Burner on wood deck? Steam in the house?

So, SWMBO recently decreed that brewing in the kitchen was verboten. She thinks the steam produced will have a detrimental effect on the old timbers of our house, which was built in 1792. I was wondering about it myself. Do any of you engineers out there know if the steam could be problematic?

Also, I recently purchased an SQ14 as a result of the dictate. Can I use it on a wooden deck? The ground around our house is all uneven. And should I upgrade from a 10 psi reg to a 20? I typically boil about 7 gallons at a time.

Thanks!

To be strictly on the safe side, no, you should never run any sort of burnerating equipment on a wood deck. On the other hand, if you're already comfortable running a grill on your deck, running a propane burner to heat water should be less worrisome, depending on how stable your rig is.

Most dangerous would be a wobbly turkey fryer with peanut oil. The whole thing is decidedly unstable and burning, and just for good measure has three gallons of 300-400 degree peanut oil -- that also happens to be very flammable at those temperatures. I've used a turkey fryer several times and quite frankly they scare me. Even if you don't burn your house down, dumping three gallons of hot oil anywhere is going to be inconvenient at best.

I think ideally, you'd run your rig on a nice level, non-combustible surface. If you really want to run the burner on your deck, you might want to invest in a stove mat, like you might place under a wood burning stove. Or use one or more patio pavers, so that even if the burner tips, it would not come into contact with the wood deck.

+1 on protecting your deck; Many a brewer brew on their decks, with nothing underneath. Personally, I would put a mat or something just to help some with radiant heat, but more so any accidental splashing/spills, such as accidental boil over.

I don’t think that the moister from your boils would hurt your timbers in the house at all. If it does stop cooking, bathing, washing cloths and humid summers. Some humidity is good for wood as it prevents it from cracking and getting dry rot. I would say unless you brewing every other day it's fine.

What kind of burner are yall using? Even if mine tipped over, the flames wouldn't come near my deck. I suppose if it flipped upside down I may have a problem, but that is an unlikely scenario at best.

Keep a fire extinguisher at hand and I wouldn't worry about it. If it really causes you to lose sleep (and it could within a house that old), get a Grill Pad.

The moisture from boiling won't do any direct damage to your timbers, especially during the heating season when the indoor humidity is very low. However excessive moisture will encourage the growth of mildews and molds and lead to rot where it condenses around windows or outside walls. If you have a decent exhaust fan then that should be no problem.

Using a fire proof pad under your burner is a good idea. You probably could get away without one but better safe than sorry. A fire on your wood deck will do much more damage to those house timbers than any steam will. Even a large piece of sheet metal would work well if other choices are not available.

Craig

First, if you shower as a bathing practice it puts way more moisture in the air than boiling water for beer. Think about that on a daily basis for two people over the total number of years showers have been in your home. Boiling water for your beer doesn't come close to the volume of moisture from the shower. Second,add to that the amount of moisture from you and your wife through sweat evaporation. But now you have the ability to boil with gas outside. That is a bonus.

One idea would be to get 12" square pavers and make a level spot in your back yard somewhere. It would be level, stable, and non-flammable. To make it more aesthetic get stained and stamped concrete pavers. Probably no more than 4 would do.

Just some thoughts.

What about using a piece of Hardibacker on the deck?

I BBQ and use the turkey fryer to boil wort on my wood deck. I'm much more worried about stains from a spill than anything catching fire. Not sure what kind of turkey fryer some people use, but even if tipped the flame would not touch the deck, not to mention 5-8 gallons of wort hitting it.

Moisture is good for wood. Fine acoustic guitars are kept in humid enclosures to prevent the wood from cracking. And like many have said, you release as much moisture into the air by showering.
Sounds like the real problem is your wife has delusions of being a structural engineer. Demand to see her degree in structural engineering. When she does not produce one, pull out the brewpot and start brewing on the stove. INDOORS.

Vic_Sinclair said:

Moisture is good for wood. Fine acoustic guitars are kept in humid enclosures to prevent the wood from cracking. And like many have said, you release as much moisture into the air by showering.
Sounds like the real problem is your wife has delusions of being a structural engineer. Demand to see her degree in structural engineering. When she does not produce one, pull out the brewpot and start brewing on the stove. INDOORS.

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I would not recommend this. The best thing she did was kick your @ss outside. You will be secretly thanking her.

I wouldn't worry about puting the burner on the deck. As another poster said keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case.

Mold is the main concern when boiling indoors. Your shower does not dump 1 to 1.5 gallons of water into the air like a 5 gallon brew does.

missing link said:

Mold is the main concern when boiling indoors. Your shower does not dump 1 to 1.5 gallons of water into the air like a 5 gallon brew does.

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If that were the case, people would never run humidifiers in their house. Unless you're brewing in a tropical rainforest, 1 to 1.5 gallons of extra humidification will not cause you any trouble. Poorly vented showers can cause issuses but it takes years of use before you'll see it.

just put a piece of cement board under the burner. You dont have to worry like when you deep fry on the deck as wort is non flammable as opposed to peanut oil. and 1-2 gallons isnt really a problem inside the house I run a whole house humidifier all winter and its puts out about 6 gallons every 24 hours set a 40% humidity level . My house is very dry forced hot air and a woodstove.

double_e5 said:

I would not recommend this. The best thing she did was kick your @ss outside. You will be secretly thanking her.

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It's not because it's the best thing to do for him brewing beer, it's to prove he is the MASTER of his castle! He can brew wherever he pleases!

Just brew inside and tell the wife its good for her skin.

Well, the issue is now moot. Since I now own a turkey fryer, I'm heading outside to use it. Probably will speed up the process too as my stove took forever to boil 7 gallons of wort.

Print this and show it to your wife. I am an architect with a lot of experience with wood, and humidity.

First thing is wood "breathes" and the moisture content will rise and fall with the environment. As the moisture content changes the wood shrinks or expands mostly perpendicular to the grain. This expansion can also cause the wood to check (as in timbers) when it gets particularly dry. It can take a while for this to happen, and the larger the piece of wood, the longer it takes. Wood and millwork items are often left exposed in a home for several weeks to acclimate before being installed.

The ideal would be for the moisture content of the environment to remain constant, which is quite impossible. And wood is best kept within a range of moisture content where it remains dimensionally stable, which is often quite impossible. So the next best thing is to mitigate the environmental changes to avoid the extremes. This is often done by heating and cooling our houses, however this has other implications.

Now, not knowing the climate where you live...

If you have dry winters and heat, which can dry the air further, adding moisture is a good thing. And it will take several days of weeks for the timbers to acclimate to the higher humidity. It would be better if you boiled a little bit everyday, but so long as your house is well sealed, the water vapor you are putting out by boiling is not a problem and may be beneficial.

In more humid environments, however, it would be better if you vented some of that moisture. A kitchen hood vent would be fine to remove most of it, and you can always open a window, or your air conditioning system is quite able to remove the excess moisture.

No matter which condition you live in, it still takes several days or weeks for the wood to fully acclimate, and the moisture you have produced will have dissipated before that ever happens. And then, the natural changes of the weather will have a far greater impact that your beer making.

I routinely use my gas LP burner on the deck and have not worried about heat issues. I have placed my hand on the deck under the burner and it felt no warmer then the heat of the sun in mid summer. I have however gotten a few complaints from my wife about a few wort stains left behind. I purchased a grill mat from Sears to use come spring.