All Grain in an Apartment?

Hello,
I've got a couple of extract brews under my belt and I'm considering taking the plunge to AG. The biggest roadblock for me is my living situation. I live in an apartment. No garage, no yard, no propane burners on the balcony. I have a standard cheap stove. I have a 6g stock pot and when I do 2.5g boils, I can get the water to 200 degrees, but only after having the burner on high for 20-30 minutes.

Is AG possible for me or do I need to hold off until I have an outdoor/garage space?

Thanks.

Eric

It is absolutly possible! You will need a bigger brewpot and other assorted equipment. Check out Flyguy's thread on improved stovetop boiling. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=53683&highlight=improved+stovetop+boiling

I am in the same situation as you and only have 2 all grains under my belt but the one that is finished tastes wonderfull. Good luck and .

Hell yeah you can brew AG in a condo/apartment. Brewtopia does it all the time in a 400 sq ft. condo. On your stove is it possible to get a larger pot and set it up in a way that two burners are heating the pot at the same time? From what I remember Brewtopia does two 2.5 gallon boils and combines them.

I've done two smaller pots and combined them too. its not that big of a hassle, though I suggest you get two IDENTICAL pots. mine are the same capacity, but have differences in diameter, bottom thickness, and one of them is some kind of aluminum alloy.

this causes the pots to heat at different rates, and it'd be nicer if they were synch'd up.

otherwise, yeah, I have done two 3 gallon boils at the same time. I run off my initial mash equally to each pot, and then again with the sparge, so that both pots are roughly identical gravities...so I get identical utilization by splitting my hops between the two pots.

and then a double sink for two ice/water baths to cool down. combine in bucket, pitch...BEER!

I did my first AG batch inside on my electric stove. It took a while to get it to boil and I ended up scorching my stove top a bit. I would recommend doing smaller batches and/or splitting up the boil in two pots.

no propane or no BBQ grill at all on the balcony? You could always use charcoal.

Another thing to consider is doing partial mash brewing. It takes up much less room and you will be boiling smaller volumes on the stove.
Here's a long thread about it. See what you think!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8805

Look at this and this too.

I brew regularly in my apartment. If you can fit a cooler in your apartment, you can go all grain.

If you have a gas stove, you're in great shape. If you have an electric stove, splitting your wort into 2+ pots isn't a bad idea.

I do it now in my apartment. The only addition I had to make from my extract setup was a 6 gallon mash tun cooler. I'm currently using a 4 gallon enamel brew pot too! I have a gas stove and use both front and rear burners to fire it up. I keep a pretty stiff mash, 1qt/lbs. I pull the first runnings out of the mash tun, do a 3/4 (total volume) sparge, and start boiling with that. I'll start the last 1/4 sparge in the mean time while the wort boils down. After I've gotten past boil over phase I top up the pot with the last sparge addition. I'll need a new pot to get to a full boil. One other addition you may want to make is an oxygen setup. I suggest getting those little O2 bottles from home depot, the reverse thread valve, some hose, a racking cane, and a 2 micron stone. I used that on my last batch... its a beast!

Check it...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=56716

RodfatherX said:

no propane or no BBQ grill at all on the balcony? You could always use charcoal.

Click to expand...

cmon now...charcoal grill brew??? HAHAH Might as well make a camp fire and do it cowboy style

sirsloop said:

cmon now...charcoal grill brew??? HAHAH Might as well make a camp fire and do it cowboy style

Click to expand...

Strangely enough I have been debating on doing this very thing.

I think that brew in a bag is good way to tansition into AG and you cud definately do this in your apartment. It is a very cheap addition too. The bags are only like 5 bucks and makes a huge difference on the taste of your beer.

sirsloop said:

cmon now...charcoal grill brew??? HAHAH Might as well make a camp fire and do it cowboy style

Click to expand...

Redweasel said:

Strangely enough I have been debating on doing this very thing.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't be the first time

[youtube]mAU4bhjCB08[/youtube]

malkore said:

and then a double sink for two ice/water baths to cool down. combine in bucket, pitch...BEER!

Click to expand...

Normal size apartment, normal size electric stove, normal size sink. I do have a huge bath tub that I fill with 50 lbs of ice and water though, so it could fit two pots. I would definitely have to do two pots with my wimpy btu stove. If I am getting all the AG equipment, I'm wondering if I should invest in an immersion chiller too.

With a full boil for two pots, should I combine to two pots at flameout and then fire up the immersion chiller to chill the entire wort at once? I don't want to buy two immersion chillers with how expensive they are (and taking up more closet space from SWMBO). However, what's the safest way to transfer 2.5 gallons of boiling wort to the another pot with 2.5 gallons of boiling wort? Is there one?

Thanks for all the posts.

Eric

RodfatherX said:

no propane or no BBQ grill at all on the balcony? You could always use charcoal.

Click to expand...

No charcoal, but we can have bonfires!

Eric

Slappy White said:

I think that brew in a bag is good way to tansition into AG and you cud definately do this in your apartment. It is a very cheap addition too. The bags are only like 5 bucks and makes a huge difference on the taste of your beer.

Click to expand...

I'm brewing tommorow and I will be using this method and continue to transition to AG. Very good point.

Eric

Revvy said:

Wouldn't be the first time

[youtube]mAU4bhjCB08[/youtube]

Click to expand...

I just want a few wenches to assist in brewing.

EricCSU said:

Is AG possible for me or do I need to hold off until I have an outdoor/garage space?

Click to expand...

My first AG batches were performed in a 24' Holiday Traveler trailer in the middle of a field.

While I do not recommend this a an ideal setup, I can confirm that it is possible to do AG in very tight spaces.

Heatstick to supplement the stoves burner. I remember a while back a guy who was doin a 10 gal. stovetop keggle batches, and I thought I could be aggressive, I tipped my hat to that fellow!

EricCSU said:

Normal size apartment, normal size electric stove, normal size sink. I do have a huge bath tub that I fill with 50 lbs of ice and water though, so it could fit two pots. I would definitely have to do two pots with my wimpy btu stove. If I am getting all the AG equipment, I'm wondering if I should invest in an immersion chiller too.

With a full boil for two pots, should I combine to two pots at flameout and then fire up the immersion chiller to chill the entire wort at once? I don't want to buy two immersion chillers with how expensive they are (and taking up more closet space from SWMBO). However, what's the safest way to transfer 2.5 gallons of boiling wort to the another pot with 2.5 gallons of boiling wort? Is there one?

Thanks for all the posts.

Eric

Click to expand...

What I do is I split boil between two pots on the stove. I have one pot lagged behind by 20 minutes in the boil, including at all hop additions. When first pot is done, I stick in the immersion chiller. 20 minutes later when the first pot is done chilling, I put the immersion chiller in the second pot which has just finished boiling.

This way you can get away with using one immersion chiller and don't have use truckloads of ice to cool 6 gallons of wort.