Boiling outdoors, everything else indoors?

I'm doing my first all-grain batch this week and ran into a problem.

Last night I tried to boil 6 - 7 gallon of water on my stove and it would not work.

My questions is can I mash indoors and then transfer the kettle outdoors to boil on my turkey fryer and then bring it back into my kitchen to finish? Is there any problem in doing this? I live in an apartment complex and do not have a hose outside so I will be using my wort chiller in my sink anyway.

Moving 5+ gallons of boiling liquid is a not a great idea IMO. You are going to need to find a way to get water from your sink outside if you want to do it safely...

Of course you can. For example, I boil everything outside and then take the kettle off the burner, through my kitchen, down in to my basement, and chill it there in the basement sink.

It's tough, and it's heavy, and it's tough - but I'm generally an awesome human being so I can handle it.

Now that it's cold out though I'm thinking I might just boil on the deck, throw down a whirlpool, put the lid on the kettle, and just leave it there overnight to cool by itself. Then I'll just siphon in to fermenting bucket, and carry that downstairs and pitch the yeast.

If there is one thing I hate about brewing, it's cooling wort.

IffyG said:

Moving 5+ gallons of boiling liquid is a not a great idea IMO. You are going to need to find a way to get water from your sink outside if you want to do it safely...

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I don't really have a choice. I will have a few people helping me move it. It's just 15 feet or so to the kitchen.

I do it all summer. In the winter, I brew inside. As said above, it's tough to carry that much liquid, but with a little gym time, you should be fine

Airborneguy said:

I do it all summer. In the winter, I brew inside. As said above, it's tough to carry that much liquid, but with a little gym time, you should be fine

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Yep - keep knees bent, and keep that core tight!

You can, but why? Just do everything out side like most ag on a propane brewers do.

I sometimes do this in the cold heart of winter. Unless it's close to zero degrees F, though, I do everything outside.

If I had easy access to a spigot in the winter, I could probably even chill outside though. Hmm... Maybe I should run a faucet through the basement wall to the back side of the house.... Could be handy for.. Cleaning gutters! Yeah, that's the ticket!

Revvy said:

You can, but why? Just do everything out side like most ag on a propane brewers do.

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Winter, apartment, no water, etc.

I always boil on deck and mash/chill in kitchen. During cold winter mashing outside becomes a problem. If you not a wimp you should be able to carry 5 gal batch around.

I mash/boil in the garage with propane. Then carry up a half flight to the kitchen for wort chilling (5 gallon batches). Just go slow and be sure not to drop it. It's not that heavy.

I have helped someone do this with 10 gallon batches though, and that's a 2 person job for sure.

I also mash/prepare/preheat in the kitchen, then do the boil outside, then carry the kettle back in for chilling. I have a gas stove that's capable of boiling 7 or 8 gallons but its time consuming. Also I like to heat while sparging to save time. Just be careful , that's all.

My wife would call me a risk taker, and I'm strong enough. However I would never move 5 gallons of boiling wort. I've worked with burn victims, but I don't want to be one. I know it's possible to move this stuff, but I wouldn't do it.

Yeah, I boil on the deck and mash and chill in the kitchen.

This means I carry 7gallons of wort outside, and about 5.25 post-boil back inside after the boil. I lift the kettle up onto a counter for chilling, but I can do this no problem because I'm a man . You gotta do what you gotta do...

I mash inside and after sparging I take the kettle outside to the burner, the wife helps me carry it over. I keep the lid on to prevent any splashing but we move slow and steady. I then do the boil and chill outside as well since the garden faucet is right there for my IC. After it's cooled I also drain from my kettle to my fermenter outside. I then take in the fermenter, aerate, take hydro sample, pitch yeast yadda yadda. When the fermenter is set in place I then go back out and start taking inside whatever I brought out then on to cleaning.

So yeah, go ahead and mash indoors and boil/cool outside (if you have a garden faucet or tubing long enough to run to the nearest faucet). I personally wouldn't move a kettle with near boiling wort but as mentioned I do move a kettle with mash temp wort in it. While still risky, mash temp wort is nowhere near as dangerous.


Rev.

I mash inside and boil outside as well. I would guess that I carry the wort 15 or 20 feet to my laundry room mop sink, but I would like to just chill with an immersion chiller outside (not part of my equipment list yet). Just be sure to use only your back muscles when lifting, and to lift with a jerking, twisting motion, being sure to take your leg muscles completely out of the equation.

I mash inside and boil outside. Heat mash water on the stove in 3 & 2 gallon pots. First runnings go into the boil kettle, carried outside & start heating with propane. Meanwhile, batch sparge and run off second runnings go into a 3 gallon pot, carried outside and dumped into the boil kettle. I usually chill outside but when weather is too bad, cold or snow accumulation then I carry inside and chill in kitchen sink.

I fill my boilermaker up with all my water (Mash + Sparge) I purchased a little electric burner from walmart $20. Step one: fill up the kettle and crank the electric burner on high. Then I set up everything and by then my water is 185 and I drain into the mash to preheat. (Leave the burner on to keep my sparge water up to temp) then I batch drain into my mash tun to sparge and on and on and on then I keg then I drink then I pee.