Apartment brewers unite!

So my landlord has this absurd rule that upstairs residents cannot use propane on the deck. Actually you are not supposed to store anything on there, but I've had weld wheels and my drag racing slicks up there for a couple years now. I haven't broken the propane rule with the deck before, but I have see some people's gas grills mysteriously disappear from time to time. Anyways, I finally gave up on trying to get 6 gallons of wort boiling on a POS gas stove. Even with two burners and a metal thermal blanket thingy on the 40qt pot it still would BARELY boil. It was pretty much a simmer. So... I went to HD, Lowes, and Walmart today... ended up getting the backyard burner from Walmart for like 38 bucks. The thing is actually pretty decent... welded, sturdy... the regulator sucks ass though. I may replace that part of it. Anyways... I can brew at night at 430pm now so its game on! I crafted a little box to hide my propane from pissy residents while I brew. Secret Apartment Outdoor Deck Brewer!!! My neighbor already came home and thought I was distilling whiskey

FLAME ON!!!!!!!

Sweet, I too am an apartment brewer who has to hide my set-up. I dont do a very good job of it. I just give all of my neighbors beer. Gotta grease the wheel.

I am an apartment brewer too but, I live on the ground floor so I have a cement patio and a huge storage closet that I use as a little workshop. I am allowed to use propane but, I have gotten yelled at once. One time, after collecting 7.5 gallons of wort from my mashton I placed the hose on the concrete and let it drain into the grass. Note: 150+ degree wort (even at that low of a gravity) kills grass and it takes awhile to come back. I was asked by our groundskeeper if I poured oil on the grass. I just acted like I had no idea what he was talking about.

noremorse1 said:

I was asked by our groundskeeper if I poured oil on the grass. I just acted like I had no idea what he was talking about.

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Plausible deniability

did he have proof??? HAHAHHA

I decided to go for the electric setup. I brew with the range on and a heatstick that I made. I think it does caramelize the wort a bit but I don't really make anything that I want to be really light so I'm not worried about it. The worst part is the cleanup! I really wish I had a hose I could hookup because cleaning in the bathtub sucks big time!

i just moved into a new apartment too. I'm not allowed to use my turkey fryer on my deck, but its also in VT, so a little cold. I think I'm going to use the stove during the winter and brew on the sidewalk when it warms up. I also have to change out my kitchen faucet, as the sink is so shallow, I can barely fit a 12oz beer bottle under the tap.

I have a hose connector on my kitchen faucet and run 40' of 3/8" out to my deck. That runs the immersion chiller, and makes cleanup easy. You can save the first 5 gallons of warm water and dump the rest over the side. After you pull out the IC, just dunk it in the warm water.

sirsloop said:

I have a hose connector on my kitchen faucet and run 40' of 3/8" out to my deck. That runs the immersion chiller, and makes cleanup easy. You can save the first 5 gallons of warm water and dump the rest over the side. After you pull out the IC, just dunk it in the warm water.

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Or use that 5 gallons of warm water for cleanup and save a whale or something.

I fail to see propane in the picture. I only see a container of LPG so I think you are in the clear.

My apartment complex doesn't allow grills on any floor but the first. kinda foolish since a fire on the 1st floor would burn up anyway. No one listens because there are grills everywhere anyway.

I'm on the third floor and I face the treeline, so I don't have to worry much about people seeing what's going on. Although, the wonderful smell probably carries a bit.






My only complaint about Apt. brewing is walking back and forth through the living room to get things. I can't wait for a garage or backyard.

yeh... walking around through the living room sucks. Its actually nice to get done brewing and not having my apartment 110 degrees...

sirsloop said:

Its actually nice to get done brewing and not having my apartment 110 degrees...

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Haha, yeah. My thermostat is right next to my kitchen. In the summer my a/c will run like crazy while brewing. Since it's gotten cooler my heat won't kick on while brewing and the rest of the apartment is cold. C'est la vie of the apartment brewer. Guess I'll just have to drink a couple more to stay warm.

