third floor brewing??

I have been on a brewing hiatus for a bit but just moved into a third floor apt and am ready to start brewing again. With the new place I have two problems. Both can be solved with a common solution. I have no way to rid the balcony of waste water, if a down pipe was right next to my balcony it would be gravy just cut a hole and install a flap when not in use. But the only thing I have is a gutter above me I was thinking of just pumping it up to the gutter but it seems like a reasonbly priced pump from the harbor won't pump enough gph to a height of 9 ft to get it there. SWMBO barely is letting me run a supply hose from the washer in theb first place so a return line is outta the question. Any input from the vast resources that is HBT would be amazing. I'm an all grain brewer who is using a IC with plans to switch to a plate chiller in the future. I am using a three tier system.
The second problem is washing carboys as the new sink doesn't have a sprayer but running a supply line is already there with pressure so i just need some thing to do with it.

I live on the 9th floor of an apartment, but I am forced to do kitchen stove top brewing. No way I could get away doing a batch on the balcony. Lot's of space but my home owners association would go berserker on me.
All grain is possible on the stove top, but I have to insulate my pot to get 7 gallons to a low boil.
One thing I do with my IC is to run it from a pond pump in a bucket of ice, I first push the hot water into my mash tun to provide cleaning water, then once the water coming out is under 100F I recirculate it back to the ice.
Best of luck.

I am also a 3rd floor apartment dweller and do mostly kitchen stove-top, although I do own a propane burner and occasionally use it, I end up having to transport large pots of boiling liquid around to do so, and decided some time ago I should avoid that for my own safety.

For the stove top, I let my brew kettle sit on the stove so it is on two burners at once. I can get a nice rolling boil that way and it doesn't seem to take any more time than with the propane burner.

For chilling, my stove is next to my dual sink, so I will usually either set up a large container of ice water next to the sink, or use the second sink for the ice water and run initially from the sink through the IC with the return going back to the sink. Once the water coming out of the return has cooled off to the 100F range I will switch over to the submersible pump in the ice water with the return recirculating.

couple of suggestions -(a) assuming you have 3 vessels (HLT, Mash tun, kettle/brewpot) try running the output of your chiller to the HLT (b) get ~40' of tubing, attach it to the output of your chiller and drop it off the balcony - -the water should then flow along the ground rather than drop on neighbor's heads or (c) convince SWMBO that it would be better to run the output line to the washer drain rather than letting it fall on the neighbors...

I'm a second-floor apartment dweller, but I recently moved here from the third floor and my brewing rig hasn't changed.

I'm an all-grain brewer, but I don't have ANY kind of tiered system; just a cooler MLT and a burner to heat mash/sparge water and boil. I do brew on the patio but my neighbors are cool and no one from the central office heads down to my end of the complex.

I just run the outflow from my immersion chiller into an empty plastic 5-gallon water bottle until it's full, then move the outflow to a 2nd empty bottle while I hand carry the full one inside and pour it down the bathtub drain.

I also carry the MLT full of spent grains down to the dumpster along with the last 5-gallon container of water and dump it there.

Finally, I clean everything else in the bathtub. It sucks, but it's what I've worked out so far.

Pro tip: put down a tarp or drop cloth or something on the patio; brewing is messy. And if you wash the kettle in the tub, make sure any nice shower curtain or other cloth you care about is far away: the scorch marks off the bottom of the kettle will stain like nobody's business and don't come out with anything I've tried. Don't let my SWMBO's loss be yours.

-g-

When I was an apartment dweller I drained my waterbed by lowering a garden hose down three floors and out to the gutter As long as you are sharing homebrew with the folks below you they probably won't mind an occasional hose hanging down from you balcony. Garden hose that is.

Now here is the next question. A lot of municipalities have outlawed grills/turkey fryers on balcony apartments, typically after some asshat burns his building down and displaces a bunch of other people destroying their possessions in the process. Are you absolutely sure your allowed to cook out there?

I fail to see how the running the supply line from the washer to IC is much different from running the exit line back to the bathtub. One hose going through the place isn't much different than two.

But if that's the case, just use an ice bath to chill. If I brew in my 4th floor apartment that's what I do. But doing this you are risking spilling the wort and injuring yourself. I'd tell SWMBO you need to run return line to the tub for your own safety

ORRRR....investigate the No Chill method...I just tried it myself. It's very hassle free.

As for cleaning, I clean everything in my tub. Sink is too small.

Yeah the fryers are legal on of the reasons I signed the lease I might look into no chill but I have already got the ok from the neighbor below me to dangle a hose just got to get thebottom floor on deck.



Another question is there a specific type of garden hose I need for the inlet to avoid off flavors?

jppostKW said:

Another question is there a specific type of garden hose I need for the inlet to avoid off flavors?

Click to expand...

If you're just using it for the chiller, no. If you're using it to supply brew water, theres a type of foodsafe garden hose.