brewing heaters

[Guest guest]

Hello all. I'm new to the group, happy to have found it!

Now that it's Winter in the Northern Hemisphere (although it's in the 50's in

NYC), I recently did some research into the types of heaters used in and around

the kombucha jar while it is brewing. I found many on various sites that are

used for the same purpose in brewing beer and a few that were supposedly

designed just for kombucha (but they seem to be the same as the beer version).

So I bought what I believe to be the best and cheapest heater for the size. I

found on a list somewhere that someone was using a waterbed heater under their

bottles and it worked really well. I found someone on Ebay selling a large

waterbed heater for $45, it's a thin mat that measures about 12 " x 24 " . So I

bought it and have been using it for about 1 week. The difference is

astounding! My cultures are much more active than before I started using the

heater. The waterbed heaters also have a thermostat, which many of the other

brewing-specific models lacked. And unlike those smaller heaters that only hold

one or a few jars, mine can hold up to eight 1 gallon jars.

I have been monitoring the temperature of my brewing kombucha and am able to

hold it at 84 degrees fahrenheit. Today some of my jars are ready to be drawn

off, so I will be starting from zero to really see what the difference will be

in time and in the finished product. I'll report back when I have more news.

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