Aquarium thermostat

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Guest
Been looking into this, please go easy on me as this is the first time into brewing (beer or wine).......

Being looking at Aquarium thermostats to keep the temp of the wort right; the price of thermo for wine/beer are high (belt & pads, i was wondering if these are good cheap alternative that will be happy as wort ferments at the right temp?

They have a variable temp from 17C - 32C.

Now i know we are dealing with Alcohol, so a little unsure if they would pass the test around 20 - 25ABV?

Any help please.
 
two ways to use them.

I have several fitted in my fermenters. I drill a hole in the side, as near to the top of the fermenter as I can. Into that I fit a rubber bung that has a hole through the center - most home brew shops sell these - they are ofetn used to fit airlocks to fermenters.

I whip the plug off the heater, pass it through the bung, re-attach the plug. With the heater in place (one I've fixed to the side, one I place right on the bottom) the cable is sealed into the bung with food grade silicon sealant, let that cure for a day or two and you're good to go.

This is a bog standard heater, bought in a pet shop - smallest heater they do - you really don't need any bigger.

169089_10150102145029585_535884584_6191609_7590664_n.jpg



Another method is to stand the fermenter in a water bath, and heat the water bath with the aquarium heater. People concerned about possible infection issues raised by having the heater in the fermenter have used this method.


I chose to put them inside the fermenter largely because of space issues, but also with riogorous cleaning (don't forget to pull apart the suction cup holders to clean them up) and santising, I've never had a problem with infection issues, and I've had the wort filled right up above the bung level, and no leaks :mrgreen:
 
I agree :thumb:

Aquarium heaters are both versatile and controllable. :thumb:

I chose the 'water bath' method as a large container and one heater can look after two or more FVs
 
I'm new to all grain and have read that to successfully ferment lager, the temperature must be very controlled. Would the aquarium thrmostat give enough control for this? I don't have space for another fridge.
 
It would during winter. I think during the coming months you'd be more concerned about keeping your wort cool enough for the correct temp range for a true lager yeast.
 
Ha, yeah, good and fairly obvious point. I live in Norway and had just about forgotten the concept of summer.

A fridge in the living room it is then!
 
Hi Redsoxs,

What type of heater did you go for in the end, what was the wattage of the heater (200w, 300w etc)?

I have been looking at proper brewing Thermistat heaters and they range between £20 - £40 each where you can buy a 300w Aquarium version for £10

Thanks for the feedback

Mike
 
Back
Top