SilverKing said:

My only complaint about Apt. brewing is walking back and forth through the living room to get things. I can't wait for a garage or backyard.

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+1. And then you spill, and have to walk through with wet feet because your in a rush to grab something from the kitchen.

No open flames of any kind here, but noone seems to cared, probably half the balconies have grill on them, including mine, which I use on a regular basis. I have never even gotten a question from anyone at my apartment complex other than asking to try a beer. My stuff gets sent to the apartment office by the UPS guy so often, they finally figured out it was brew stuff, and thought it was cool.

I am also an apartment brewer. I do everything on the stove top as of right now. I'll probably end up getting a propane burner and doing things that way. But it gets a wee bit chilly here in the wintertime so it would make it a bit difficult to brew during the winter months. The girlfriend loves to come hoome to the sweet smell of my wort boiling on the stove. LOL I just tell her that she'll like the end result. It's working as of yet.

Kudos to the appartment brewers!

Cheers,

Joe

I get that you're hiding the propane tank. but it's kinda of obvious with the giant burner. Also unless you're on the first floor it's kind of a dick move. Not to mention, see how it goes the first time the person below you is chilling on the patio and you have a boil over scalding seriously burning someone. I think the weak boil on the stove would be the least of your worries then. Not to sound like a jerk to apartment brewers, and first floor not putting anyone else in danger seems fine to me, but 2nd floor and up should not be done IMHO.

There isn't a deck under mine... just some bushes. There's no chance someone could get burned unless they were hiding out in my bushes, outside in freezing weather, without me hearing them. I think its common sense not to have 6+ gallons of boiling sugar water that could potentially drop on someones head.

I brew in my apartment... I get a pretty good (full) rolling boil and i don't really need to worry about building a brewtree... thanks fridge + kegerator

I also brew in my APT. I just put foil all over the stove incase of a boil over. I also stick it to my landlord by using up all of his water that he pays for.

my natural gas stove cannot get 6.5 gallons of wort boiling... even with two burners on it.

histo320 said:

I also brew in my APT. I just put foil all over the stove incase of a boil over. I also stick it to my landlord by using up all of his water that he pays for.

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Yeah my landlord pays for water too. If only he knew what he was in for...

I pay my rent on time, I don't cause any problems, and I only have two people living in the apartment. Probably 50% of people here are late constantly or get evicted, probably 10% have the cops called on them for various problems, and maybe another 10% have like 12 illegals living in the apartment. I have no problems using some water

sirsloop said:

There isn't a deck under mine... just some bushes. There's no chance someone could get burned unless they were hiding out in my bushes, outside in freezing weather, without me hearing them. I think its common sense not to have 6+ gallons of boiling sugar water that could potentially drop on someones head.

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That's good to hear then. That's the only problem I have is when people don't consider the people under them.

For common sense, you give the American people too much credit.

eschatz said:

Sweet, I too am an apartment brewer who has to hide my set-up. I dont do a very good job of it. I just give all of my neighbors beer. Gotta grease the wheel.

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Had to laugh!! I'm a heart patient (not from heart disease. A virus from work got mine and damaged it) and when this ailment happened (about 3 years ago now) I had to give up beer, among other things. Eventually I actually got into home brewing, and started giving my doc (primary care) some of my product -he raved about it! I now feed him at least a case from every batch -and he told my wife I should have a glass of beer a day -that it was healthy to do so.
Now THAT is greasing the wheels!! (and my glass is a big ole' English Pint -sometimes I save up a few days worth -though I doubt thats precisely 'allowed', SWMBO doesn't drink beer, but she says my hobby relaxes me, so its good -grin)

every time the apartment maintenance guy has to come to fix something in my place we end up drinking beers...lol... gotta treat those guys right. They can make your life easy, or a living hell.

It also might not just be your landlord's rule - check the city/state laws. I used to be in an apartment in madison, wi and the city law was that burners/grills needed to be a certain distance away from the building. Even the first floor residents were technically not supposed to have grills on their cement patios, according to this law - 2 more feet into the grass; that's okay.

