Help!: Small brew rigs for broom closet brewers

Hi everyone!

I must confess: I'm a total homebrewing newb.

I've been doing all sorts of research for a couple months now, trying to get a feel for the brewing process. I've been reading the books and magazines -- as well as these forums -- searching for inspiration on where to start.

But there is a bit of a problem -- I have no room to brew.

My studio apartment has a kitchen that is literally the size of a closet. I mean, you can basically step in it, turn around, and walk out. It's roughly as wide as your standard refrigerator, but somehow there's a tiny stove and sink squished in there. The stove's burners are electric and only one of them actually works. There's no overhead ventilation of any kind, and the sink can't fit more than a few coffee cups in it before it's full.

Yes. It's quite literally a converted broom closet.

The rest of the apartment consists of a bed, a small chair, and my TV for the most part. There's little storage space for anything, and I don't have access to a garage or basement. So I was wondering if anyone on here had an idea as to how to brew in such a small space.

What is the smallest rig you can get? Does anyone on here have some photos of their own small scale setups? I know everyone drools over the monster systems, but I'm looking for the Mini Cooper of homebrew rigs. Something that can fit in a very small space, like the size of a teensy stand-up shower. Not just small. But DWARF, even.

Any ideas?

I would suggest doing 1 and 3 gal batches for now. My brother does this since he is also tight on space.

You could also try to find a Mr. Beer / The Beer Machine! fermenter... I've found they fit in smaller places better than a 6 gallon carboy.

Eh, I was hoping to avoid the whole Mr. Beer thing. Not that there's anything wrong with it, of course. I'm just wondering if anyone has come up with a setup that, like Mr. Beer, is small enough to fit almost anywhere but also allows a bit more freedom beyond extract-only brews. Think a few-tier system that fits in my closet, if that's even possible.

With such space limitations, I suggest doing 5 gallon extract brews on your stove top. Here's a link of a kit from Northern Brewer. It is all you need to get started except for ingredients, brew pot, and two cases of empty bottles. This will take up VERY little space.

NORTHERN BREWER: Beer Starter Kits

EDIT - If you are dead set on all-grain brewing, here is a thread where DB illustrates his method for all-grain stovetop brewing. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/. My suggestion is to begin with extract and then progress to all grain, if desired, once you get your process down.


Welcome to HBT!!!

5 gal pot (3 gal will work for a 1 gal recipe)
regular 1-2 gal stock pot
nylon mesh bag
1 gal fermenter (CR bottle work well) or
3 gal fermenter (suggest 3 gal better bottle)
bottling/racking equipment

There's your really basic setup for a partial mash brew.

mine will sit on the top shelf,except for the burner. i use a 100 cup coffee urn as the hlt, a 5g round cooler for the mash tun, and a turkey fryer setup for boiling. you dont have to have a garage to brew this way just a flat spot to setup on. i found a small used kitchen cart as my stand for the hlt and use a milk crate to set the mashtun on for a basic 3tier. no pics as yet tho

There are a couple of ingenious apartment/loft HBTers that I can think of who might chime in with their solutions to brewing in cramped conditions.

Brewtopia
Revvy
fastricky

Here is my design attempts. Please contribute to my thread if you come up with some other ideas!!! Thanks

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/quest-ultimate-portable-brewery-127359/

These are good ideas.

Question, though: is it possible to brew 5+ gallon partial or all grain batches in a really small space? Has anyone on here tried it or built a rig to do it?

If you are looking to brew in your kitchen, your stove may be a limiting factor.

It takes a lot of oomph to bring 7ish gallons of wort up to a boil, and to then sustain that boil for 60 minutes.

Sabbath said:

These are good ideas.

Question, though: is it possible to brew 5+ gallon partial or all grain batches in a really small space? Has anyone on here tried it or built a rig to do it?

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Absolutely! See the link I posted above for East Stove Top All Grain Brewing.

Is there a reason you cannot brew outside?

