electric heater for fermenting wine

rio

I am just starting out winemaking as a hobby and would like to know which heater is more effective or recommended, the Heater Tray or the Brew-Belt? I would appreciate your help tremendously. Many thanks!

HBO_Staff

hi rio, welcome to winemaking, this is down to personal preference and can depend on what type of vessel you intend to make the wine in. If using glass demijohns then the immersion heater is an option, and also the brewbelt, but the brewbelts do need adjusting by sliding up and down the outside of the vessel and keeping an eye on the temperature, as the brewbelts make the contents hotter if they are lower down, and slide them higher up if they are too warm (use a self adhesive LCD thermometer stuck to the outside of any vessel to show the temperature). Whilst brewbelts are flexible and can be used to heat various vessels, wrap around one or two demijohns at once, or our 25 litre plastic fermenting vessels, we would recommend using a heater tray which is what we use, this is because they are simple - just plug in and leave, and do the job without any problems. They are available in 3 sizes, the 25 litre tray accomodates the 25 litre fermenting bin, and you can stand various other containers on it too, including demijohns. Then as it is pre-set to a good brewing temperature, just leave it to ferment. If you think you will be doing only one or two demijohns at a time, then opt for the smaller one or two demijohn heater trays, as these will be more efficient for those quantities