Winter brewing

I'm switching to all grain. I live in Wisconsin & was wondering what everyone else does in the winter. I aaume you brew in the garage with the door open. What is the coldest outside temp you've brewed at? Do you ever go inside and(gulp) go back to extract?

I was brewing outside in 24F temps.. would never go back to extract.. besides SWMBO won't let me brew in the kitchen anymore.. well... not since that one time I had a boil over and made a huge mess. Of course I live in Georgia.. so it doesn't get as cold as it does in Wisconsin. On teh other hand.. when stationed in North Dakota I was grilling steaks in the middle of winter and it was -10F

I brew outside in winter on a deck, all the way down to -10F with no problems, evaporation rate goes up a little and thats all not to mention some discomfort. I mash BIAB in kitchen and boil wort on deck. I don't babysit my brew kettle, once is up to a boil I just leave it on its own checking back once in a while or to add hops. :rockin:

I brew at the front of my detached garage. I have brewed in 10F weather. I have a HERMS system so I just set it and I can monitor from inside the house for the mash portion. For boil I wait outside till for few minutes after first hop addition to make sure no boil over then just go inside and wait for timer to go off for next hop addition.

I mash indoors and boil on the deck right outside the patio doors. I try to have a pretty full pipeline going into winter so I don't have to brew all that often.

I have a brew setup in the garage. With a natural gas wall heater. So, no problems for me, I wear shorts and tee shirts in January. I usually leave the door cracked open, and sometimes will open the garage door a foot or two if I have both turkey fryers blaring. No need to be sleepy (or dead) while brewing.

Well, Superbob, this fellow Cheesehead has brewed in weather that was cold enough to keep the kids home from school. Temps were about -11, with wind chills around -30 or so. Did that a few times. Just throw on some Carhartts and get out there and brew! I brew in my detached garage. It is not insulated, so that makes it drafty enough for me to feel comfortable brewing with the door closed, or maybe just open a crack.

waldoar15 said:

I mash indoors and boil on the deck right outside the patio doors. I try to have a pretty full pipeline going into winter so I don't have to brew all that often.

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I've found it so much easier to brew during the winter. Easier to chill water, easier to ferment at correct temperatures, can basically brew lagers for 3 months by placing them in my laundry room.

I'm kind of not looking forward to summer (except to drink those lagers).

I am a wimp...there I said it, I hate brewing outside when it's below zero. So, I made a 1500W heatstick, this supplements my gas stove nicely. I can bring 6 gal to a boil in about 20 min.

Living in Edmonton, where days can get as cold as -30F, and rarely above 30F, it's too miserable to brew outdoors, even in a garage. My buddy and I gave up brewing outside in the winter.

That's why we went to an electric system in his basement. We've brewed more this winter than ever before. Love it!!

I mash indoors and boil and heat outside. All the propane is outside, with the occasional decoction on the kitchen range. I live in Vermont where it never gets that cold, -20F on the coldest night of the year. Coldest brew night was -5F. It doesn't get much over 20F from December through March. Never had a problem that I'm aware of. The chiller sure works better though.

We brew in bikini's year around in So.Cal.. yah, we don't have 4 seasons so please stay put :cross:

wait! I'm a guy, we brew in shorts year around

AG kitchen batches, ftw

I'm a little further south, but it's still uncomfortable brewing in much of the Summer and Winter. I brew like crazy in the Spring & Fall, and mostly not the other seasons. When I brewed extract, it wasn't so bad, since I could do it all indoors. But now that I'm pretty much strictly AG, it just doesn't cut it out in the garage during January & July.

Amity said:

Living in Edmonton, where days can get as cold as -30F, and rarely above 30F, it's too miserable to brew outdoors, even in a garage. My buddy and I gave up brewing outside in the winter.

That's why we went to an electric system in his basement. We've brewed more this winter than ever before. Love it!!

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I'm in Edmonton, too. We're using propane so my friend and I mash and boil in an unheated garage with the door open or just outside when the weather warms up. There's no way my significant other or his would let us mash or boil indoors. We did that once and it was forbidden afterwards. (It was the smell.)

Yep I also mash inside and then boil in my garage. I dont mind the cold as long as I have a homebrew or 2 in me.

RMitch said:

AG kitchen batches, ftw

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+1
BIAB and boil full volume on the stove in 7.5 gallon pot.

I mash indoors and brew in the garage with the overhead closed but I leave the man door open a bit for ventilation.

I'm gonna miss brewing the cold. Running that nice cold water through my IC and being able to chill wort really fast is going to be missed. By late August the ground water just isn't enough and I find myself using an ice bath to get the wort down to pitching temps. I guess it might be time to make a pre chiller and also get a plate chiller.

jafo28 said:

I'm gonna miss brewing the cold. Running that nice cold water through my IC and being able to chill wort really fast is going to be missed. By late August the ground water just isn't enough and I find myself using an ice bath to get the wort down to pitching temps. I guess it might be time to make a pre chiller and also get a plate chiller.

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Dude, Try sticking your IC in a bucket or pot of ice and running your wort through it. You have to sanitize it of course, and drain the water and add more ice, but it is instant cooling.

jafo28 said:

I'm gonna miss brewing the cold. Running that nice cold water through my IC and being able to chill wort really fast is going to be missed. By late August the ground water just isn't enough and I find myself using an ice bath to get the wort down to pitching temps. I guess it might be time to make a pre chiller and also get a plate chiller.

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Northcalais40 said:

Dude, Try sticking your IC in a bucket or pot of ice and running your wort through it. You have to sanitize it of course, and drain the water and add more ice, but it is instant cooling.

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Not necessary to use an ice bath or run the wort through the chiller. Do this instead.

