Plastic Conical Temperature Control

Cooling - My primary goal is to simply maintain ale fermentation temps (as close to 68 degrees F. as possible) on a per vessel basis.  Because of the shape and size it is difficult to use traditional means for cooling.  It would take a VERY large fridge/freezer to house them which would eat up a LOT of space in my basement.  As an experiment I purchased 25 feet of bendable copper tube and made a coil that fits tightly around the largest part of the conical.  At this point there are small stainless bolts on either side that can be used to hang the fermenter from a wall bracket.  These bolts hold the copper coil in place about 1/2 inch below the 5.5 gallon mark.  I then connected one end of the coil to a submersible pump that I placed into a 5 gallon cylindrical drink cooler.  After routing the other end of the coil into the top of the cooler I put about 3 gallons of water in the cooler along with 3 frozen 1 liter bottles of water.  By hooking the pump power cord to my home made temperature controller I can have the pump kick on any time the temperature in the fermenter goes above a set point.   I tested this by filling the fermenter with 5.5 gallons of 80 degree water and setting the controller to 70 degrees.   Within 45 minutes the temperature in the fermenter came down about 6 degrees.  I felt this was promising so I tried the test again starting with 75 degree water and putting some bubble wrap insulation around the coils and foam around the hoses going from the cooler to the coil.  This test was even better as I was able to bring the temp down to 68 degrees in about 20 minutes.  It really helps that in my basement where the fermenters are kept the ambient temp is about 66 degrees year round.   I doubt this solution will work well for lagers but I think it will work really well for ales.  I plan to keep the unit on the fermenter for about the first week during the most active part of the fermentation.  After that it would be freed up for use on the other one.

Heating - My goal in this has two parts:  1) keep the temperature up if there is a cold snap and the basement gets below 55 degrees.  2)  allow me to do a controlled warm up to 72 or so for different fermentation profiles.  To accomplish this I ordered a Brew Belt which is simply a 110v 800 watt strap that you can wrap around the fermenter and connects to itself like a belt.  Connecting it to the heating plug on my controller should allow me to maintain a temperature above ambient up to 75 degrees or so.  I have not received it yet but will post my tests.