All Grain Brewing in a Garage During the Winter?

This Saturday, I'm going to be doing an all grain batch in my garage. The air temp that day is forecasted for a sweltering 16 degrees. I figure the main things I can do to make sure my brew has every chance of holding it's temperatures and not taking forever to heat up would be to turn on my 500w shop lamps and keep the garage door closed. Either way, this is my first time at outdoor winter brewing. Can any cold weather brewing veterans provide any insight on what to do to make sure I hit my temperatures?

It's not wise to burn propane indoors, closed up. In fact, it could easily kill you. Natural Gas is ok.... so is electric. But propane needs ventilation.

True enough. I learned the hard way once. I'd keep the window and door cracked, of course. I'm just trying to make sure I don't waste too much time trying to maintain temperatures for the wort and water.

Keep all your grains and equipment indoors until needed. Even better mash inside the house if you can - that is what I do on cold, windy days but I use a cooler for a MT and don't recirculate.

GT

well, i do not deal with that low of a temp often, but wtf is 10* when brewin?


anyhoo, i leave the garage door open, put on a good coat, and crank the tunes! (you do have a vintage 1970's amp and speakers in your garage, dont you????????


anyway, my MLT is a rubbermaid cooler, so i still dont lose more than a degree in an hour, no matter the ambient temp....

i dont see the problem.

as far as mash and sparge water, what i do, leave em in the house the night before. that, for me means they will be at least 64* come brew day.... i cannot brew with tap water, as it is well water, and too nasty to brew with (super high manganese and iron levels)


anyway, i see no problem.
im brewin this weekend, no matter what the weather is, it's been a few weeks damnit!
like sex (married a decade) i can only go SOOOOOOOO long now!
must brew no matter what!

ohh, on edit, i have a carbon monoxide meter i stole from from my biggest boys room (prior to moving where i am now) he does not need, we have no gas--- 100% electric house) that i set up in the garage for this reason, two burners (one @ 185k btu, one @ 55k btu) and i have not yet heard it scream at me... but, i brew with the door open!

be careful.
dead brew is as good as no brew. and were talkin 5 minutes here. not even enough time for you to know your dead.



and no, i do not care if your makin "dead guy ale"
that don't count!


good luck!

I guess I am lucky, my basement walks out to the garage, so I can mash/wash/work in the basement, and then walk out through the garage to boil outside.

I did brew on a cold 10* day in January, and since I do have water pipes running through the garage, I tried brewing in the garage. I closed both overhead doors, leaving a little crack at the bottom for at least some ventilation. It was OK for a while during the boil, but an eerie cloud formed at the garage ceiling (vapor). I decided to move the setup back outside, and I just closed the garage doors and let it boil away un-attended outside. I'd open the garage door when I needed to go out and check. Fortunately, there were't a lot of hop additions. Incidentally, the burner had no issues keeping the boil going.

All good ideas. When it's that cold, I mash inside. Always leave the garage dor open for ventilation.

16 is nothin dude... especially when you are inside a garage with a turkey fryer roaring and can leave the door partially open.

+1 For the mashing inside. I use my kitchen stove and MLT cooler to make my wort inside and then carry the filled pot out to the garage for the boil. I'm sure my MLT would hold a temp....but....I'm a wussey and hate the cold.

I've brewed my last 6 batches or so in my garage. I leave the garage door cracked open about 2 feet and have the burner right next to that opening. I also have a fan on the far end of my garage door blowing fresh air inside the garage. Make sure you have a carbon monoxide monitor!

Thought for next time.This Gas heater throws some good heat. Just at a party where it was in this huge log home and they two of these in the basement, I was sweating on the main floor.

Always be careful when heating area with Propane. I have been at parties that used a propane heater to keep the garge heated but didn't vent a door and the CO2 detectors screamed.
I have boiled in the garage with the side door open a crack letting good air in and haven't had any issues.

Can't wait for spring....

i mash and boil outside year round. course i ride my bike to work year round so i'm used to being outside, but i've not had any issues with maintaining temps or reaching a boil or anything like that. 16 is about as cold as it gets around here.

davebl said:

It's not wise to burn propane indoors, closed up. In fact, it could easily kill you. Natural Gas is ok.... so is electric. But propane needs ventilation.

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Natural Gas needs ventilation as well. You are burning O2 and making CO when using Natural Gas just like with propane. You need to manage the off gasses just like you do with propane.

To the OP, crack the garage door and crack a window to get a draft moving through and you'll be fine. The main concern beyond CO poisoning should be the fire hazard. Keep an ABC fire extinguisher handy. I brew in the garage all the time without issue.

Also, with air that cold it's bound to be really dry air too. You might expect some increased boil-off losses as a result of the changed evaporation potential.

I have one of those gable exhaust fans and I use a co2 monitor w/ windows open a few inches. Brewed one morning at -20 F.... no problems until I spilled some water & it froze on contact with the cement floor. I run a hose from the cellar to my immersion cooler and then out the window into the snowbank.

I'll be brewing this weekend... highs forecast in the low thirties... I'll need the sunblock

mmb said:

Natural Gas needs ventilation as well. You are burning O2 and making CO when using Natural Gas just like with propane. You need to manage the off gasses just like you do with propane.

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Why are gas stoves okay?

move to texas. its 84 degrees on my back porch right now.
btw i cook with propane in my house all the time. the thing is when you are cooking normal foods you are rarely cooking full force high temp for 60 minues or longer. and most people have exhaust hoods over the stove, not so on your turkey fryer burner.

Boondoggie said:

Why are gas stoves okay?

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For the same reason propane stove are. Many rural homes use propane and cook successfully. However look at the heaters, they require venting.

The turkey friers we use are not efficient enough to burn so completely that there are no excess levels of harmful gasses.

I always mash indoors and carry my wort outside regarless the weather. However when it is so cold that I have to use the garage as a windbreak, I leave the door open and wear a coat.

What about putting all that water vapor into the air, in your garage, in the middle of winter? Anybody suffer any bad effects from that? I'm just thinking it would condense on everything and maybe start rusting a thing or two out there.

-OCD

Aside from a little wort on the floor, you can never tell I brew in there. It doesn't create the sauna effect that you might think.

Any wet utensils will freeze to the work surface.....Sometimes they can get REALLY stuck! I hate that.

CO is no joke; I'm a 20+ yr veteran Fire fighter/paramedic and have seen + felt the effects of CO. It combines with blood's hemoglobin 250+ times stronger than O2 -- therefore once in your system it takes a long time to replace with O2. ie 30 minutes exposure can take hours for you to blow off; you may not notice it until its too late and it can kill you. Also CO can easily infiltrate your home and settle in areas you don't expect -- its not worth the risk to you or your family. Home CO detectors can be unreliable and not go off if CO builds up gradually and then other times alarm with safe levels. Make sure you check your CO detectors rating with a reliable source before relying on it. Sorry to be a wet blanket. if you do it be very careful.

I just brewed in my cold garage 2 days ago. It wasn't the brewing part that concerned me, it was the mashing. I was doing BIAB and had a mash of 9 gallons going. It was trying to maintain the mash temp for a hour. I would use a old comforter but it would lose a few degrees every 15 min so I'd fire up the burner which would take it beyond the temp a few degrees, and back and forth. So it's the heat retention in a stainless pot in the cold garage that is a pain for me.

I open the entry door and crack the garage door to get a cross-ventilation. So far no harm, no foul. I too mash indoors.