm thick Styrofoam, and have a heater/controller modulating the temperature in it. It gets to -20 out there sometimes, but my fermenters are at whatever temperature I set them at. The heater is rated to 150 W, but it never needs to use anywhere near that power.
Wow, I never got an email saying someone responded to my thread. But anyway yes its detached and right now the ambient temp is 18 degrees. Wednesday is suppose to get down to -6 for a low, and that’s pretty darn cold for the St. Louis area this time of year! I do have a brew belt heater but I just can’t remember what it keeps temps at. I suppose a trial run with some water in a Big Mouth Bubbler would give me some good input. Sorry guys I would’ve spoke sooner but I just now checked the forums.
