Can I brew in an open garage w/out dying?

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Netflyer

Netflyer

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I realize I might die anyway but will the propane kill me if I brew in my garage like 5' from the opening with the garage door open... it is just that it is 17F here with a neg. wind chill 25mph NW winds - I can't brew out in thatttttt brrrrr....

Can I brew in my open garage and be ok? Isn't the danger in a closed room that the propane will consume the O2?

Thanks!
 
I brew inside my garage always. Even in the summer I'm inside the garage for the shade. Just keep the door open and you'll be fine.
 
I brew in my garage also. You will be fine, just keep air flowing through the garage. If you have a side door just open that and keep the big door down if its that cold.. Plus its always good to keep a fire extiguisher handy.. Happy brewing..!!
 
I always brew in my garage. Summer, both the bay doors are open. In the winter, I open one of the side windows and crack the bay door a few inches.

But, I don't sit around and watch the boil during the winter. Once I get past the hot break and the first hop additions, I go back in the house and only check on it every 15 minutes or so.
 
Brewed an irish stout and a brown yesterday good brew day for the garage. 20 degrees and set the pots in a snow bank to cool. keep the door open. 5 feet is a good distance and enjoy the day
 
You should be fine as long as there is moderate air flow (open door.) It would be wise to bring a carbon monoxide detector in with you but you shouldn't really need it. I would be more worried about all of the frost or condensation that might form? In my bro's garage, just turning on the heater will cause the air above the roof to drip water.
 
I brew in the garage in winter, my only fear of dying is too much smell getting into the house (my wife is a mutant who thinks the smell of boiling wort is disgusting)
 
Heatin' my water... not quite dead yet... Thanks guys!

:mug:

Oh and BTW as far as smelly worts go, there is no doubt of the effect of worts on most SWMBO's if it were not the case I might be an indoor brewer, that said I will also say that the AG wort smells MUCH better than the extract wort. :D
 
Can I brew in my open garage and be ok? Isn't the danger in a closed room that the propane will consume the O2?

Thanks![/QUOTE]

Ready for the really boring answer? The danger is not from the lack of O2 being used up by the burning propane. Like Bobby M and icefisherchris suggested the problem is CO (carbon monoxide). CO is a product of combustion and is toxic to the body. Here is the problem:
Oxygen attaches to your hemoglobin and is transported around the body for cell consumption. If we look at oxygen and carbon monoxide in terms of magnets, CO has a 300 times greater magnet than O2 and thus saturates all of your hemoglobin allowing no space for O2.
To make it simple one could say that you slowly suffocate. This happens a lot in colder climates where people turn on their stove to heat there house or bring in a charcoal grill etc.
Garage brewing can be done safely like others have posted. A well ventilated open garage should be very safe especially if you can open another window for some cross ventilation. A CO detector would be great as well. It's like a mine canary and will tell you when you are working in a safe environment or when to bail.
I know that the cold air outside is the issue. Coming from Santa Barbara CA we complain when it is 50 outside.
"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad dressing" Sir Edmund Hillary

FYI...Best treatment for CO poisoning= Hyperbaric chamber, so if you are not near a spot where a lot of people scuba dive then you are out of luck.

Wow, that was a lot of useless info. I tried to explain it as easily as I could because the actual physiology is a little different but hopefully the point is made.
 
Isn't there any danger of fire with the heat rising to the wood rafters? I hope not, because garage brewing would be so much nicer. -4 degrees here currently. I will definitely bring out a CO detector.
 
Yes Jimgriz, and it bonds and doesn't let go like O2 does... Well it's windy as anything here and I'm burning just inside the open garage bay and both bays are open so I should leave with as many IQ points as I went in with, fingers crossed.. can't afford to lose too many more...

:mug:
 
budbo said:
I brew in the garage in winter, my only fear of dying is too much smell getting into the house (my wife is a mutant who thinks the smell of boiling wort is disgusting)
Click to expand...


Our wives must be related because mine says the same thing. I don't get it.
 
Netflyer said:
Heatin' my water... not quite dead yet... Thanks guys!

:mug:
Click to expand...