I brewed partial mash 5 gal. batches in my studio apartment in Manhattan. The stove was the size of a hot plate, but gas fortunately. Even bringing 3 gallons to a boil took half an hour, and I couldn't fit anything larger than a 4 gal. pt on it. I agree with the above, your biggest problem will be keeping 5 gal. boiling for an hour or more. Either consider 2.5 gal. all grain, or 5 gal. partial.

With electric, get a metal cookie drying rack to put between the burner and your pot, it will help with the scorching.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Is there a reason you cannot brew outside?

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+1
Is there a driveway or the like available?

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Is there a reason you cannot brew outside?

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There's a heavily-traveled truck route right outside my front door. And the neighbors kind of leech around the rest of the apartment building, parking their cars across the sidewalk, and they are . . . well . . . *****ey.

So you are looking at all electric on 115 VAC and you are going to have to do it near a window with a fan.

5g batches should be doable for you.

What is your budget total?

Maybe go to a local homebrew club meeting and meet up with some like-minded folks who have space to let you brew with them.
I know I would let someone brew with me if they lacked space. I have tons of room.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

So you are looking at all electric on 115 VAC and you are going to have to do it near a window with a fan.

5g batches should be doable for you.

What is your budget total?

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Let's pretend for a second that I actually have money to spend. But seriously, I wouldn't say my budget is high, say maybe a couple hundred bucks tops, so whatever type of rig could be built for that price. I'm shooting for practical, something cheap and compact that could be set up and taken down in an area the size of a REALLY small closet.

You could use the super old school method of boiling and fermenting in the same container. You would need some way to boil 5 gallons of wort.... depending on your studio's electric capabilities you could probably get away with 2 heatsticks or something.

I've never done the brew in a bag thing, but here's my vision
1. Use your stove top for the mash with the brew in a bag method.
2. Use a heatstick (or 2) to help your stove out and do the boil.
3. Cool with an immersion cooler.
4. Leave the wort in the *stainless steel* pot and pitch your yeast.
5. Seal the lid (somehow) and use a blow-off tube and/or airlock.
6. Just do a long primary and bottle/keg with a siphon hose.
7. Beer

I used to live in a 200sf appt so I feel your pain. I started brewing there, but only did 3 gallon extract boils, and then showered with my carboy....

Tom

Edit: Oh yea and all you need to do this is a big (7 gallon +) stainless pot, a modified lid that can seal well enough, a heatstick, and a huge nylon grain bag.

I don't think you really need a rig exactly. All you're doing is boiling 3 gallons in a 5 gal. stockpot, cooling it with a chiller (hooked up to your sink faucet), then pouring into a 5 gal. fermenter (bucket) through a funnel with a strainer. You're not moving enough stuff around to really need a dedicated rig.

Those only come into play when you're doing all grain, and need three vessels either at different heights, or with pumps to transfer the liquid between them.

Extract or partial mash don't really require anything that elaborate. In fact, my rig is a cheap folding sawhorse, even for all grain.

What about a 5 gallon cooler MLT, a heatstick, and a bigger pot? Store your equipment in the cooler when not brewing. It's not blingy but you can make beer, and it's within your budget. Heatstick can help you get to boiling faster, you may be able to maintain with just your stove then - or maybe you need the heatstick the whole time. Use your current pot as your hlt, and you can keep it to temp with the heatstick wherever you have room.

-OCD

+1 to the extract or small batch brewing. You need to heat less water/wort at one time, which will be a limiting factor for your stove. Since you can't brew on a porch or outside anywhere...

Do you have room in your bathroom for the primary fermenter/carboy?

I also liked the idea of joining a brewing club and seeing if you can brew at someone elses house. I know I would let someone come over to my place and brew, always can use an extra set of hands.

leboeuf said:

You could use the super old school method of boiling and fermenting in the same container.

Edit: Oh yea and all you need to do this is a big (7 gallon +) stainless pot, a modified lid that can seal well enough, a heatstick, and a huge nylon grain bag.

