I recently acquired a chest freezer and digital temperature controller to free myself from the tyranny of whatever temperature my basement happens to be. I made an ale and it worked fine to hold it steady at 66F. Now I'm making a marzen, and I am following the advice in BCS to chill to do a "modified Narziss fermentation" - 44F, pitch, and slowly raise the temperature to 50F. However, 24 hours after I turned the set point from 44F to 50F, the temperature is still down at 44F. This is great for demonstrating the insulation of the chest freezer, but not really what I wanted for my fermentation schedule.
What are some good ways to warm this up? A second controller and a heating pad would be ideal, but I'm not set up for that. Would putting a pint of just-boiled water in the chamber be reasonable? (6 gallons I want to raise ~3 degrees at a time vs. 1/8 gallon that is ~160 degrees above the ambient temperature).