Brewing Indoors - How? Safe?

I have been doing some searching here and haven't quite found the answer I'm looking for, so I thought I'd post a new thread.

Basically it is time for me to take the plunge to all grain, doing full volume boils etc. I ordered a lauter tun and have my eye on a new pot at Northernbrewer.

What I'm missing is a good burner.

Since I live in Minnesota, it gets rather cold outside. I like to brew in the winter and am not real keen on sitting out there all afternoon because I have propane.

Is natural gas a safe alternative? northernbrewer.com has some NG buners available that look like you need a plumber to set up, but once installed I would think it would solve my problem? Then I read about deadly gas issues when brewing. My batches are all 5 gal. right now.

Burners tend to generate carbon monoxide in large quantities. If you want to brew with gas indoors, you will need a really good exhaust fan, a couple square feet of air inlet and a CO detector. People use large gas systems indoors (check out your local pizza place), but there are precautions.

I brew in my garage, but have the main door propped open about a foot and the back door cracked a bit as well.

I'll toss in my opinion...

I currently brew indoors, but I have a gas stove that has a high output burner with professional grates, which help spread the heat, so I can get a good rolling boil. I brew 5 gallon batches, and have had great success. I make sure my kitchen windows are open, and try to get a gentle flow of air through the room to make sure there is no chance of gas build up, etc...

Im wanting to move outdoors this year, and will be looking into plumbing natural gas to an outdoor burner. I want to set it up so that I can tee the fittings, one for the burner, and one for my gas grill.

But, I would never try to bring a burner into my house, period. Unless you have a garage that has a very efficient exhaust blower/vent set up, in my opinion, you are taking a big chance. Carbon monoxide is still a danger with NG, and you are taking a chance. Thats my 2 cents anyway.

This looks like a good place for our friends from across the pond to chime in. From the threads that I've read here, it seems that a lot of brewers in the UK use electricity for their full-wort boils. What about it, guys? What kind of setups do you have???

I know a lot of guys around here use heatsticks to boil with. I've got one too, but I only use it to pre-heat my mash water while it is in the cooler. They can be dangerous, though- use GFCI protection!!!!

Even if you have an electric stove there are high output canning elements you can purchase to replace a burner for indoor use.

I've yet to brew outside and I don't see it in the near future. Of coarse, I use the stove top rather than any type of stand alone burner. But if you get creative you can easily do full boils, and all grain in the kitchen.

Definately. My grandmother had a yearly canning operation in her kitchen that processed gallons upon gallons of stuff-- I've never seen a home brew operation that came close the volume she'd process in a day.

And it was all sanitary--- beer, at least, has something in it that can kill off small amounts of bacteria-- all canned food has going for it is that gramma didn't let anyone f up her process.