Apartment Brewing Tips/Tricks?

wlampe · 09-08-2009, 08:20 PM

I have been brewing in my apartment for the past year and looking for any tips that anyone has on how to make the process easier?

Cleaning is a pain and it helps to clean in the tub and clean in the sink with a garbage disposal.

Any tips or tricks for making brewing in an apartment easier, would be greatly appreciated.

McGarnigle · 09-08-2009, 08:43 PM

I have a small kitchen in which I cannot simultaneously open both my fridge and dishwasher doors. My stove back burners can't take tall pots because of an overhanging edge. And like you, I have to use the bathtub to clean fermenters, severely tilting them so they fit. Maybe I should get one of those faucet spray attachments

It can be frustrating, but I think the key is to have everything tidy ahead of time. I avoid cooking the day of, or even the day before, so I don't have dirty pots/pans all around. I pull my dining table close to my kitchen just to get more counterspace.

I personally have a downstairs storage area, which probably makes me the envy of many other apartment dwellers.

EvilTOJ · 09-08-2009, 08:45 PM

Are you doing all grain or extract? I did all grain brewing in an apartment, but it wasn't as easy as in a house, for sure. I always cleaned everything out in the bathtub, until I got a faucet attachment to hook a hose up to it. Do you have an outdoor patio you can hose everything off on? I hooked the hose up to the faucet and sprayed everything off outside, it made it a bit easier to clean (except for the neighbors giving me strange looks).

eschatz · 09-08-2009, 09:05 PM

I did it for about 4 years and did great AG beers. You just need to find a setup that works for you. I used a turkey fryer with a keggle on the sidewalk and cooled it inside with a sink connection on an immersion chiller. Swamp cooler was my best friend and I shoved an extra fridge in the apartment for a kegerator. It was pretty slick. It was actually harder to do batches in my garage after I had done them in my apartment for so long. I did everything anybody else on this forum was doing inside that apartment. You just need to be creative and crafty.

wlampe · 09-09-2009, 02:05 AM

I am brewing AG. Just started to brew AG. have not tasted the brews made yet from AG but I know that the post cleaning and disposing of grains has some challenges that make me want to switch to extract. we will wait and see

eschatz · 09-09-2009, 02:10 AM

You don't have a dumpster at your complex? That's where my grains go. If not just put your tun in the passenger seat and take it to someone's dumpster. Gotta do what you gotta do!

wlampe · 09-09-2009, 02:15 AM

Yeah your right. I think I need to brew better beer to recruit friends to help on brew day.

**ChshreCat** · 09-09-2009, 02:17 AM

Oxiclean is your friend. Throw your fermenter or whatever you need cleaned in the tub, fill it up with hot water and a scoop of oxiclean and a few hours later you rinse it and it's clean.

We live in a small townhouse apartment and we have a small half bathroom downstairs where I brew and I use that to ferment in. If you close the door and turn the fan on, the fan will draw the warmer air out the top and cooler air will come in under the door. That can give you a 5 degree drop or more in air temperature in the bathroom.

**Bsquared** · 09-09-2009, 02:30 AM

I brewed for the first several years in an apartment, and I know it can be challenging, especially if you don't have a garage. Luckily my other hobby is dirt biking so I need a garage, and all my apartments have had garages. But here are a couple tips I can think of.

Post a Craig's list add for free composting grains, gardeners who compost love spent grains. You might be able to find a few people who would be happy to take your spent grain off your hands.

Start batch or No-sparge brewing,so you use less equipment.

Only use a primary, and condition in kegs.

I think the hardest part I found about apartment brewing was fermentation temperature control. I had a 5cf freezer chest, that limited me to one batch per two weeks. After fermentation is complete, temperature control is not such an issue.

My final tip is to find an apartment with a garage...

**TexLaw** · 09-09-2009, 02:36 AM

If you do get one of those hose adapters for your faucet (and I highly recommend doing so -- if nothing else, it helps with an immersion chiller), be a little careful with it. One of my apartments had a cheap-ass faucet, if there ever was one, and I stripped the threads out of the faucet by just looking at it cross-eyed.

TL