Recomendations on heaters for warming FV's in cold Brewery?

[juliobrewer]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get the opinion of Breweries in colder climates on this one. Doe's anyone have a recommendation on a portable heater that could be plugged in beside and aimed at the cone on a conical FV to keep the fermenting beer temperature?

We have some really cold winters in a really cold building without heating and I'm looking for something to making reaching temps for Diacetyl rests alot easier.



Dave Woodward
Head Brewer
Tofino Brewing Co

[Squintymcguinty]

Interesting, are the FV jacketed. It seems like a heater pointed at the cone wouldnt do much for you. Too much heat loss. Would be a nightmare to control temp too. Might be better off wrapping FV with tubing and circulating hot water at a given temp. Kinda like a reverse Glycol unit.

[brewmaster 2011]

what I do in winter is leave my boiler on. it keeps the temp between 50-60. if not get space heaters and leave them in the fermentation room.

[juliobrewer]

Our Brewery is a big warehouse industrial setup with everything in the same building for heating the building is not a option as it will simply rise up and away from the ground! I've had good luck with aiming a basic heater upwards at the cone and the heat convects from the cone into the fermenting beer. What I was wondering is if anyone knew of a efficient make of heater for this purpose as I'm sure we're not the only Brewery in a cold environment with this type of setup!

[juliobrewer]

Interesting idea but being the FV's and CT's are on the same loop warming up the glycol could pose a problem for aging beers also not to mention taxing the glycol chilling system..

[schlosser]

If you have your glycol in use through a heat exchanger simply turn off compressor, close other tanks in system and run hot water through heat exchanger with glycol on. Very efficient at heating glycol. I've used a couple of time when a solenoid has stuck open. I usually get the glycol up 20-30 degrees over the temp of the tank. You don't want to shock the yeast especially if you still have some sugar to ferment.

Cheers,
Dave

[william.heinric]

Get the shrink wrap!

Depending on your tank design, you can wrap your FV with shrink wrap and place a small space heater underneath it. I've done it with dish bottom FVs with good affect, but I haven't done it with a CCCV. Perhaps you could start wrapping up from the bottom and tent it slightly once you get up to the cylinder walls. That should help.

Bill