gotta love her

She bought me a kit for Christmas that came with ingredients for the first batch, which will hit the "3 week in bottles" mark this weekend. She already encouraged me to buy a couple more ingredient kits which arrived on Tuesday. Then yesterday she was out shopping and noticed that they had carboys on sale and picked up a 6.5 gallon. Today she's hitting the grocery stores that have craft brews on sale to get more samples of different styles to try.

 

enjoy it while it lasts.

 

+1

 

^ In the beginning she was super excited about me brewing. Although mine still loves that I brew and loves the product of me brewing, quickly there grew a definitive line between her time and brewing time.

 

Well,then make sure she gets her quality time later. Perfect ending to a brewday! Good thing she's really into it. My wife brewes as well.

 

My girlfriend would only drink Coors Light... then I brewed a Hef for her... she's hooked. So next Hef brew day... we will be brewing the beer together instead of just me. She's hooked on it like I am.

Gary

 

Yeah, I know my husband likes that I brew ( he got me the kit for my birthday.) Though I'm pretty sure he'd rather not help bottle, but it's just so much easier with two people. Maybe that's why he started suggesting kegs more

 

She helped bottle the first batch and wants to help with brewing the next ones. She started out wanting to make the BM clone first, but is now more interested in the stout after I had her try a Young's double choc.

 

Wish my missis was like that willing to help and wanting to brew lol

 

Good luck with that. I tried to get my wife to help me brew once...she had fun stiring in the DME and hops but got upset when I told her not to speak near the open top of the wort as it cooled in the ice bath. She just couldn't believe that bacteria could infect the beer batch and my fierce defense that it could! She also is not a fan of her kitchen being "messed up" and all the windows fogging up on brew days.... so now I brew when she's out!

 

My wife doesn't like the smell of hops in the boil, wishes I had my basement stove wired cause I take up the room, but she still encourages me to brew and is excited about the Bloo Muen I attempted last night. Of course, I'd rather be in the man-space downstairs, too...damn price of copper wire preventing me from getting my stove hooked up

 

Why not just use a propane stove in the basement? If you are afraid to have a propane tank in your basement just run the fuel line out the window/door to the tank. This is what I'm doing now so I can brew in my man-cave. :rockin:

You can find propane/gas stoves on craigslist all the time for $50. Gas offers better temperature control.

 

I've been told the ventilation needed for that is significant, otherwise carbon monoxide levels can get really high.

 

If this is done be dang sure to have a CO monitor down there! Even at the best gas/air ratio, you're still going to have CO build up.

 

Trust me, I've really wanted to just borrow my next door neighbor's burner and do it in the basement, but the CO levels scare me (I also have young kids). I thought about making a burner but another neighbor told me I'd need something like 700CFM to evacuate enough CO.

 

Makes sense. I brew under a screened window...also helps to let out the steam.

 

She's been in it to win it from day one. Even went with me to the LHBS to pick out our first brew kit. She loves the smell of the hops, and I have to grab them from her most of the time when I'm getting ready to dump them in because she's off sniffin' hops. LOL!

I brew in the garage... so no steamed up kitchen windows...

Gary

 

That's awesome! Fortunately my wife loves beer too so I'm in no danger of my hobby being shunned by her...but things are better if I keep it to the basement...which is fine by me...the beer fridge is in the basement!

 

Girlfriend bought me the whole kit for my bday and brews every batch with me. Which is awesome, shes an accomplished chef so I can walk away for 10 mins to have a cig and not worry about anything! The only problem... She drinks the sweet wort while im mid boil like its tea, she loves it

 

It is possible to brew in the basement and 80 to 90 CFM fans are sufficient unless your using the high pressure burners rated over 100,000 BTU's.

I brew in my basement and use propane and low pressure 70k BTU burners with an 80CFM fresh air in and a 90CFM exhaust fan out. A CO/Explosive Gas detector and a fire extinguisher are needed (mount 12 inches below ceiling for natural gas and 24 inches above the floor for propane). CO mixes so readily with the air that a simple CO detector can be placed anywhere in the room and work fine. Air flow and FRESH AIR in from the exterior and exhaust to the exterior are the real key. I have now completed 10 brews in my brew room (all grain) and never once set off the detector. I can say this, if your moving downstairs because of the smell of mashing grains and boiling hops are offensive to the females in your house (as they are to all four females in my house) then the move will not help. Even with all of the fans and ventilation the smell of mashing grains and boiling hops permeates the entire house and I still end up with ill tempered females on brew day. Four of them ages 12, 18, 42, 62. {heavy sigh!}
Back to the the high pressure burners, they produce much more CO and a lot more unburned gas so indoor use could be dangerous and I would advise against it.
Even with all of the precautions and planning I am still nervous about the gas and will most likely move to electric in the near future.

 

^ Now you have me worried. I'll be brewing outside on my deck once we get to spring on a large propane burner. Maybe I'll go back to the electric for the winter.

I'm curious with all these precautions necessary on venting, how do normal natural gas stoves work safely without venting?

 

Hey a fellow Spokane resident, nice!

Cool on the brewing kit and the SO doing some shopping for you! Did she get the carboy from General Store by chance? They get some in off and on for pretty cheap. $29 for a 5 and $38 for a 6.5 (I think).

Also if your out looking for brews to try, check out JB's over on Rowan and Alberta, they have a HUGE selection! Also the Main Market downtown has a good selection as well.

Cheers!

Kosch

 

I'm guessing the old "turkey fryer" burners are of the low pressure variety? That's what I have readily available to me.

I was going to build a hood out of sheet metal and use a 100CFM bath fan for exhaust. How do you have your incoming air set up?

 

You write like a girl on facebook. "Oh, how I love him!" Who is he?

 

Yeah, she got it at the General Store. Was kinda funny, guess she got the last one and while she was at the check out there were some guys behind her grumbling that she had "their" carboy.
And JBs is where I got the Young's that talked her into letting me do the chocolate stout next. Wanna drink my way through that store someday.

 

Aww man, I was going this weekend to get a 6.5! lol

Yes unfortunately it is very easy rack up a nice bill there at JBs I just had an Alba Scot's Pine Ale from there the other night, it was pretty amazing!

 

She just texted me. She picked up a 12 of Black Butte porter and mixed 12 of Sam Addams for super bowl.

Sorry ..... the 6.5 was $37 something. Last time I checked at Jims, they wanted $40 for a 5 gal.

 

Both natural gas stoves and propane stoves use very efficient burners however most are meant to have ventilation and only the top end commercial ones will generate more than 20k to 25k BTU (Your average outdoor gas grill is only about 55k BTU). Natural gas will burn cleaner than propane. There are newer super high efficiency natural gas stoves and fire places and heaters that do not require venting again low pressure and low BTU. Low pressure is 1PSI or so depending on who you talk to and where you are. Most turkey fryers are high pressure using about 10PSI to 30PSI (look at the regulator it will tell you its pressure rating). They push a lot of gas through the burners and not all will get burned up and generate a lot of CO.
I would not use any high pressure gas in any building. You can build vents and hoods and use low pressure safely as it is done in many places, but ventilation is the key.

 

The incoming air is a 4 inch duct to the exterior with an inline fan that generates 80CFM of air flow. Last time I brewed it was about 20F outside and the air coming was so cold the brew room never got warm. This time of year that room is at about 48F like most of the basement.