Apartment Brewing Tips/Tricks?

I have been brewing in my apartment for the past year and looking for any tips that anyone has on how to make the process easier?

Cleaning is a pain and it helps to clean in the tub and clean in the sink with a garbage disposal.

Any tips or tricks for making brewing in an apartment easier, would be greatly appreciated.

I have a small kitchen in which I cannot simultaneously open both my fridge and dishwasher doors. My stove back burners can't take tall pots because of an overhanging edge. And like you, I have to use the bathtub to clean fermenters, severely tilting them so they fit. Maybe I should get one of those faucet spray attachments

It can be frustrating, but I think the key is to have everything tidy ahead of time. I avoid cooking the day of, or even the day before, so I don't have dirty pots/pans all around. I pull my dining table close to my kitchen just to get more counterspace.

I personally have a downstairs storage area, which probably makes me the envy of many other apartment dwellers.

Are you doing all grain or extract? I did all grain brewing in an apartment, but it wasn't as easy as in a house, for sure. I always cleaned everything out in the bathtub, until I got a faucet attachment to hook a hose up to it. Do you have an outdoor patio you can hose everything off on? I hooked the hose up to the faucet and sprayed everything off outside, it made it a bit easier to clean (except for the neighbors giving me strange looks).

I did it for about 4 years and did great AG beers. You just need to find a setup that works for you. I used a turkey fryer with a keggle on the sidewalk and cooled it inside with a sink connection on an immersion chiller. Swamp cooler was my best friend and I shoved an extra fridge in the apartment for a kegerator. It was pretty slick. It was actually harder to do batches in my garage after I had done them in my apartment for so long. I did everything anybody else on this forum was doing inside that apartment. You just need to be creative and crafty.

I am brewing AG. Just started to brew AG. have not tasted the brews made yet from AG but I know that the post cleaning and disposing of grains has some challenges that make me want to switch to extract. we will wait and see

You don't have a dumpster at your complex? That's where my grains go. If not just put your tun in the passenger seat and take it to someone's dumpster. Gotta do what you gotta do!

Yeah your right. I think I need to brew better beer to recruit friends to help on brew day.

Oxiclean is your friend. Throw your fermenter or whatever you need cleaned in the tub, fill it up with hot water and a scoop of oxiclean and a few hours later you rinse it and it's clean.

We live in a small townhouse apartment and we have a small half bathroom downstairs where I brew and I use that to ferment in. If you close the door and turn the fan on, the fan will draw the warmer air out the top and cooler air will come in under the door. That can give you a 5 degree drop or more in air temperature in the bathroom.

I brewed for the first several years in an apartment, and I know it can be challenging, especially if you don't have a garage. Luckily my other hobby is dirt biking so I need a garage, and all my apartments have had garages. But here are a couple tips I can think of.

Post a Craig's list add for free composting grains, gardeners who compost love spent grains. You might be able to find a few people who would be happy to take your spent grain off your hands.

Start batch or No-sparge brewing,so you use less equipment.

Only use a primary, and condition in kegs.


I think the hardest part I found about apartment brewing was fermentation temperature control. I had a 5cf freezer chest, that limited me to one batch per two weeks. After fermentation is complete, temperature control is not such an issue.

My final tip is to find an apartment with a garage...

If you do get one of those hose adapters for your faucet (and I highly recommend doing so -- if nothing else, it helps with an immersion chiller), be a little careful with it. One of my apartments had a cheap-ass faucet, if there ever was one, and I stripped the threads out of the faucet by just looking at it cross-eyed.


TL

are you using an electric stove? I use to brew in my apartment and noticed that some sections of the coil were red hot even with the pot on there. I figured out that these sections of coil were not making enough contact with the pot (and hence, were red hot). I slide some SS washers under the noted sections to raise them up a little. I noticed slightly faster boil times.

Edit: Another thing I did to use the bathtub better was got a large section of fairly big tubing (not sure of the size, maybe an inch ID) and took off my shower head and slid the tub onto the stem. There may be some kind of adapter garden hose adapter but I dont know. That kind of gives you a hose to use in the bathroom. I bet you could mix and match enough fittings at homedepot to get a garden hose hooked up to you shower head.

