I have purchased a Fermwrap Heater to get my ale temps up a bit. I am curious how you all use this piece of equipment. I have a chest freezer and will be using a Ranco Two stage. I have been attaching the probe of a Johnson A419 to a glass carboy under a piece of foam. My question, are you wrapping the carboy or draping the heater on a wall and heating the chamber? If wrapping the carboy, are you wrapping directly over the foam?
Either way works well.
+1 to this.
In your case, since the probe is attached to the outside of the carboy, I’d probably go with heating the chamber… I’d be afraid (perhaps without cause) of getting bogus temperatures with the heating wrap close to/on top of the temp probe.
I wrap the carboy and attach the FermWrap with blue painter’s tape. Then I attach the probe under some bubble wrap (with more blue painter’s tape) in the blank area where the FermWrap doesn’t cover.
I found a thermowell stopper works well. The stopper has the normal airlock hole as well as a long SS extension that drops down into the beer- its hollow and the probe with Johnson controls can drop right down into it giving you pretty accurate temps. I tape my fermwrap directly onto the carboy. Be sure you really understand the switches and controls on the temp controller- I had a saison batch go into the low 90s because of a mistake in the setup- I was shooting for warm mid 80s- 90s was likely too much. I suggest a trial run with some water in the carboy to make sure it clicks on and off when you want it to.
Go with the thermowell. Heating the chamber is going to be less efficient. The thermowell will give you an accurate temp and allow you to affix the fermwrap directly to the carboy.
[quote]I found a thermowell stopper works well. The stopper has the normal airlock hole as well as a long SS extension that drops down into the beer- its hollow and the probe with Johnson controls can drop right down into it giving you pretty accurate temps. I tape my fermwrap directly onto the carboy.
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+1
This is the same setup I used over the winter only with the 2 stage Ranco. I’ve also taped the probe to the side of the carboy with good results.