Might be more for liability and local laws, or even insurance reasons; I wouldn't put it all on the landlord without investigating a little more. I'm also uber conscious of others and worried about boilovers, etc. so i just stuck to electric inside.

I totally understand why the rule is in place...just another loss of freedom you choose to endure when you rent. Honestly, After meeting some of my neighbors... I wouldn't want them grilling anything on or around our building. Most of them are flippin morons.

IrregularPulse said:

I get that you're hiding the propane tank. but it's kinda of obvious with the giant burner. Also unless you're on the first floor it's kind of a dick move. Not to mention, see how it goes the first time the person below you is chilling on the patio and you have a boil over scalding seriously burning someone. I think the weak boil on the stove would be the least of your worries then. Not to sound like a jerk to apartment brewers, and first floor not putting anyone else in danger seems fine to me, but 2nd floor and up should not be done IMHO.

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Anything spilled on my balcony runs out a drain and away from the building. Besides, the people that live below me sit outside and smoke 3 joints a day, so we're even.

I am a Apartment Home Brewer.
I live on the ground floor. I tried using the turkey frier burner once to boil my wort, but the temp control on it isn't good enough. either the wort would simmer or it would boil over. I couldn't get enough control of it to be able to get a nice rapid boil without getting a boil over.

I do use the turkey frier burner to prep my brew water (drive off chlorine/flouride etc.)

Now if I can get that Blichman 10 gallon boil pot I might consider using that for my boils...

i just brew on my stovetop at home

but i have thought about this. the ***** would be cooling, i'd have to run hose over my carpet...that doesn't sound like a good idea...

SeldomSeen said:

Now if I can get that Blichman 10 gallon boil pot I might consider using that for my boils...

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Yeah, I got a 40Qt brew pot... it handles 6.5 gallons at a RAGING boil no problem (after the first 5 minutes).

DeathBrewer said:

i just brew on my stovetop at home

but i have thought about this. the ***** would be cooling, i'd have to run hose over my carpet...that doesn't sound like a good idea...

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Its not bad... worked out better and easier than I thought it would.

Now that it's getting cooler outside, I might just brew on my porch.
I can let the outside air temp cool my wort.
Just turn the turkey burner off and let it sit for a while.
I have been thinking about drilling a hole my brew pot out and installing a dump valve to help remove the hot break from my wort.

how cold is it outside? air doesn't really transfer heat well...you'll probably end up leaving it overnight to try and get it to temp.

Yeah, not a good idea. There is a lot of thermal energy in 5 gallons of 212°F sugar water. You want to get it down to pitching temp ASAP and get YOUR yeast in there. If you let it sit outside for hours and hours you'll have wild yeast all up in there setting up shop.

im an apartment brewer. i have all of my bottles stacked in the corner of the kitchen lol. my fermentor is in my closet. i do the brew inside (its cold in buffalo this time of year anyway)

my landlord allows me to have a grill on my porch (me, my gf and my 2 friends are the only people living in the building, its above a music store (which i also move pianos for but that is a whole nother story)) i choose to brew inside. i have no prob getting the brew to boil. all you need is a nice thick walled pot (mine is martha stewert brand ooo lala)

One more apt brewer here. I am lucky enough to have a garage though. There is enough privacy where no one knows what's going on. Except the other day I was racking into my secondary and walked away to check on my mash. Well my primary had six gallons in it and the extra gallon overflowed all over my storage unit, seeped through the floor and apparently into my neighbors closet and all over their clothes. Not cool. My landlord showed up to inspect the leak and saw my entire operation. It was brew day to boot. I'm not really sure what the LL thinks of me now. Oh well RDWHAHB and watch your s**t when you rack or your neighbor's clothes will smell like a dry-hopped IPA.

I'm an apartment brewer, but unfortunately I have a bunch of nazis that will complain about anything and everything. (I think they like talking to security because they are the only ones that will listen to them).

Dump some hot wort on them. That'll shut em up!

I'm a 2nd story apt brewer (hopefully not for long). My apartment complex has a rule against briquette or wood based bbq sets, but anything propane run is fine even on the 2nd story.