For any of you that brew in the North Dakota or Minnesota neck of the woods, what do you do for chilling your wort? I had to thaw out my garden hose in a warm tub of water just so I could run my chiller, then so i didn't get a huge sheet of ice in the driveway I collected all the water coming out of the chiller into buckets. It was a real pain in the azz. Normally when it is nice out I just let the water run down the driveway. I don't have much experience brewing in the cold weather and wondering what adjustments some of you have made to adapt to brewing in the cold.
Brewing outside when it is below freezing
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Weizenwerks
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Plastic 55 gallon drum for collection.
JimTheHick
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jhubert said:
I have a wash tub that gets filled with water the night before so it's 1/3 full of ice next day. Then i just put my kettle into this big wash tub. It chills in about an hour.
Parkinson1963
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No chill.
I have a floor drain in the garage(not a sump, a drain). You could also run the IC outflow into the clothes washer drain, utility sink or other sink.
You could also build a small hockey rink and use you warm runoff for hot mopping it!!
I'm in Fairbanks, BTW, and my biggest concern is keeping the boil hot enough to keep calling it "the boil".
You could also build a small hockey rink and use you warm runoff for hot mopping it!!
I'm in Fairbanks, BTW, and my biggest concern is keeping the boil hot enough to keep calling it "the boil".
dbrewski
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So you have an immersion chiller or plate? I use a submersible pond pump to recirculate cooling water through my IC to use less water. I have the water in a 5 gal bucket w/ice in it. Seems like either set up you could figure out a way to recirculate the water.
Parkinson1963
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"suspended my brewing for the winter"
Why??
Do you also stop barbequing in the winter too?
I thought people from Chicago were tough.
Why??
Do you also stop barbequing in the winter too?
I thought people from Chicago were tough.
Northcalais40
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I live in VT where I have never brewed when it's been colder than 15 below. I have not had any problems. In fact I find the cold to be the most helpful when chilling. I fill a bucket with snow and water and put my IC in there. As I drain my kettle through the chiller I drain water and add more snow. Works great, the colder the better.
I use and immersion chiller. I don't have an insulated garage, no floor drain, no nothing. I have to hook up the garden hose to the spigot on the front of the house to run the IC which I was then draining the outflow into spare 6.5 Gallon brewing buckets. Will I still get the cold break action if I leave it outside for an hour to chill on its own? I guess once we get some snow accumulated I will be able to set inside a snowbank. I can tell you my next house will be more homebrew friendly!!! LOL
Weizenwerks
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I'm from WI and moved to MI. Neighbors think I'm crazy for grilling steaks outside during a blizzard.
crackhead7
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Don't set it in the snow it acts as an insulator in will actually chill faster if just left sitting on the burner. I had to get a longer vinyl hose for my IC to run directly into the drain in my driveway, I also run my water out of the sink in my basement but thinking about going to a recirculation system with the large 19 gal tub I bought from target for washing bottles and a utility pump.
Also get really organized so you only have to go outside to add hops etc its nice to be able to watch from 70* while sipping a fresh brewed cup of Joe.
Also get really organized so you only have to go outside to add hops etc its nice to be able to watch from 70* while sipping a fresh brewed cup of Joe.
I still fire up my grill but brewing requires lots of water that i dont have during winter in my detached garage.
I store a couple of hoses in the basement and just run the water into the back yard.
I run my grill all the time in the winter, grill is insulated very well.
Also run my smoker all the time, helps that i installed a second heating element to keep up on those -20 or so days.
As for maintaining a boil, either get a better burner or make some heatsticks
an option for cooling in the winter if you don't want to mess with hoses is stick your boil pot into a large container (like you used for kegs back in college) and just let that sit outside with water in it. The water should pull a lot of heat out and the cold weather will keep the water relatively cold. just an idea
I run my grill all the time in the winter, grill is insulated very well.
Also run my smoker all the time, helps that i installed a second heating element to keep up on those -20 or so days.
As for maintaining a boil, either get a better burner or make some heatsticks
an option for cooling in the winter if you don't want to mess with hoses is stick your boil pot into a large container (like you used for kegs back in college) and just let that sit outside with water in it. The water should pull a lot of heat out and the cold weather will keep the water relatively cold. just an idea
solbes
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I brew in MN in the winter just fine. I also have an immesrsion chiller, but I use the kitchen sink. The caveat is that I have to carry the boiling 5 gallons up a half flight of stairs from the garage to the kitchen. And I am very CAREFUL. You can easily get a fitting that matches your sink threads.
Just placing it outside will take much longer (convection) vs the strong conduction you get using your chiller. Unless its like 20 or 30 below out. I suppose that would still go pretty fast.
What a cold break you can get in February and March when the water supply is at it's coldest!
Just placing it outside will take much longer (convection) vs the strong conduction you get using your chiller. Unless its like 20 or 30 below out. I suppose that would still go pretty fast.
What a cold break you can get in February and March when the water supply is at it's coldest!
I live in MN, and I brew outside on a bayou burner with 15 gal kettle. Typically, after the boil we will move the kettle inside the garage and use a hose attachment from the faucet to connect to my wort chiller, which then drains in to the garage sink.
Cromacster
Well-Known Member
Similar to what others have said above, I carry my batch inside and attach my IC to a utility sink. Luckily I have a walk out basement so there are no stairs.
The cold ground water does improve my chill times though
The cold ground water does improve my chill times though
I brew out side in the winter all the time! Tip for cooling: recirculate with pond or low flow sump pump! You can make ice outside overnight to use for recirculation or just use snow and never have to use a hose or frozen spigot! I literally use a keg tub with 3 gallons of water in it. I hook up my IC and just recirculation into the keg tub. I either use snow scooped into the tub after recirc has begun and recirc that or freeze a few gallon buckets of ice and just knock them out into my keg tub and recirculation on that. I can get to lager temps in 15 minutes! I prefer using my low flow sump pump. It seems to do a better job with the snow method.
MN brewer here also. Like you, I have no outside water source in the winter. For chilling i put out tubs of water to freezer before hand. Carry out a big bucket of water and use a submersible pump with my immersion chiller. I run that and let the hot water return start to melt the ice i had made before hand. then just move the pump to the next bucket that now has ice water. works really well.
kpr121
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Im not in your target audience, but I no-chill all my beers. Dont have to worry about the runoff water. To clean up, I carry my MLT and BK into the cellar and clean, drain, and dry there.
Awesome! I love this idea. I brew in a keggle so hauling that bugger into the house would be hell to chill from faucet with thread adapter running the IC. I am going to find a submersible pump and a keg tub. Can't wait to give that a try. As far as mashing and doing my boil, I thought it went fairly well in the cold. I normally use the water right from my garden hose to brew with but figured I could use my hot water from the house that is already at 126ish and not have to heat up really cold ground water. I think that shaved some time off my brew day doing that.
solbes
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Just some food for thought in the thread below about using hot water from your water heater. BTW, I've cooled some down from our water heater and drank it to satisfy my curiosity. It did not taste very good. There are other non-brewing threads out there about drinking and cooking with hot tap water as well.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/using-hot-tap-water-strike-water-271460/
If you decide you don't want to take it from your water heater, you can always heat your strike water on your stove to save time and propane. I use two pots that are ~ 3 gallons to heat my strike water and then carry to the garage. I know, a bit of a hassle. But I will continue to do so.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/using-hot-tap-water-strike-water-271460/
If you decide you don't want to take it from your water heater, you can always heat your strike water on your stove to save time and propane. I use two pots that are ~ 3 gallons to heat my strike water and then carry to the garage. I know, a bit of a hassle. But I will continue to do so.
