Hurricane Ale?

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hexmonkey

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Joined
Dec 13, 2007
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Location
Hunterdon County, NJ
In NJ, watching the rain get stronger as Sandy approaches, and thinking: can I brew with that water?

Has anyone done this before, brewing with collected storm rain? Is it possible, assuming I can collect enough?
 
I would absolutely try - it will hopefully be the only time in your life that you see a storm like that. What's the worst that could happen? You'll end up with a good story and some beer.

I brewed with unfiltered lake water in January of last year and will be making a beer this winter with melted snow water. The lake water turned out quite well.
 
Im in Baltimore, MD and I was thinking about setting out some buckets and trying to collect 9ish gallons of hurricane water.
 
The two main questions I have are:

  • Can I collect enough water to do this?
  • Will the water be too soft/hard/contaminated with pollen, etc.?

I think that if I set out enough buckets (tethered down in some way) that I should get enough. A rain barrel connected to the house downspouts might work but I'd be worried the resulting beer might taste kind of 'roof-y'.
 
Just wait until it's been raining at least a few hours which will wash all the pollen, dust and pollutants out of the atmosphere and you will get nice clean ocean fed rain water.

I am in Northern VA and I would try it but I have good well water for brewing. If I was off work for this storm I would absolutely brew out on my covered deck with the rain and wind whipping around me! Hurricane brew party!
 
This sounds amazing. I was thinking about opening the garage slightly and brewing a "hurricane ale" on this fine day but using the water from the storm now thats an idea!!
Might be participating in this as well, will report back!
 
You could set up a tarp as a rain catcher to increase your collection volume and I would guess that with all the wind and heavy rain, most of the "junk" will be blown or washed away. Go for it!
 
I have good water. What I don't have is hurricane water. :)

I can definitely appreciate this now. I am seriously considering joining you in this Hurricane brew fest!

The tarp idea is a good one. I'm going to rig up a small tarp with bungees off my deck rail to funnel rain water into one of my 20 gallon plastic wash containers and then cover it once filled until after the storm passes and then it's brew time! :rockin:
 
Yea, sounds awesome. It will be extremely soft so consider doing a style that calls for extremely soft water. I would not make any adjustments at all, if it were me (seems to defeat the purpose), just roll with what you get. If you're super worried and need to add something, just a tiny bit of CaCl2 should do you. It's almost winter- how about an amazing lager. A Bo-pils would fit right in.
 
I'm home now and it looks like where I live we're in for more wind than actual rain (Flemington, NJ). South Jersey is getting the brunt of the rain. I'm still going to try to find vessels and anchor points for tomorrow if I can.
 
were you able to collect any water? The only water I collected in enough volume came from my roof gutters so I'm not sure I want to try brewing with that. "Sandy's Roof Asphalt infused Stout"? :)
 
I brewed this during the hurricane......does that count?

http://hopville.com/recipe/1657501

I did an IPA during Sandy as well.

Frankenstorm IPA

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.069 SG
Estimated Color: 6.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 66.3 IBUs
Ingredients:
------------
13 lbs - Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 85.6 %
8.0 oz - Carafoam (2.0 SRM) 3.3 %
8.0 oz - Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) 3.3 %
1 lbs - Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 6.6 %
1.50 oz - Simcoe [12.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min 52.7 IBUs
1.00 oz - Simcoe [12.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min 13.6 IBUs
1.00 oz - Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
0.90 oz - Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
1.10 oz - Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
4.00 oz - Simcoe/Citra/Chinook [12.20 %] - Dry Hop Hop
1.0 pkg - Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)

Mash In - Add 20.01 qt of water at 164.7 F - 150.0 F - 60 min

For some reason I thought my IBUs were higher. I guess I'll add a little 60min hop tea if I feel like it's lacking bitterness. I think it'll be fine though.

Oh yeah, and for 0min/dry hop additions I don't bother changing the %AA, I just change the name of the hop in the recipe. Much quicker.
 
Not exactly. Brewed in my detached garage with the door open.

The change of weather from the beginning to the end was very interesting.
 
Central VA didn't get enough of the storm to collect brew water, so instead we made Hurricane Sandy cocktails. Basically just watered-down Manhattans...
 
Back online finally. What a week.

During the storm there was very little rain (so I couldn't collect any water) but some of the strongest winds I've ever seen. Trees and power lines down everywhere.
 
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