Brewing in the Winter?

[02supercrew]

I was wondering how home brewers were keeping their equipment from freezing/gelling up in the winter in non-heated sheds?

I've got my setup in a non heated machine shed. I'm thinking that it would be best if I enclosed the area around my setup and then installed an electric radiant heat panel in the enclosure. I'm not sure if I want it to be 70F but I do need to keep it warm enough so that my pipes don't freeze over on my wash stands.

Would I be better off wrapping the barrels and pipes in heat tape and then insulating them?

I'm assuming that I'd have to definately get a barrel heater to get the WVO out of my barrels.

Any tips or suggestions?

 

[Bio-T]

In your part of the country you will need to partition and enclose the biodiesel section. Then of course provide a heat source. The only thing I caution is to make sure you do not have any open type heating element. You cannot use methanol if you use a flame or open heating element. Just a thought. Also if your barrels are not in an enclosed area you will need to heat the oil.

 

[02supercrew]

That's what I thought. I plan on using a radiant electric heat panel to heat the area. I will probably try to keep the temps near 50F. I was also planning on using a barrel heater to heat up the oil.