Brewing in garage with fire sprinklers

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arnobg

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Currently I brew in my one car garage to my condo near the open door with my propane burner and it is great. There aren't any fire sprinklers in these condos. I'm moving in a couple months to a townhouse downtown in another city and this is what I have to work with. It's a two car deep garage with fire sprinklers on the ceiling. From what I've read these are set off at 155-160F. Surely if I brew near the door this shouldn't be an issue right? The landlord is telling me I can, but that's not my concern. Setting these things off and causing damage is my concern.

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I am a firefighter. I don't think you will have any issues as long as you ALWAYS brew with the garage door wide open and put your kettle near the open garage door. My biggest fear would be carbon monoxide poisoning from poor ventilation. You could also run a fan so that any toxic gases get blown out the entrance to the garage.
 
What he said ^. There is absolutely no way you'll build up enough heat to set em off, unless you light something else on fire first. Lack of cross ventilation however could be a concern but it sounds like you are already sieving that.
 
Thanks for the input guys. It's kind of funny, when I described my propane/brew stand setup and asked if I could use it in the garage close to the door the owner was like "sure just do it back there for all I care" as he pointed to the back of the garage which is two cars deep. I was thinking, yeah sure if I want to die of carbon monoxide poisoning....He obviously doesn't care what I do, I was just concerned about the sprinklers.

I'll make sure and do it by the door as I do now and get a fan blowing out of the garage. I will add a carbon monoxide alarm too.
 
I can see that HBT post "So the sprinklers went off.. do you thin it contaminated my wort?" Or "now my OG is messed up?" perhaps a "that really redefines the sparge"

the sprinklers themselves are all temp sensitive on a mechanical system - the valve is held closed by something that breaks at temp. Older ones were a two pieces of metal held by a lead sodder that would melt. I don't know what is used now. Alcohol in a glass for some. My concern would be heat build up. A temp at the ceiling can be quite a bit more than at head level or kettle level. However with the door open and close to the opening most of the heat should dissipate. how much space is there between top of garage door and the ceiling? like 1 or 2 feet or lots more?
 
If they were sensitive enough for brewing to set them off, you'd be screwed if you had a 90f day in the summer.
 
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