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This idea intrigues me... What about using a large pressure cooker pot? I'd think the edges would seal just fine and it shouldn't be too hard to modify the lid for a blowoff or airlock. Is their any reason you specified stainless steel?

Pressure cooker + grandma's panyhose... sounds like a beer with teeth!

stageseven said:

This idea intrigues me... What about using a large pressure cooker pot? I'd think the edges would seal just fine and it shouldn't be too hard to modify the lid for a blowoff or airlock. Is their any reason you specified stainless steel?

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It intrigues me as well. Does anyone on here do that old school stuff?

stageseven said:

Is their any reason you specified stainless steel?

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Ummm.... I'm not too sure how well an aluminum pot would hold up as a fermentor. I can't say from experience or detailed chemical knowledge, but you don't really see any fermenters made out of aluminum. I would think that the beer would most likely etch the aluminum and you'd eventually get pinholes. But really that's just a lowly educated guess.

I think a 7 gallon pressure cooker would be perfect! Good idea.

Yeah, wilserbrewer uses this method with good results. My grandparents also used the boil pot/fermenter method.

my set-up is kitchen compatable. it gets kinda cold here in michigan so winter brewing is mostly done indoors, still AG but my stove is good enough to boil 7g on gas. the hlt sits on the counter the mash tun on a chair or similar and the boilkettle on the floor to fill.

Those only come into play when you're doing all grain, and need three vessels either at different heights, or with pumps to transfer the liquid between them.

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You don't even need three vessels, though. My rig before I borrowed the 1550 I'm using now was just a cooler and a pot. Heat water in pot, dump water in cooler, run off back into pot. Sure, the sparge water gets tricky and a second pot is really necessary, but I had a smaller one that worked for that. It fit in the bigger one, and they both fit inside the cooler.

Come to think of it, the wort chiller fits inside the pot too, and it can all fit on top of the burner. I could stack my entire first rig (minus fermenter) in about 2 sq. ft.

If only your stove was gas, a modded pony keg would be too perfect....

leboeuf said:

If only your stove was gas, a modded pony keg would be too perfect....

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Here's a potentially stupid question: could one REALLY go old school and do the boil and fermentation in a single converted keg?

Wait, you should ask if you can mash, boil and ferment in one vessel lol

With a little diy I'm sure you can pull it off.... Now I'm thinking.... you could cut the top off a keg, get a 12" gasket, pound the cut off keg top flat to stretch it out.... ok I'll stop...

Tom

leboeuf said:

Wait, you should ask if you can mash, boil and ferment in one vessel lol

With a little diy I'm sure you can pull it off.... Now I'm thinking.... you could cut the top off a keg, get a 12" gasket, pound the cut off keg top flat to stretch it out.... ok I'll stop...

Tom

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It actually crossed my mind. . . for a second, I mean.:cross:

Quote:
Those only come into play when you're doing all grain, and need three vessels either at different heights, or with pumps to transfer the liquid between them.
You don't even need three vessels, though. My rig before I borrowed the 1550 I'm using now was just a cooler and a pot. Heat water in pot, dump water in cooler, run off back into pot. Sure, the sparge water gets tricky and a second pot is really necessary, but I had a smaller one that worked for that. It fit in the bigger one, and they both fit inside the cooler.

Come to think of it, the wort chiller fits inside the pot too, and it can all fit on top of the burner. I could stack my entire first rig (minus fermenter) in about 2 sq. ft.

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Well, that's what I was saying- that he doesn't really need a big rig unless he's doing AG, and even then it's a luxury. I have the exact setup you describe and it works great, but still requires boiling outisde.

Eyehook in the ceiling(hopefully hitting a beam) and you can BIAB on the stovetop. hook, rope and bag maybe $10. And a pot to mash boil and ferment in, using the no chill method. That's probably as cheap and compact as it's gonna get.

-OCD

Here's what you're looking for.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/countertop-brutus-20-a-131411/