You're not fooling anyone, you know? You'll be stone cold dead in a moment.

mp.jpg

 
alot of houses have propane heaters and they are still alive. Go for it.

Propane burns clean so there souldnt be a problem, if your pot is getting black carbon deposits on it then you need to worry, but I fried a turkey in the garage and my pot was black as night and carbon was caked on it when I was finished and I had no problems.
 
just did a 20 gallon batch in the garage Sunday. Got lucky when I bought this house (commercial property) came with a 30x40 ft heated garage, complete with ceiling vent/fan that sucks the fumes right out. ran a hose from basement sink to the shop for the wort chiller. perfect brew day with temps in the teens :ban:
 
superjunior said:
just did a 20 gallon batch in the garage Sunday. Got lucky when I bought this house (commercial property) came with a 30x40 ft heated garage, complete with ceiling vent/fan that sucks the fumes right out. ran a hose from basement sink to the shop for the wort chiller. perfect brew day with temps in the teens :ban:
Click to expand...

Thats awesome I wish I had something like that.
 
lstewartff said:
alot of houses have propane heaters and they are still alive. Go for it.

Propane burns clean so there souldnt be a problem, if your pot is getting black carbon deposits on it then you need to worry, but I fried a turkey in the garage and my pot was black as night and carbon was caked on it when I was finished and I had no problems.
Click to expand...
I would be careful with frying a turkey in the garage; my bro-in-law almost burned his down. Oil spilled onto the burner; there are still burn marks on the ceiling from the flames. Dang fire extinguisher ruined the trukey. :mug:
 
IceFisherChris said:
You should be fine as long as there is moderate air flow (open door.) It would be wise to bring a carbon monoxide detector in with you but you shouldn't really need it. I would be more worried about all of the frost or condensation that might form? In my bro's garage, just turning on the heater will cause the air above the roof to drip water.
Click to expand...

The condensation was my worry also this past weekend. I opted to brew outside in the light rain/snow. I didn't want all of the steam to collect on my drywall ceiling and rot it or at least mold/mildew it.
 
I brew outside in my detached uninsulated garage. First, I run a kerosene torpedo heater (construction, as Baron calls it) for about 30 minutes to take the chill out of it, but once the HLT and BK burners turn on the kero heater isn't really needed... 200k btu of propane burner does a good job as a heater, too.

For ventilation, I have 20 feet of ridge vent and soffit vents and keep two windows (opposite sides of the garage, to get some cross) open a couple of inches. Digital CO/Gas leak detector never goes above zero, and I have a backup CO (non-digital, just a noisemaker... yes, I'm paranoid) that has never gone off either.

I prefer 70 and low humidity over the cold, but I prefer the cold over 95 and humid any day! :)

edit: CO is nothing to screw around with, it will make for an unpleasant day... but I think people (myself included) tend to be a little overly cautious. 20 years ago most of us would have done this in a garage without a second thought... nobody had a CO detector in their house. Now we're just conditioned to be afraid of CO, and that's a good thing.
 
I just finished doing 2-5 gallon batches in my garage today. No doors or windows open, just normal garage roof vents. I had my CO detector sitting a few feet from the burner and it never moved off 0. I know that CO is nothing to mess with (my Dad's cousin died from CO in a corn processing facility), but I think that we are more worried about it than we have to be.
 
djt17 said:
I would be careful with frying a turkey in the garage; my bro-in-law almost burned his down. Oil spilled onto the burner; there are still burn marks on the ceiling from the flames. Dang fire extinguisher ruined the trukey. :mug:
Click to expand...

You just have to know what you are doing when frying a turkey. Put it in slow with the right amount of oil and your fine, oh make sure its thawed completly also.
 
I brew in my basement, just crack the door 6" when I have the flame wide open. When just maintaining the boil I shut the door. I keep a CO detector handy, and it always reads zero.
 
I was wondering about brewin in the garage also. My wife has developed a smell aversion to boiling wort and hell hath no fury like a pregnant wife!!

Plus it's getting kinda nice out here in Kansas so I wouldn't mind brewing outside some. I should hook up one of the spare TV's in the garage! I already have my beer fridge out there.... I love it when a plan comes together!
 

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