Outside Winter Brewing

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remuS

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I'm sure there are similar threads... but its getting cold outside here and Montana. If you're like me, you have no option for shelter when doing 5+ gallon all-grain batches. Here are some lessons I learned last year.

1. Do your mash inside. The obvious being you won't lose your temperature. It may take a bit longer to heat strike/sparge water on the stove, but it beats sitting outside in 0 degree weather.
2. Keep a dry towel near by. You're bound to get a little wet, and nothing is worse then freezing cold hands.
3. Blow out your wort chiller and hoses after use. The hose is a given, but took me a few batches to figure out why my boils stopped completely after inserting wort chiller.
4. At least for me, evaporation rate increased. I had to adjust +1/2 gallon. Fuel usage will also increase.
5. Careful where you run off the water from the wort chiller. Don't want an ice rink in your driveway or sidewalk.
6. Dress warm of course.

What are your outside winter brewing tips?
 
Hot scotchy! Get a bottle of your favorite scotch, do your mash, add some wort to a small mug while draining into the boil kettle, mix in alcohol, drink your first hot scotchy. I saw it on Brewing TV a while back, sounded nasty but the sweetness and warmth of the wort mixed with scotch is actually great! At least when it's hot, it's pretty foul when it cools down so warm up and drink quick.

Oh yeah, and I know all about winter time up here in MN...
 
I LOVE brewing in cold weather! The post-boil wort chills MUCH quicker, and I kind of like bundling up and huddling over the burner to keep warm. Gotta love it!
 
3. Blow out your wort chiller and hoses after use. The hose is a given, but took me a few batches to figure out why my boils stopped completely after inserting wort chiller.

What are your outside winter brewing tips?

# 3 is very important, if you leave any water in your chiller and it freezes it will possibly swell up and split. Next time you use it the chiller water will have an open path to your brew. The best thing is to drain it and store it where it can't freeze.
 
I've been thinking about this sort of thing as this winter I am not only brewing outside but storing most of my equipment out in the garage where it only stays about 5* above outside temps. I'm definitely going to need to have a space inside to store things like CFC, water filter, and maybe even the grain mill and control panel. Any problem with letting grain freeze?
 
I've been thinking about this sort of thing as this winter I am not only brewing outside but storing most of my equipment out in the garage where it only stays about 5* above outside temps. I'm definitely going to need to have a space inside to store things like CFC, water filter, and maybe even the grain mill and control panel. Any problem with letting grain freeze?

When the grain is cold you have to adjust your strike water temperature.
 
I'm ordering a pond pump to run through my CFC. We get decent snow so I can easily feed a bucket.

I also have some thermo blankets I want to use on the mash tun, just wrap that rascal. I do 10 gal batches so I'm not boiling 8 gals on the stove. Go large or go home, especially when its cold out there.

I'm also pondering a propane heater, since I have so many propane tanks as backups. I brew in my garage, so I'll be protected from the wind. But a little warmth never hurt.

I like the scotch idea^^
 
I like brewing in cold weather. However my brew room is by a back door, it's inside while my brew rig is just outside the door. So I get to come and go, it's cheating a little bit.
 
ThreeSheetsBrewing said:
I like a good pair of coveralls when brewing in the winter. Plenty of pockets to stash all my things.

Is that a mash paddle in your coveralls or are you excited to be brewing?
 
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