Or use my new favorite chilling method. Props to Sean Terrill.

jaginger said:

Or use my new favorite chilling method. Props to Sean Terrill.

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That method works if you need to add top off water. But if doing a full boil the pumping of ice water works great

Sent from my Epic 4g using Home Brew Talk

In the winter I brew 2.5-3 gallon AG batches in the kitchen. My electric range can bring 4 gallons of wort to a boil in about 30 minutes, assuming the runoffs are still fairly warm. I like doing half batches because it allows me to brew a variety of beers more frequently. I can turn over my kegs a lot faster too.

Gonna keg my 2.5 gallon Hop Rod Rye tonight...now that's a beer I WISH that I brewed 5 gallons of. Spring and summer are soon approaching though.

I brewed last winter as it didnt get to cold, only down to about 15 or so when I brewed. I did do a double brew session a few years ago in my garage when it never got above -5 the whole 9 hour brew day.
This winter I didnt brew beer at all but made a light mead , and a few batches of hard cider instead.

Bernie Brewer said:

Not necessary to use an ice bath or run the wort through the chiller. Do this instead.

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Thanks looks pretty cool!

Only problem I have brewing in the winter is using my immersion chiller since I hook it up to the outside faucet which is froze.

I brew all winter at 20-30 degrees in a non-heated barn/shop building. 2 propane burners and a cooler. It is drafty throught the big slider door and I leave a few windows open to get ventilation, plus I am going in and out the door, so I don't think fumes are a problem. The only problem is making sure my chiller hose is not frozen solid...I usually try to set it on a stand near the LT burner and it is fine by the time I need it. I do need to heat mash water hotter than the calcs say, but you figure it out and I just keep a jug of cold water nearby to adjust. Brewing in winter is awesome, because in snow climates you seem to have more time on weekends than during the other seasons when there are a million things to do outside.

Here in Michigan (just north of Detroit), I mashed in a bag on the stovetop and boiled out on my back deck all this past winter. Previous to that I was brewing in my friends basement, so weather wasn't a concern. Water heating times and boil-off rate weren't noticeably different from warmer weather. I use a counterflow chiller that I normally hook up to the hose on the back of the house. During the winter I had to run a hose up from the basement because the outdoor spigot was frozen shut. The chiller was noticeably more efficient in the sub-freezing temps. I did have to be selective about brewing days/times in regards to the wind (although that is a factor to a lesser extent in warmer weather, too). I need to fab myself up a standing shield so I can brew in the wind without standing there the whole time with the lighter waiting for the flame to blow out. The biggest bummer was having to shovel off the deck every time. It has been exceptionally snowy here the past few years.

I used to mash and boil outside in my back yard, then close the sliding glass door. I really like the idea of mashing indoors. I didn't think of that and that's an awesome idea. I like brewing during winter because it makes cooling off the wort easier. You can really just put it in the snow.

Teromous said:

I used to mash and boil outside in my back yard, then close the sliding glass door. I really like the idea of mashing indoors. I didn't think of that and that's an awesome idea. I like brewing during winter because it makes cooling off the wort easier. You can really just put it in the snow.

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'Cept the snow melts away from the sides of the BK, and renders it useless of cooling.

Not a tough guy or anything but as often as not, I'm working outside. When I'm not brewing on the weekends, I'm outside playing, skiing, climbing or hiking. Cold weather ends up being a pretty poor excuse for me. Mostly though I have a walk out basement, that makes me a lot tougher.

Some say there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. But mud season (and bug season for that matter) sucks no matter what your wearing. Plus sometimes it is just too damn cold to do anything.

I just brew in the kitchen...

RMitch said:

'Cept the snow melts away from the sides of the BK, and renders it useless of cooling.

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Eh? Not really, I just make a pile and just keep pushing it onto it like they used to do with the old guns in WWII. It works fine and the cold air helps a lot.

right now i live with my mom at her house.. i brew in the garage while its really cold out.. but its a huge garage.. 3 car wide and 1 1/2 car deep... so i dont worry to much about CO. but the coldest i brewed was when it was about 8F out... it froze my garden hose solid once i turned it off in about 5 min.

With a paddle in one hand and a fire extinguisher in the other, I brew in the kitchen and tell everyone to quit whining about the loud noise and low oxygen ("CRACK A WINDOW!!!"). The burner warms-up the house nicely and the fire department has only needed to be called twice.

Teromous said:

Eh? Not really, I just make a pile and just keep pushing it onto it like they used to do with the old guns in WWII. It works fine and the cold air helps a lot.

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In my experience, it still takes a long time to get 5.5 gallons down to pitching temp with this method, due to the inefficiency of heat transfer. How long does it take you to get down to 65 deg? I love to brew in the winter in CT, but just haven't found a way to make the snow cooling work.

Living at 64° 50' 16" N, I've resigned myself to kitchen-based partial mash / extract brewing between November and February and AG brewing March through October. Fiddling with liquids and metal, propane reluctant to vaporize and such when temps regularly are colder than minus 20ºF takes much of the fun out of brewing AG. Maybe if I'd gotten into this hobby in my 20's I'd feel differently about it. Closing in on 60, comfort seems more important than pushing limits.

jaginger said:

In my experience, it still takes a long time to get 5.5 gallons down to pitching temp with this method, due to the inefficiency of heat transfer. How long does it take you to get down to 65 deg? I love to brew in the winter in CT, but just haven't found a way to make the snow cooling work.

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It's not extremely fast or anything but it works fine for me. I know it's probably not going to live up to the expectations of something like a plate chiller. I use a 15gal ss pot for my kettle and 5gal batches if it's any help.