temp control... finally!

[jimlin]

Got the Johnson digital controller from MoreBeer last week. Got a wired 11x24 sheet of heat tape (basically a fermwrap).

So, I just tape the sensor to the outside wall of the bucket, cover with styrofoam. Attach the heat tape to the other side of the bucket with electrical tape (masking tape, painters tape??), plug in to the controller and set the temp...

need to open the controller first though, right? they come set for cooling, and I need it for heating. Follow the instructions/video on morebeer to set to heat.

Going to ferment in the basement which tends to be in the md 50s in the winter. Should I wrap the entire set up in a blanket or something to maintain the temp? Figure I will make a box out of insulating foam board soon but haven't done it yet

[jimlin]

Got it all set up. The ambient temp in the basement is around 55 and the bucket (stick-on aquarium thermometer) is reading around 59 with the airlock bubbling slowly (pitched it about 24 hrs ago).

The Johnson controller seems simple enough. Opened it up as instructed on morebeer.com to adjust it for heating rather than cooling. Plugged it in, set it to 65°, and it clicked 'on".

The heat tape I got online from a reptile pet store is tapes to the bucket (electrical tape) and wraps around about 3/4 of the bucket.

Taped the temp sensor to the bucket, then layered over it with some bubble wrap, and taped the bubble wrap down.

Only concern is that the heat tape does not feel warm so I'm wondering if it's actually working. Going to go down in a while to check on it and see if there's any change.
UPDATE: after about an hour it's gone up two degrees.

Also, I'm now reading about setting the differential. Should I set that to just 1 degree?

[jimlin]

Checked this morning and all seems to be working well. I had originally set the differential to 2°, but changed it this morning to 1°.

I think once the heavy fermentation is done, I will move it to a warmer part of the house (we keep the thermostat at 67° in our house in the winter, and the evenings go down several degrees, but that's much warmer than the basement where it is now). I will likely bring the bucket's temp (currently set at 64°) up a few degrees to hopefully clean things up for a few days before moving to the secondary for dry hopping. Nice to know that I will be able to keep the ferment temp steady even in the evenings.