Warming IBC's for Ferment

[Tony Cross]

I have heard of using aquarium type immersion heaters to get the temp up in IBC's for fermentation control. In the past I have used electric blankets. I was wondering how effective they are and what size? I live in an area where we get -3 to 3 degrees Celsius overnight temps.

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[dave pert]

On a much smaller scale, I've used aquarium heaters successfully with 40 pint batches of beer. The main advantage of these over brew belts or heating pads is the thermostatic control, so you don't end up overheating. Can't see why the bigger versions wouldn't work with ibcs. If you Google "1000 litre aquarium heater" they come up, seem to start around £40. I imagine they're a lot more efficient than heating from the outside, also. Lagging the outside might also be an idea to minimise losses and save electricity.

[Tim James]

https://www.tanks-direct.co.uk/insulated-ibc-jacket.html?fee=3&fep=3623&gclid=Cj0KCQjww47nBRDlARIsAEJ34blcILzdLor9IWKWuY33rG3EHCLIXh69gF3pZxR2YNEL9uOjK8YdiXUaAnoeEALw_wcB 

We use the above plus electric blanket/s (with similar ambient temps as yours).

Very simple and works every time!

[Joe Barfield]

Derek at www.WInegrowers.info offers "Internal Plates, Snakes or Coils, for cooling or heating." They seem reasonably priced. More importantly, he offers a page discussing the "Recommended cooling surface area vs volume. " It has info on tank size by 1000L and whether you need glycol or water depending on what you want to accomplish.

I would include his data here, but I don't have permission to do so. There is no copyright notice for the information, but I get the feeling that Derek sort of does this on the side. It's a very informative website, and you can tell he is sort of old school. So, 

Do your homework when ordering from him. If you order the wrong thing, his margins are lower, so he probably won't fall over himself to make you happy. It's more of a "here is some really neat stuff at good prices and if you want to order from me... well ok. Let's do business.

I will probably order from Derek again in the future.

[Joe Barfield]

The page for the snakes is http://www.winegrowers.info/wine_equip/tanks_stst/internal%20cooling%20plates.htm

For the scenarios below, the snakes would run £170-318 + VAT, plus shipping at cost. He offers info for other volumes on his site.

Seriously. His website is cidermakiners' porn.

Volume    Ambient temp 22 °C     Ambient temp 26 °C       Ambient temp 26 °C           Standard
 (litres)      liquid temp 18 °C          liquid temp 18 °C         liquid temp 18 °C         Jacket surface area
                 glycol/water 7 °C         glycol/water 7 °C          glycol/water 10 °C           square metres
_______   ________________     ________________     _________________     _________________

  1000                0.3                              0.7                              1.1                        1.0 / 1.1 / 1.4

[Michael Thierfelder]

I've used a 1000W aquarium heater inside a 4ft section of 1.5" SS Triclamp pipe, cap on one end, fill with water and put into IBC.  Set acquarium temp to lowest setting, mine is 72F, then set up a small pump to circulate the juice inside the tank so you don't cook it and get an even warming.  Frozen totes thaw in a few days vs a few weeks for me using this setup.