5 gal brewing in an apartment?

[Boriasm]

Hey y'all,
I'm now about 5 or 6 brews deep in this new hobby and love it! I'm currently doing 1 gal brews and am considering the jump to 5 gal and am wondering what kind of space/gear I need to up my game. The biggest thing for me is how to boil the wort: how big of a kettle do I need? Can I do it properly on my stove top? My apartment is pretty small (NYC) and my sink is even smaller, an ice bath with my 1.5 gal stock pot is about all that it can handle and I don't have a bath tub to rapidly cool my wort.
Suggestions? Or am I better off sticking to 1 gal for now?


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[jtratcliff]

Extract I assume? With partial boil you can use a 3 gal pot and top off in the fermenter.. For a full boil 5gal batch, you'll probably need at least a 7 gal kettle.

Is your stove gas or electric? How many BTUs? Might need to use a heat stick to supplement the stove. Buy or build.

As for cooling, you can either buy/build chillers (immersion, counter flow, plate) or simply opt for a version of the Aussie no-chill method.

It's doable if you want to go the effort/expense.

 

[Qhrumphf]

If you've got a gas stove, your stove may be able to handle it. Many gas stoves can hack it. Some can't. My gas stove limps along but is workable. If it's an electric stove, it probably won't be able to handle the full boil of a 5 gallon batch. I've heard rumors of electric stoves that can, but I've never seen it myself. My old electric stove could handle about 3 gallons with a proper boil, but no more than that.

There's a couple ways around that. You can do what extract brewers everywhere do, and just do smaller boils. An electric stove can usually boil 2-3 gallons without a problem, and then just add spring water up to the final volume. It's got drawbacks, but it's easy and effective, and if you chill the water down to near-freezing, before you top off, it can make chilling very fast too.

Another option is to do a split boil, where you boil the batch between two kettles in smaller volumes. You end up with a very high boiloff rate this way and need to account for it, and you need to evenly split hop additions between the kettles to keep the bitterness right, but it works well.

You can also go the "electric" route, and build a heat stick or two w/ GFCI boxes, or go big and build yourself a proper electric element. This one depends on your apartment wiring capacity. My old apartment had the wiring I needed to make it happen, and I loved it. Two 1500w heat sticks on two separate 20A 120V circuits (kitchen circuits with nothing running on them), and I didn't even need to turn on my stove at all. My current apartment does not have the wiring capacity (older place, and if I started pumping that kind of juice through the wiring I'd blow fuses left and right). But if you live in a relatively modern building, you should be able to do it. Especially if you've got an electric stove, you should be able to build a system that runs off of it, and that will be more than enough power for your purposes.

As far as chilling, buy yourself an immersion chiller. They're cheap, they're effective, and they're much more easy to use and worry free than the more complicated counterflow and plate chillers. Or build one yourself, which you can do with parts easily available at any hardware store.

 

[elkshadow]

Have you considered splitting the difference and brewing 3 gallon batches? I brew in a condo with limited space and I do 3 gallon all grain full boil batches like it ain't no thing. I can share my setup if you're interested.

 

[vegas20s]

/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics

The above link is about the best write up I've seen for stove top brewing.

The small sink to chill your brew kettle is your biggest issue. But if you plan your brew day out you could have some ice ready to drop in your wort as well as some water chilled in the fridge.

If I was in your situation I would at least try to get a 3 gallon boil going, I've done 5 on a gas stove but it was slow and just barely boiled. I would figure out a way to top it off and chill it at the same time. Then you could be making 5-7 gallons of beer at a time.

To me the funnest part of home brewing is getting to figure out how to use what you have to make beer (or cider as I have been doing lately). "Adapt and overcome" could be the 2nd most important mantra for home brewers right behind "cleanliness, cleanliness, cleanliness" being the 3 keys to home brewing.

 

[drchernus]

Cheap, low tech chilling solution:

 

[MindenMan]

Since the man doesn't have a bath tub, I was going to suggest a bucket like the one above. Put it in the shower so the overflow goes in the drain, and no messes to clean up.

 

[Taper]

Naaaw...you got tons of room to make more beer ... Giver

 

[madscientist451]

I think the basic info has all been covered. Go with 3 gallon batches. Ferment in a bucket, rack off to 3 gallon carboys for conditioning or dry hoppping. Get a 6 gallon minimum pot. You can BIAB or spend the extra $20 for a 5 gallon round cooler and make a mash tun. If you are short of space to store the cooler, just do the BIAB. I think that's the easiest way to go with a tight space. Aim for 4.75 volume before boil. You might need another smaller pot to get it all boiling, once some boils off you can combine. If you start with 4.75, after boiling you'll have about 3.75, siphon 3.25 to your fermenting bucket, you'll loose 1/2 gal. to kettle trub. When its finished, you'll have 3 gallons of beer.

 

[eadavis80]

If you're going for 5 gallon batches, as opposed to three, be sure your kettle is a 5-gallon kettle. JTratcliff suggested a 3 gallon pot and then topping off. I would fear boil over if you're filling a 3-gallon pot with 2.5 gallons of water. The last thing you want is a boil over. I never had one on a stove (wife would have killed me), but did have one on an outdoor brew and that stuff carmelizes quickly to your kettle/stove and is tasty! So, whatever size you end up doing, I'd suggest at least 2 gallons of extra space allowed after the wort you plan to boil.

 

[catdaddy66]

I do 5 gallon AG batches in my kitchen/dining room and have zero space issues. I use a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot in my electric stove, and I mash with a 10 gal Home Depot cooler on my DR table. I cool in my sink but the bucket above will suffice for cooling and to keep fermentation temps in the proper range. My brewing space is about 250 sq ft


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[frankjones]

I do two side by side 2.5 gallon batches they are easier to handle and easier to cool. I have frozen soda bottles of water to cool. No they don't melt.

The beer comes out better doing a full boil

 

[lousbrews]

Hey being orinally from NYC I know how you feel on space. I personally have an ebiab (10.5 gal) running on 120v with recirculation to keep mash temp consistant. What you will want is some sort of pulley for the bag for grains while they drain. I used to use a plate chiller but it requires more water and more cleaning time so I reverted to using a HDPE cube and cooling overnight. Overall I'd guess my current set up doesn't take up more than 100sq. Ft.

On a final note have a fan of sorts for boiling. Good luck.

 

[DogboyBrew]

I brewed a 3 gallon all grain batch on my electric stove and was able to get it to a nice rolling boil...took an hour to get there though..if you have the space to use a burner outside or on your porch that would be your best bet

 

[PaintedRat]

For cooling 3 gallons, I'm happy with an immersion coil and a $15 HF pond pump in the sink. Apartment friendly, and I don't have to buy ice.

 

[JohnSand]

All good suggestions. You can also BIAB in a 20qt pot, do a 4 gallon boil, top off with dunk sparge as you boil off. Then top off a little in the fermenter. If you read these boards you will find many good ideas.

 

[frankjones]

I have a 20 quart pot. Sits over two burners on my electric stove can boil four gallons but most watch the pot for boil over. I mash in the pot. I can get a full boil from 150 degrees to boil in 15 mins