Using Sun's Radiant Energy

[drayman86]

During the summer months, I use the sun for:

1. Warming the mash tun/cooler. I put the tun in a closed car that's parked in the sun. Great way to pre-heat tun.

2. During the mash, I cover the tun with a black plastic garbage bag. This helps to keep the tun warm during the mash.

 

[nathan]

at first I thought "you brew in the SUN!?!", then I saw you are from the snowy north.

Here it's 105F INSIDE my garage last weekend. I hide in the shade.

I bet you can use that snow in winter to pack a pre-chiller for a wort chiller coolant line and go from 212 to 40 in seconds!

Good idea on heating the mash tun, though. I may toss my cooler into the black pickup truck tomorrow for pre-heating.

 

[mrk305]

I like that idea of preheating the cooler in the truck. I mash on my tailgate, and I could easily slide my cooler under the black tanau cover park in the sun during the one hour mash, too. When sparge time comes I could back in to the shaded carport. Great idea! Thanks!

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm all for leveraging available energy but the downside is that you're constantly adjusting your process over the seasons which can lead to inconsistency. I'm not sure it that big of a deal, but I just wanted to piss in your pool ;-)

 

[nathan]

not really a big change to go from warming the cooler in the car to warming it with hot water, though.

 

[sirsloop]

If you really want to use the suns energy, put solar panels on your roof. I just met a guy that powers his entire house and farm using solar power, and sells around $1000 worth of solar credits out per month. He said it was (gulp) 80k to fill his roof, and the government refunded him 45k. After 3.75 years he'll be making a grand a month profit off it tho. IDK... just an idea... I dont think anyone would be doing this just to power their brew pot tho! HA! Oh... on a side note, Brooklyn Brewery uses wind power to run their brewery.