brewing in the rain

I was hoping to brew on friday, but it looks like rain . IS there anyway to brew outdoors in the rain????? I dont have a garage or any kind of covered patio just a small deck. IS my brew day ruined or does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm afraid its ruined. You don't want rain water going into your wort.

Although, I guess, if you could find some way to cover your boil for the last 10 or 15 minutes but still allow steam to escape you could pull it off. Maybe an umbrella?

A carefully placed umbrella(that you don't care too much for) perhaps? Screw it, brew anyhow! Just bundle up and enjoy the outdoors. You'll have it all to yourself! I am lucky enough to have a dry place to brew outdoors so this is easy for me to say. Of course, this is also advice from someone who lives in Oregon! I'm sure there's something wrong with our brains... It rains ALOT here. hehehe:rockin:

DOes rain water have any chance of carrying an infectious substance?

A large stainless pot on the stove. Great for a 5 gallon batch. I do it all the time.

im not even sure if my 11g pot will fit on my electric stove under the hood and all, and prolly not even be able to bring 7 gals of wort to boil, at least not for a verrrry long time. I think i will just pretend i never looked at the forecast and maybe it wont rain.

I know all about it. We have great weather here, but I have loads of Live Oak trees and this time of year the pollen is horrendous, plus there are these little green inchworms hanging from spider web like threads everywhere. I've never had a infected batch of beer before, and I'm concerned that both of them would get in the boil and that at least the pollen would affect the beer while it was chilling.

I hope this stuff clears up soon. Perhaps I'll start another batch of Apfelwein....

Score! THe beer Gods are with me this weekend, i wrote that last post and then checked with mother nature (weather.com) and it told me no rain tomrow. Brew on!

Well aside from annoyance, you would probaby be fine as long as it's not a downpour. Why not just string up a tarp? It doesn't have to be fancy. Rainwater is naturally soft, and although there is a chance of infection riding in on the drops you shouldn't worry about it with hot wort. When it cools down below like 160 °F is when you need to be careful. If you think about it, you probably have a similar likelihood of getting an infection from bugs riding on airborne dust, currents, etc.

I've brewed in the rain a few times, I put the fryer in my shed by the door and stand outside:cross: I scored a 10' by 10' pop up cover this past winter at the local BigLots for about $50 that I plan to use from now on.

"Brewin' in the rain,
I'm brewin' in the rain.
What a wonderful feelin'
I'm happy again."

Sing that while holding an umbrella and jumping up and "clapping" your feet together and the brew gods may smile upon you, blessing you with infection-free wort.

my first two brews were done when it was spitting snow. i just left the brew pot halfway covered with a lid for the first bit, then took it off fully for the boil, and when the boil was done, put the lid back on fully, and shoved my brewpot in a big barrell of ice water for cooling. i had no issues, and i watched snow fall into the wort. not a TON of snow, but there was definately snow falling into it. my thoughts were that since it was boiling, it was killing off any possible threat of infection anyways.

brian

2nd Street Brewery said:

I've brewed in the rain a few times, I put the fryer in my shed by the door and stand outside:cross: I scored a 10' by 10' pop up cover this past winter at the local BigLots for about $50 that I plan to use from now on.

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I might ask you to bring that up in May

Make sure to adjust the boil times. The evaporation rate is way different even with a partially covered pot.

Not as much of a concern about infection (can cover the brew pot while cooling), but more of contamination from polutants.

Rain and snow will carry polutants from the air. Even if you are very far away from poluted areas, the wind can/will carry them thousands of miles.


I've rigged up a picknik table umbrella with bungee cords before.

the_bird said:

I might ask you to bring that up in May

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Hell bird, if you remember when we went up to Glibbidy's I had everything but the kitchen sink in the back of my truck and I could bring that too since I got one of those plastic slop sinks for my basement this winter.