25 Ltr Heated Fermenting Tray

newbrewer

Will the Coopers Microbrewery 30 Ltr fermenting bin fit on this tray? I like the idea of being able to put 20 bottles on the tray for kick starting the secondary fermentation, this would not be possible with a Brew Belt.

HBO_Staff

That is one good advantage of the heater tray, it is more flexible and can be used to warm bottles or a barrel for a few days if needed, although the BrewBelt will also wrap around a barrel. The largest width vessel which will comfortably sit on the 25 litre heater tray would have a base no bigger than 280mm across (28cm), as there are some raised edges which would stop it sitting down fully, and with the weight of the liquid it needs to sit fully down to avoid any risk of damage

newbrewer

Thanks for your reply. Using your information on the maximum size of fermenter that will fit the heating tray correctly and information from an Aussie Home Brew site I have determined that the Cooper Fermenter will not be a good choice to use with the 25 litre heater tray.

The following extracts are from the Aussie site regarding the new Cooper Fermenter

"The maximum diameter is around 400mm and height with collar in is around 550mm."

"The base is nicely rounded and makes havesting of yeast and cleaning easy. As you can see the feet would make it impractical to use a heat pad if desired. A heat belt would have to be utilised instead."<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

"I still use the fermenter as my primary and the only difficulty I have noticed is that if you want auxiliary heating then you cannot use a heat pad, and a heat belt tends to slip on the tapered sides, but this problem is easily solved with the use of a temperature controlled chamber"

Thanks ever so much for the information on the heater tray, looks like I will be investing in the HBO complete starter kit and a heating tray in the New Year :-)

Thanks again

newbrewer

Oops! I think enclosing comments in speech marks made them blacked out!

Here are the comments without speech marks

1. The maximum diameter is around 400mm and the height with collar in is around 550mm.

2. The base is nicely rounded and makes havesting of yeast and cleaning easy. As you can see the feet would make it impractical to use a heat pad if desired. A heat belt would have to be utilised instead.

3. I still use the fermenter as my primary and the only difficulty I have noticed is that if you want auxiliary heating then you cannot use a heat pad, and a heat belt tends to slip on the tapered sides, but this problem is easily solved with the use of a temperature controlled chamber.

Hope these are more visible!

:-)

newbrewer

Hmmm seems it's the cut and pasting that causes the problem. Click and hold down the left mouse button whilst passing it over the comments to highlight them.

Hope this helps someone....

 

HBO_Staff

That's a clever way to see the text, we're not sure what went wrong with the copy and paste there! The tray will not be big enough you're right, we would say try the BrewBelt but it sounds like it might not sit on the side of the vessel properly if it's quite tapered, although it will often grip quite well once tightened in place. It may be worth at least investing in a 25 litre vessel if all else fails, and these are the right size for making a 40 pint batch which is the largest size for most beer/lager/cider ingredients kits....