Skins_Brew said:

Edit: Another thing I did to use the bathtub better was got a large section of fairly big tubing (not sure of the size, maybe an inch ID) and took off my shower head and slid the tub onto the stem. There may be some kind of adapter garden hose adapter but I dont know. That kind of gives you a hose to use in the bathroom. I bet you could mix and match enough fittings at homedepot to get a garden hose hooked up to you shower head.

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I just got one of those hand-held shower massage things. Works just as easy and if you really want a hose you can just unscrew the shower head off and use the hose alone.

ChshreCat said:

I just got one of those hand-held shower massage things. Works just as easy and if you really want a hose you can just unscrew the shower head off and use the hose alone.

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Yea those handheld things would work, and on the plus side, they rule to take a shower with.

That is awesome suggestions. Highly appreciated.

Where could I find a hose adapter for my sink?

Will it effect my brew if I split the 5 gallon batch between 2 pots? (due to the electric stove not being able to handle a hug pot)

I live in an apt. I just started doing AG, I'm now on my fifth batch.

My kitchen is as small as anyones. or smaller... I have to clean before I brew and make sure I won't have people walking in and out as the front door opens into the kitchen.

I boil a five gallon batch in two pots. One 4 and one 5 gallon. I cool in my sink with an immersion chiller. (but I'm looking into no-chill)

I use my bathtub. I place my buckets in the tub and fill the buckets with water so I can sanitize my stuff.

My grains go down the garbage disposal. slowly.. Or I put them in bags and throw them out. I supposed you could put some down the toilet....?

I ferment in a closet. All my beer stuff (bottles, buckets, carboys, ect) live in the closet. Before my girlfriends son moved out, (it's his closet) I kept everything in the corner of the living room. Not all roomates/wifes/etc are as cool as mine is though.

Hose adapter for your sink you can find at a hardware store.

I made my wort chiller from copper tubing I got from HomeDepot. It was already bent into a circle, I just spread it apart and added hose ends.

The best thing to do for small space brewing is to evaluate what you need and be organized.

I have been brewing for almost 3 years and every time it has been in an apartment. With my spent grains I just throw them out in the forest... I do agree the hardest part about an apartment might be finding room for all your brewing stuff. I have shelves above my washer and dryer that keep my carboys and equipment safe, and an extra full size fridge that I use for my bottle storage and such (but SWMBO says the fridge has gotta go).

I also have a "brew box" (its a tackle box that I use and I put all my little brewing stuff in it like tablets and cleaners and stoppers... etc. all the little stuff you think you might lose) that works pretty well to keep everything small organized.

I would just say that before you brew make sure you are organized, cleaned and ready to go. I am in the process for getting a 3 gal glass carboy so I can do full boils on my stove, and for experimentation with beers. Once I get my turkey fryer (come on Christmas) I will be doing boils outside as long as my apt does not care. We are not allowed to use our own grills at my apartment so I would suggest asking your owners to make sure they don't think you are cookin' up something your not supposed to be.

take off your aerator on your sink and take it to home depot. In the kitchen sink aisle where you find replacement aerators they should have what you need. Take your aerator with you, they have a sizing display that will help you figure out exactly what size you need.

Check out Deathbrewer's BrewInABag (BIAB) method in this thread. I believe when he posted this thread, he was living in an apartment and found a way to brew 5 gallon AG batches on an electric stove. I do this now, in a house and it works just fine for me. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

should i be worried about breaking my stove if i have too much wort in the pot? what is the max weight electric stoves can handle.

wlampe said:

should i be worried about breaking my stove if i have too much wort in the pot? what is the max weight electric stoves can handle.

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That is a good point you brought up there. You do need to be careful about that. Different stoves can handle different loads, but many cannot handle 40-50 pounds. It's mostly about the bracket-thingys that hold up the heating elements.

For those that are lucky enough to have gas stoves in their apartments (not so common, since they are more expensive), those are much sturdier.

And, pnj, dude, do not even think about putting spent grains down the toilet. I mean, unless you like spent grains backing up the whole works or spending an hour in front of the toilet for reasons other than drinking. Bag 'em up, and toss 'em out (or dump them in the woods, if you have them).


TL

This was my first setup. Not really safe. I use an large rubber-maid container to rinse first, then I wash in the sink. For boilling, I simply put the cauldron over two heating elements (that's not good for your range).