New Home = Better Beer?

I live in an appartment in Baltimore and currently looking for house. I find it funny how the basement is allmost a major component of the decision making.There are many great spots but only some without underground basements. I find it amusing that the fact theat I could have an underground basement for a cellar is somewhat playing in the decision making of my new home. Any comments?

Nothing odd about that. I have been doing some home searching lately and saw a house with an outbuilding that said brewery all over it. Out of my price range though.

Cool. A basement would be nice but on the otherhand the more underground exposure the more risk of mold etc.

I found a place that fits our budget and location but no basement. I know i need to invest in some fridges and S , It just sucks.

People buy houses with basements for all sorts of reasons. Often it's so they can build a rec room. How is that any more strange than wanting a brew room?

also think about water. City water is nice, but once you start getting north - all bets are off. I lived in white marsh, and the water was awesome. I moved to Joppatowne, and now I can't make any lighter color beer without getting water from somewhere else.

I wish I had a basement. I'd like to get my brewing out of the kitchen.

I'm thinking about a brew shed. I could run the plumbing and gas out there myself, since it's what I do for a living. But wondering what having a second improved permanent structure on my property will do to my taxes. Well, that and the initial cost of building and insulating the thing, heating and cooling, the list goes on....

I can always dream...

Dude...you can't even HAVE basements in Florida

Anytime I have to "celler" an ale during the secondary, I have to clear space for the carboy in my tempeture controlled kegerator

My old house in New York has a root cellar....Imagine Lagering in one of those!

Water is not too much of an issue. I can always use bottled water.

I am looking at houses too. Basement is a must. I am also looking at proper water access in the basement as well... ie room for a sink. The house i am close to purchasing already has a utility sink in the basement and that definitely sold the house for me. I just want to be able to ferment and clean in the same place that is priority in my brewery.

I lived in "O-Town" Orlando, for 5 years. During all those f-in Hurricans a few years back. So yeah no basements. Bummer.

BGT Hophead said:

Dude...you can't even HAVE basements in Florida

Click to expand...

Forgive my ignorance, but, why not?

Quote:
Originally Posted by BGT Hophead
Dude...you can't even HAVE basements in Florida

Forgive my ignorance, but, why not?

I'm a brewer...I'm very forgiving

ANYWAY...

in Florida...if you dig anywhere in the ballpark of three to four feet down...your in water

I first became aware of this issue when my plans for digging to China during Hurricane Charlie went totally not the way I had expected

Wow. I know you guys have the Everglades, but I didn't know that the water table is so close to the surface through the whole state. I had just assumed it was a regional thing. Looks like I learned something today.

Fingers said:

Wow. I know you guys have the Everglades, but I didn't know that the water table is so close to the surface through the whole state. I had just assumed it was a regional thing. Looks like I learned something today.

Click to expand...

It's like that all along the gulf coast.

I didn't know that, either. Up here it's extremely rare to find a home that doesn't have a basement.

Mmmmm, Radon beer...

We just moved into a new house (just west of you). During our house-searching, I was very up-front with our buyer's agent about my brewing hobby, and she certainly contributed comments about the suitability of certain areas and basements for brewing.

We ended up with a house that had 1/4 of the basement finished, and the rest unfinished. I've set up a set of metal shelves to store my equipment in, and the space directly beneath the stairs will be where my buckets/carboys go. Only thing my basement doesn't have is any kind of plumbing, which means I have to do my actual cleaning and such upstairs or outside where the water is.

i'm VERY lucky to have a friend's house where i brew that has a basement. Very rare in this area. brewing in my kitchen isn't near as fullfilling...but it's fun when i just want to do a half-ass brew day