StillSmart

Just been out to the garage and the temp has already dropped to 6C. The wife will have to be cold in bed tonight, cause I'm about to nick the electric blanket to wrap round my fermenters.

Ha, youre going to get in trouble matey I insulated my fermenters last winter and it was one of the best moves I've made.

My washes now don't drift off any lower than 0.3oC from my set point (the minimum hysteresis of the switch I'm using), and the ferments are much more consistent because of it.

I now really like fermenting in the cold weather - less beasties about, and its quicker to clear at the end when you switch the heater off.

+1 Capt'n

Best move I made too and well worth investing a few bob in and it doesn't have to be expensive.

Even a cheapy sleeping bag from Tesco, cut in half and zipped up around a pair of fermenters with an aquarium heater in each will keep any ferment reasonably happy in the cold nights ahead

As for the electric blanket thing...you'd better be prepared to keep her warm all night yourself or you might get it the neck......literally!

AM

All sorted now, I bought a big freezer bag from Iceland, cut the bottom out, handles off and a hole in the top for a bubble tube, it fits snugly over a 25 litre fermenter on a heat pad.
So all I have to do now is make more then I can take the 2 DJ's out of the lounge and the other fermenter from the spare bedroom.
It doesn't matter which room you go into, all you can hear is "glup,glup glup".

Now that it is cooling down I will be able to get by with less cooling to my fermentation tanks.

Expecting to go through a lot of Apple Pie in the next few months so cranking it out.

Thanks RJ, nice to be reminded that some parts of the world are much warmer than my own,even when they cool down!
Robert.

Yeah EasyD. On occasion, if it gets really cold I might put a sweater on but otherwise, I would love a couple of nights where I needed a blanket while sleeping.

In my wine making days I used a folded leccy blanket as a heat pad, warmed up lots of demijohns.

For my 25L washes, I have a 4 foot tube heater between the fermenters and the wall.