My patience has run out...

I've been patiently waiting for the winter season to end so I can get back to homebrewing. Unfortunately, I don't have a basement and my garage is frigid. It's not really in the budget to purchase any type of temperature regulating equipment for my garage. So... my only consistent temp area of my home is inside. I've fermented inside twice. My first batch, which had virtually no smell but was a terrible Mr. Beer kit and my second batch, which was an IPA and the wife was not pleased with the resulting smell.

My question is, and this may be silly, are there certain styles of beer that have a less significant stench during fermentation?

My stash of homebrewed beverages has run dry during the winter months and I'm eager to get back to it! Any advice is apreciated!

What kind of smells? The only smell I've ever noticed was a sulfur smell and that was from a stressed yeast. Is it something you could perhaps cover with an air freshener?

Well... there in lies the challenge. The IPA obviously had a hoppy smell to it which I personally enjoyed. To be honest I enjoy all the scents of the brew and ferment processes. The problem is the wife has a bit of a sensitive nose. I hadn't considered the air freshener but I will give that a try. Thanks for the quick reply!:rockin:

bsimpson244 said:

Well... there in lies the challenge. The IPA obviously had a hoppy smell to it which I personally enjoyed. To be honest I enjoy all the scents of the brew and ferment processes. The problem is the wife has a bit of a sensitive nose. I hadn't considered the air freshener but I will give that a try. Thanks for the quick reply!:rockin:

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One thought - a little crazy - might be to cover your airlock with a paper towel roll, and fill the top half of the roll with dryer sheets or something. Back in my college days, I'd use that to filter uh..smoke. I have no science backing any of this.

Hope one of the two work out - and if not, a heat belt plus a cheap temperature controller is a pretty good solution that can be done (depending on your handiness) really cheap.

How cold is your garage? Try setting a pail of water on a couple 1x2s with a heating pad in the space between the wood. Build an enclosure out of 1" styrofoam or rigid foam. Set the heating pad on its lowest setting and see what temp the pail stabilizes at. Try all the settings on the pad.

From this you should be able to come up with a lager or ale fermentation plan. Just be aware that some heating pads have an auto shutoff.

I use to use FermWrap, sold by the foot here: www.beanfarm.com
Connect it to a dimmer switch and you can manually dial in just about any temp. If you connect it to an STC-1000 it's set and forget. FermWrap works much better than a brew belt.

Keep brewing after a year swmbo just walks in the door from work and says ahhhh wort. She hated it at first but came to put up with it.

brewinginnc said:

Keep brewing after a year swmbo just walks in the door from work and says ahhhh wort. She hated it at first but came to put up with it.

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My wife increasingly associates mashing grains and wort with 'mushroom soup' from her psychedelic days. Being an extremely supportive spouse, I encouragingly tell her to "deal with it".

Wits smell like bananas!

This past year I seem to remember reading where someone reasonably cheaply rigged up an activated carbon airlock filter. Supposedly it worked too.

Are you talking about the smells of boiling wort or fermenting beer? My wife hates the smell of boiling wort so I brew in my garage but as for the fermenting smell, I leave my fermenter in my basement in a corner and honestly I've never noticed any smells coming out, unless of course I put my nose up to the airlock and take some deep breaths (not that anyone ever does that)

My oldest daughter is sensitive to fresh hops aroma. She hates it and it's one way to get her off the computer to play outside on a nice day. The fermentation on the other hand is something that the family seems to enjoy. I'm fermenting out a barleywine in my temperature controlled drop freezer and it has this amazing pineapple aroma.

My wife thinks brewing smells better than the espresso machine. I agree...that thing makes nice coffee but it smells like dog's crap covered in burnt hair!

She hasn't said a word about fermenting smells and her home office is in the room next to where my beer sits.