Brewing tips on cold weather brewing

[Codfishhead]

Living here in this wonderful tax you to death state we have this fun time when you can go outside and turn into a Popsicle called winter. Low 20's at night for the last week. Please shoot me.

Anyways I use my garden hoses to bring cold well water to my wort chiller as well as power washing my keggle and such. Now that I had to drain all my water sources I had to scramble to chill my wort.

I brewed yesterday and used my pool vacuum hose as the warm water run off duct taped to my chiller and tapped directly into my well tank in my garage to get water to the wort chiller. Actually worked fantastic. I had one of those cloth type POS garden hoses I basically use to run from my sink to the hot tub to add water during the winter. Since all my hose reels are frozen solid this crappy hose was my savior.


Have any helpful winter brewing tips?

 

[TheRussMeister]

If you are thinking mainly of hoses, store them inside. I use an immersion chiller that crews right on to an external faucet, and I store my chiller inside.

In general though, I always try to remember to bring my propane tanks inside the night before I brew, so they can be nice and warm for when they are needed. Also, before I finish the boil, I put my ferment outside so it can chill down; I can drop the wort temperature a few more degrees towards pitching temperature that way... but then again, in the winter it's damn easy to hit pitching temperatures in record time...

 

[azscoob]

I keep a curly hose in my brewing gear, I attach it to my slop sink in the garage and chill with that, I collect the hot water coming out in buckets for cleaning, then dump it in the sink instead of running it down my driveway to freeze into a deadly sheet.

 

[JonM]

After I drain the mash tun, (10 gallon cooler) I leave the hot grain in there and put a garbage bag on top of the mash. Then I throw all hoses with QDs in there to keep them from freezing up. I also rotate gloves (one pair on the hands, one in the warm mash tun).

I fill the HLT with ice water and use my March pump to run it through the immersion chiller. (The March pump goes inside when it's not in use bc it will freeze up. Same with the immersion chiller.)

Other than that, it's warm boots and snowpants, and layers up top. And a thermos of hot coffee.

 

[BobBailey]

I drain my hose after use. Also, since I store my wort chiller in a shed I use compressed air to blow the water out of it before putting it away.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I use my chiller with the kitchen sink. I built an overly fancy series of adapters with a barbed nipple when I lived in apartments. been using it for about 13 years and just never changed the way I do it.

 

[frozennorth]

Today it is a balmy 0 out and I am brewing in a bit. Any use of water to chill outdoors is out, but the ambient air temp combined with snow pack brings the temps down quick, with no need for a chiller.

 

[JonM]

Oh - and I heat up mash water on the kitchen stove and do all my dough-in, temp check/pH check inside, then leave the MLT inside until it's time to start the sparge. It would probably hold the temp okay if I brought it outside, but I don't want to risk it.

 

[TheRussMeister]

Oh - and I heat up mash water on the kitchen stove and do all my dough-in, temp check/pH check inside, then leave the MLT inside until it's time to start the sparge. It would probably hold the temp okay if I brought it outside, but I don't want to risk it.

Second that! Exactly the same, heat my strike and sparge water on the stove and mash inside. Depending on how cold it is, I also run off and batch sparge in the kitchen, depending on the availability of the kitchen table.