I'd rather like a brew fridge, but the other half isn't convinced yet, so in the meantime I have to make do. I'm a slightly concerned that the temperature is a bit low in my kitchen for brewing ale so have been thinking of having my FV in a builders trug with a small aquarium heater in there. Does anyone else do this? If so what wattage aquarium heater do you use...it's quite a small amount of water so could I get away with as little as 25w.
I'm a little nervous about using an FV with a tap on, especially as I found that one of mine was leaking this morning. I stuck some silicone sealant round it, but worry that if it was in a tub full of water it could have wrecked the brew. The other annoying thing is that I've already got a fair few 40L trugs and a test with the tap on, the tap pushes out against the edge slightly. Is it possible to get blanking plates that would fit the hole in my existing FVs? I've only just bought them, so it would be annoying to have to replace them already.
Finally in terms of monitoring temperature. Is the thermostat on the aquarium heaters good enough or is it worth a separate setup? I've ordered a multi pack of the stick on things, but they must be coming from China as they haven't arrived yet and I read they aren't that great anyway. If using a separate thermometer, does it need to be in the wort or is just being the surrounding water enough?
I'm a little nervous about using an FV with a tap on, especially as I found that one of mine was leaking this morning. I stuck some silicone sealant round it, but worry that if it was in a tub full of water it could have wrecked the brew. The other annoying thing is that I've already got a fair few 40L trugs and a test with the tap on, the tap pushes out against the edge slightly. Is it possible to get blanking plates that would fit the hole in my existing FVs? I've only just bought them, so it would be annoying to have to replace them already.
Finally in terms of monitoring temperature. Is the thermostat on the aquarium heaters good enough or is it worth a separate setup? I've ordered a multi pack of the stick on things, but they must be coming from China as they haven't arrived yet and I read they aren't that great anyway. If using a separate thermometer, does it need to be in the wort or is just being the surrounding water enough?