Brewing In Garage During Winter in Cold Climate

Yeah we all have our methods.

By the time the boil is done, I'm spent on brewing. So I like to just walk away from it.

Then the next morning, I wake up, have some breakfast, go transfer to fermenter (everything is in the garage at this point), walk it to my fermenting room and let it sit.

Go hit the BK with the hose, give it a good scrub and I'm done.

Just more relaxing, I feel.

 

Im in Minnesota and in the same boat as a lot of you. If the outside temp is warmer than 15, I can brew in the garage comfortably. Once the burners are going, it quickly heats up to the upper 50's/low 60s. I crack the garage door for fresh air.

I run a food grade hose from an inside faucet and serves for all cold water supply including filling my HLT, chiller, etc. I have a shutoff valve on the hose end so I don't have to run back and forth.

I use an immersion chiller that runs out to a snow bank thru a long hose.
At the start of brew day, I bring both hoses inside to warm up. At the end of brew day, I run compressed air thru both hoses to blow out any water to keep from freezing.

 

Don't forget the Fizz-X rod I used to aerate the wort, the beaker I rehydrated the yeast in, the spoon I used to stir the yeast, the funnel I used to pour the yeast into the fermenter, the hose I used to rack the beer from the kettle to the fermenter, the hydrometer and test jar, and whatever else I dirtied along the way.

Cleaning sucks!

 

Lol. Too many gadgets.

Rehydrate yeast in a pyrex measuring cup, shake fermenter like a marthafloccer, pour straight in.

Transfer hose/hydro is small taters.

 

but I don't have to worry about thermal shock If I were to just dump in a plastic fermenter, ie ale pale? But I cant put an air lock in since all the liquid would be sucked in

 

Normally I run a hose from the faucet in the house out to the chiller and another that drains into the yard. This winter I'm moving indoors. Here in Ohio the winter can be freezing and for most of the summer the humidity is terrible. After the brutal cold of last winter I'm currently building an electric system in the basement so I can brew whenever I want to. It also happens to be where my fermentation fridge and keezer are so no more lugging around carboys of wort.

 

Other way around, actually. ale pails are HDPE, which is rated to 120 °C/ 248 °F for short periods, 110 °C /230 °F continuously. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-density_polyethylene )

PETE (clear) better bottle style containers are only rated to about 140F (not exact, but far from boiling). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate

Glass is just dangerous to put hot liquid into, unless you are ready for a cleanup and don't mind literally risking your life.

 

not to debunk the specs but I boil through my system before every brew and use that boiling water to sterilize my plastic buckets, I have BSE buckets which are very strong and cant even see through them but to the point so far no side effects on quality or rigidness

 

I'm in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah, so it gets pretty cold but not quite as cold as you. I've been brewing in the garage for years now, although the last time I brewed outside it was in the teens and my water lines for my chiller started to freeze up as the sun went down. The garage can be cold too but usually we're talking a low in the high 30's.

1. I use a plate chiller now. I plumbed a hose bib in the garage then run a discharge hose onto the grass (snow) next to the driveway.

2. Plate chiller year round although an immersion chiller would work fine too. See #1, you just need a water source and a means to discharge water outside the garage.

3. Yep

4. About 80% of the time I do 5 gallon batches. When I do 10, I still use 6-7 gallon fermenters, so I just split the batch between two fermenters. I have a ferm fridge in the garage, so I fill them then toss them in there.

P.S. I also plumbed natural gas in my garage. Everything pre-boil is electric but the boil kettle uses a NG burner. I usually brew with the garage door closed in the winter, so a CO/explosive gas detector is essential IMO.