final gravity & temp question

by **dillsandwitch** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:32 pm

howdy all,

I was checking 2 of the 3 washes it have going today and the TPW i put down last Friday is currently sitting at 22 degrees and has a hydrometer reading of 1000 ish and the turbo wash i put down last Saturday is sitting at 18 degrees and has a hydrometer reading of 1010. that is if i am reading that thing right :icon-redface:

all three barrels are currently wrapped in a blanket but should i be putting a heater or something in for the turbo wash? The only thing i have handy though is fish-tank heaters and if needed what temp should i set them to?

thanks in advance
Dill

by **bt1** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:48 pm

bloke,

way to cold for my liking.

I use aquarium heaters and run at between 24c and 32c depending on when i want the wash to finish.

The hydro suggesting not far off finishing but with good yeast health should finish around .96 to .98 without too much hassle.

bt1

by **grumpthehermit** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:32 pm

Miss Dill,

I would say warmer would be better. I prefer 27 degrees with the lowans bread yeast. It will probably chug away nicely in the 25-30 degree range.

Colder will take much longer.

I use heat belts, I love them. Others use heat pads, brew boxes or fishtank style immersion heaters or even a electric blanket.

I am not a fan of the electric blanket idea, seems like more of a fire risk to me.

if you go a heater you need to monitor the temp yourself or use a 24hr timer for some basic on/off control or get fancy and and use a thermostat such as the STC-1000 you can get cheap on e-bay.

Cheers
GTH

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:37 pm

+1 for the heat belts. Mine keep the wash at 27-30 depending on time of year.

by **dillsandwitch** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:25 pm

thanks for the replys guys. I'll go chuck the fish tank heater in till i can get something better. have set it to 26 as its one of the big ones designed for a 200 or more litre tank.

by **Chocaholic** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:18 pm

A fish tank heater is great. You can adjust the temp on the good ones, takes up minimal space as opposed to a box, and then wrap it up in a blanket - just like a baby :))

by **googe** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:07 am

Im in victoria and dont use heating of any type except a blanket and my fermenters sit outside or in the shed. Temps were anything from 8c to 24c, my tpw finished in about 12 days with a fg of .95.

by **emptyglass** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:21 am

Its about now you need to smear yourself with some "patience" cream.
Its hard to get the groove when you are where you're at. So close, yet still so far away.....
A bit like waiting for christmas, isn't it?

If your brew tastes sweet, its not ready. It needs to taste dry. If the hydrometer is confusing you, go by taste. In the end, its all that matters.

Make good cuts, wait, don't rush, all will be good.

And the old man wont have much room to wiggle when he tastes it.

by **dillsandwitch** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:37 am

WineGlass wrote:Its about now you need to smear yourself with some "patience" cream.
Its hard to get the groove when you are where you're at. So close, yet still so far away.....
A bit like waiting for christmas, isn't it?

If your brew tastes sweet, its not ready. It needs to taste dry. If the hydrometer is confusing you, go by taste. In the end, its all that matters.

Make good cuts, wait, don't rush, all will be good.

And the old man wont have much room to wiggle when he tastes it.

With the TPW i''m quite happy for it to sit there and do its thing till its ready.

Its just the turbo wash that came with my still kit is stinking up the house something horrible and i want it done already so my house can go back to is regular wet dog and dog fart smell :laughing-rolling: haha just kidding :laughing-rolling: nah really the smell coming off it is driving me up the wall and i dont have a shed out the back to stuff it in till its done :angry-banghead:

And Bens gotten all excited about doing the home-brew too and wants to be there when we run it through the still but as i work on sundays its gotta be a saturday that it gets done. :roll:

by **Cane Toad** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 7:24 am

Well,there is one way around it all,if you have to work on Sunday,just let Ben run it for you :D

by **JayD** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:09 am

we had the same drama with the ferment taking forever to ferment out, how we overcame this was with a aquarium heater but we also managed the water to keep it at temp by placing the fermentor into a large sink filling with water at the desired temp then we placed the heater into the waterjacket and kept it stable, a simple waterjacket with less water =less electricity used and it worked very well and we were down to the required gravity in no time...hope this helps. I almost forgot we threw a couple of bottles of likka into water aswell to age it.

by **dillsandwitch** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:20 pm

Cupcake wrote:Well,there is one way around it all,if you have to work on Sunday,just let Ben run it for you :D

yeah but that defeats the purpose of me being the brewer of the household. i'll just let its do its thing and run it on tuesday