Question about outdoor brewing

I have a grill that has a 12,000 btu side burner. I know thats not that much, but considering my stove inside has 9,000 btu burners, its a step up.

My question is: is it ok to brew outside, or do you run the risk of contamination from pollutants in the air.

Thanks in advance,

Ben

A good percentage of us brew outside, personally I have never had a problem.

Many of us boil outside- in fact, for all-grain brewing, it's almost a preference. I like brewing on my stove, but when I do 10 gallon batches, I'll do it outside on a propane burner.

Make sure your side burner is heavy duty enough to hold a heavy pot of boiling wort, though. It may not be designed to boil 3 gallons or more in a big pot.

I do all of my brews outside as do many folks. I've never had anything get into the wort except for a leaf once. I was worried about some birds once but nothing happened.
Just make sure your grill can handle the weight of your brew. I'm assuming you are doing partial boils and if so it shouldn't be an issue.

I too used to brew outside, never had a problem...

The temptation of jumping to the pool was strong though

Thanks for the replies guys. The side burner says max weight 15 lbs, but I basically sat on it and it didn't break so I'm not worried about that. (made sure it was off first...)

I brewed outdoors this evening.....and everything went well. I actually think I'm getting somewhat more sanitary with all grain as the cooled wort has less time with equipment that hasn't been boiled. Though today the misquitos were out in full force. They seemed more interested in me, but perhaps a couple bugs got in the beer Big bits should settle to the bottom during flocculation.....and if there is a stray bit or two that stays in the beer: extra protien anywho

Seriously, as long as you try to be sanitary after boil, and know the safe areas for what kind of flame you're using, there's no worry where you brew.

Ben25 said:

Thanks for the replies guys. The side burner says max weight 15 lbs, but I basically sat on it and it didn't break so I'm not worried about that. (made sure it was off first...)

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Sitting on it and not having it break means nothing when 5 gallons of 212°+ sugar water burns the **** out of you. Play it safe... you'll be very very very badly hurt if that spills on you. Working around big ass pots of super hot liquid is more dangerous than most people think.

I would setup some additional bracing under the burner just to be safe.

Since I've moved to all-grain, I've really enjoyed brewing out doors! The fresh air, waving to the puzzled neighbors, not worrying about spills, it's all good! The only downside is the house never smells like a brewery anymore.

I think I will put some bracing under it just to play it safe. It should only be around 25-30 lbs, (2 1/2 gallons of water plus the pot and extract) I just picked up some angle iron from my job... that should do the trick.

I also hate that the house doesn't smell like a brewery. But I'm not worried about contamination - 90% of what you're doing outside will be/is being boiled anyway.

I did my first AG batch two weekends ago and boiled outside with my new keggle conversion. I found that there was a lot less sanitation to think about...I almost felt like I should have been sanitizing more but everything is good. Probably because of the spray bottle of sanitizer. That has to be the best tip I've picked up from this forum. But welcome to the outdoors. Just a better feeling to the brewday IMHO

I was booted outside by the miss a few batches ago. Something about the smell stinking up the house....I never noticed anything

Best thing ever - and I live where the air always has something in it, and haven't had trouble yet. Trouble breathing, yes, but brewing - nope.

I've never brewed inside. In fact I've always done everything other than fermenting outside.

Well I bottle is the garage, but with the door open and all that and haven't ever had a problem, but I've only got 3 batches under my belt

you might find that the extra breezes outdoors will cause you to lose more than the extra 3,000 btu's. I tried boiling water for corn on the cob on my grill burner and it never did get the water to boil, I had to move the pot back inside to get the corn ready. I was just trying to cook everything outside to avoid running back and forth.

Of course your grill might be bigger and badder than mine. Maybe try boiling a pot of water on the grill, then try it on your stove and see which works better.

Matt_and_Katie said:

I've never brewed inside. In fact I've always done everything other than fermenting outside.

Well I bottle is the garage, but with the door open and all that and haven't ever had a problem, but I've only got 3 batches under my belt

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Damn you and your ideal climate!

wow, I never even thought about that. It is always 70 and sunny here in san diego
:beer:

sirsloop said:

Sitting on it and not having it break means nothing when 5 gallons of 212°+ sugar water burns the **** out of you. Play it safe... you'll be very very very badly hurt if that spills on you. Working around big ass pots of super hot liquid is more dangerous than most people think.

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The $40 it would cost you to get a turkey fryer setup will be a heck of a lot cheaper than a trip to the Urgent Care Center. Even though you probably could get away with it, the risk is too great for me. I would err on the side of caution.

You can find turkey fryers at garage sales also. check craigslist. people are getting rid of them because they are not deep-frying turkeys anymore. I only brew outside. I have for years and have never been concerned about contamination. Though I did have to move into the garage one night because of a torential rain.

Last time I brewed, I had to hold an umbrella over my boil kettle for the last 20 mins of the boil. Other than that, outdoor brewing is fantastic!

What about the "chilling" phase? After the hour long boil, should I bring my kettle indoors in order to cool it down with the wort chiller? Or is it not that big of a risk cooling outdoors with the lid off?

Brew Dude said:

What about the "chilling" phase? After the hour long boil, should I bring my kettle indoors in order to cool it down with the wort chiller? Or is it not that big of a risk cooling outdoors with the lid off?

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I do it all outside - never had a problem. I'd venture to guess that there are more icky things IN the house than outside.

I actually have had little bits of nature land in the HLT while brewing. I just keep a small strainer on hand and scoop as needed. During boil there's some much water vapor and heat rising out of the kettle that nothing is going to land in there. Post boil I use a plate chiller during transfer so the wort doesn't spend much time exposed to the elements post flame-out and while it is exposed it's still 200+ degrees. However, if I was using an immersion chiller i'd probably be tempted to cover the pot with a screen if you're in a breezy area with lots of stuff blowing around in the air.

So I just brewed a batch of Amber Ale on my side burner this afternoon. No problems with the weight. ( I had a prop under it just to be safe) The only problem I had was I couldn't get a real good boil. It was boiling, but it was a weak boil and there was hardly any foam on the top.

I think I'm just going to get one of those Bayou turkey fryers from HD and call it a day. That way I don't have to worry about the weight issues, I can do a full boil, and it will actually boil.


Thanks for the help guys!


Ben

Try out wally world for that turkey fryer also. Sometimes they have them for thirty dollars. Which is twenty less than most other places. That extra money you could brew a fresh batch. AH yeah.

Too late... I just bought the HD one for $37.50. Not too bad and the best part is, my boss paid for it. (ok in exchange for an hour of work but i'm not complaining.)

IrregularPulse said:

I did my first AG batch two weekends ago and boiled outside with my new keggle conversion. I found that there was a lot less sanitation to think about...I almost felt like I should have been sanitizing more but everything is good. Probably because of the spray bottle of sanitizer. That has to be the best tip I've picked up from this forum. But welcome to the outdoors. Just a better feeling to the brewday IMHO

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Is the tip about using a spray bottle just using sanitizer in a spray bottle, or is there more to it?

I'm always looking into things too far, so if it's that simple just smack me over the head with the obvious -

I wouldn't use sanitizer for that. Just sanitize a spray bottle(not that it really matters, its going to get boiled anyways) and fill it up with water. Imo just sanitize it to get the nasties out.

So I just boiled an almost full (about 7.3 gallons) pot of water with my new Bayou classic to condition it. It brought the water to a rolling boil in 20 minutes flat! Definitely worth the $37.50.