Mad scientist lab. Scentless beermaking.

Hi all. Like I posted a few days ago my "other" that lives in the house told me I had to stop brewing because she hated the smell.

Well.. I am not one to give up so I designed a way to ensure no odor reaches her lovely nose.

Pix are as follows then I will explain them afterwards with the steps. this is amazing for you guys that like to brew indoors in your dorm room or if you just want to avoid smelling up the place.



The kit being made. You can see the primary and the overflow bucket here.

I have a hose connecting the 2.



All sanitized like crazy and hot glue gunned with non toxic glue on the outsides. for a seal I can break with my exacto knife in a month.



Here is the hole in the lid of the overflow. The overflow bucket is 1/3 fill of sanitized water and the overflow hose goes under the water nice and deep.



Here you can see the hose coming from that other hole you saw a few pix up leading out the window. How this hose is only a inch deep into the top of the bucket and has a clean sock tied on the other side to make sure nothing gets in. The hose leads outside to the inner part of my window that leads to fresh air and I sealed above it as you can see so no smell or air gets back in.

Here you can see the hose going out the window with a sock tightly tied onto it. I gave about half a inch at the end of the hose and the sock so it can breath easier.
You can see my tin foil and sealant on the stand along with a cuban cigar I intend to smoke later.



Finished station all up and ready. The yellow overflow bucket is in a nice warm heated area down there to make sure the water doesnt get to cold. But having the overflow hose from the primary how under the water in the yellow bucket makes sure no cold air comes into the primary.


looks good doesnt it?

Hope this helps anyone out there as crazy as I am.

It might have been easier to get rid of "the other"...

Ha ha.. yeah... That is always a option as well

Good solution, but the main complaints i get is the smell from the boil inside... only wait to avoid that is to move outside...

Yea, I've never gotten a complaint about ferment smell either and I keep 6 fermenters going.

I have moved the brewing outside though because the wife did not like the sweet wort boil smell throughout the house.

PS Are you actually rapidly swirling beer with a krausen and no lid in that picture?

Ok so, if there was an HBT award for seer balls to the walls mcgyverism...I would award it to you!!!

Is your SWMBO part hound dog. I have to put my nose right up to the airlock to get the estery smell.

However, boiling is another story. When it warms up, I might have to take the boil outside in a turkey fryer.

Chello said:

Good solution, but the main complaints i get is the smell from the boil inside... only wait to avoid that is to move outside...

Click to expand...

Yeah, my SWMBO leaves the kitchen (and usually the house) when I'm boiling. She doesn't complain about the smell when it's fermenting.

That will come in handy for the Rhino Farts...

Now you have an excuse to make some Apfelwein!

hammacks said:

That will come in handy for the Rhino Farts...

Now you have an excuse to make some Apfelwein!

Click to expand...

When you get wired up for the rhino farts, send us a picture of that will ya?

impatient said:

When you get wired up for the rhino farts, send us a picture of that will ya?

Click to expand...

You know what's funny? I searched for rhino farts to add link, and the first thing in google is a HBT thread about Edwort's masterpiece.

lol yeah she hates the smell of the foam that comes out. the sweet sweet yummy foam. She complains it lingers for days and days.

Yeah I was swirling it for the pix but it wasnt crazy fast just a little pre yeast swirl.

Lol. I will tell you guys though. She came home and was pissed to see I had another batch going. When I showed her the setup though she said she would allow me this single chance but if she smells anything at all it is going out the window * Between us I kind of want to toss HER out the window lol *

I have faith in my little science lab So far I cant smell a single thing but the foam has not kicked in yet and probably wont until tomorrow :X

Ha ha. If you guys think this is finky wait until you see my bottling station. I will take some pix of that in a few weeks when I bottle for your enjoyment.

** UPDATE ** Day 2 of No smell fermenting

It is into hour 28 roughly and still no scent at all. Actually there is a small flower odor from one of those plug in glade freshners.

I can see a little steam come off the sock heading outside. This worried me a little so I checked the temp of my thermo I have sticking out of my overflow and it is in the warmer side of green so no fear of cold air getting into the primary.

my only fear at this time is that eventually I know I will run out of socks and stand there looking at a single sock in my hand and frown as I see the other hanging outside the window attached to the hose lol.

I will do another update tomorrow and each day after that until I bottle. Other then that I will answer questions and make funny notes here and there but I will try not to spam to much as I tend to do at times

my only question is how do you take hydro readings?

I'll say it again...amazing, freaking amazing!!! You just need to mcguyver something other than socks though...How 'bout her undies? I mean if she's gonna put the hammer down on you, and you solved the problem, she has to sacrifice some herself.

Sorry for the months before I reply.

For hydro readings I can always use my thief that you may or may not see there
As for temp I have a air conditioner in the window right there blowing a constant temp into the small room so its always the same. I have al little container of water with a thermometer in it to see what the room temp is. ( in liquid )

Revvy. I did change the sock out for a filter system ( Cotton with coal and mesh. ) Id love to say I did it all myself but one of my engineer friends made it and gave it to me in exchange for a 6 pack, It even has a sealing thing that when air is not being pushed out it pops closed.



*** Bringing this post up because Many people are asking about how to make your room / house not smell of fermenting beer.

**Update.

As you can see I have 3 carboys now with this setup and still have no problems at all. No one outside complains and there is not a trace of beer scent in my room.

Oh lol. the red black and green tape on the yellow bucket you see are there just to tell me what hose goes to what carboy.

I dropped the glue from the original setup and now use larger hoses than just pinch over the plastic air release valves.

its relaxing to watch foam fill up the carboy when things start to really kick off and then go down the tube into the bucket.

I hope that is a strong desk.