Temp Control when fermenting in a fridge

[SoCalBrewer]

I was going to use the fridge in my harage to ferment in. The question is when use a Fermawrap heater on the carboy would the cause the fridge to work more to keep it cool. I was wondering if that will give off some heat and cause the thermosrat to kick on from the radiant heat and make the compressor to work harder? I still want to use the fridge to store some bottles and yeast and the freezer for the hops. Any help would be great. Thanks

[zee]

the key is to insulate. put the fermwrap on the carboy and then put something around that. a towel, or old clothes work great. i have a friend who has old parkas that he doesn't fit into anymore. he zips them up around the carboy and viola. just remember that the probe for the temp controller connected to the fermwrap should be either in a thermowell, or taped inside the insulating layer on the opposite side of the carboy from the fermwrap.

[SoCalBrewer]

Thanks that was what I was kind of thinking was to insulate around the fermarap. I was planning on having the probe inside the fermenter so I wouldn't get any false readings from the outside since it might be a little warmer due to the fermawrap. The only thing is hopefully it wont get to warm being insulated and not being able to keep it just right (maybe I'm thinking way to much into this).

[zee]

if by 'inside the fermenter' you mean in a thermowell, you should be fine. once fermentation starts the liquid is moving pretty quickly. any heat that is added to the system gets dissipated from the point of contact pretty quickly. in addition, the fermwraps don't really get hot. its more of a warming device rather than a heating device.

[Mylo]

This is a fine line - the whole insulation thing. You need enough to prevent your fridge from overworking, but not so much that your beer never gets the some coolness to keep your yeasty boys in check. This solution seems terribly inefficient to me. Just bend over (your pants are already dropped, I assume), and let your power company ram you continuously. They only "use lube" from 9PM to 9AM, typically....

I'm sure it will work for you in the short term, but I would look for a more efficient means to your temp control - one for serving, one for lagering, and one for fermenting. You can cut a corner and combine the serving/lagering (with some slight compromises). Or, just build yourself one of these....

http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/The- ... n-Chillers


Mylo