Brewing in the cold

[OldManHouston]

I mash inside (48qt rectangle cooler and batch sparge), put the kettle on the burner and bring the MLT outside during the last sparge to get things going toward the boil. Then I bring the boil kettle inside and hook my immersion chiller up to the sink. I'd rather carry my 10 gal kettle with 6 gal of wort inside than mess with turning my outside water on and unfreezing hoses etc.

When I built my immersion chiller I used two different fittings on the water inlet hose. The first fitting with the nipple connecting to the hose has a male thread which fits on my kitchen sink (has one of those removable heads I can unscrew and screw this bad boy into), the second fitting is screws onto the first and the other end will fit on a garden hose for when I'm outdoors. I didn't design it this way on purpose, those were just the only fittings I could find that would work, but I found out it had this great side effect!

Brewed yesterday while it was snowing a little. Sat in the kitchen watching the boil through the sliding glass door and only went out for hop additions and occasional stirring and checking boil off rates.

 

[cclloyd]

It's all relative - I brewed yesterday with a temp of about 45F and wind whipping at 20-30mph. Down here that's mighty cold. You can tell it's only temporary though - it still took 45 minutes to get the wort down to 72F with an immersion chiller.

 

[RukusDM]

I'm going to brew tomorrow in Denver and its supposed to be about 38F. I will be brewing in my carport and will be freezing my n**** off!

Does anyone have any tips for brewing in the cold? I plan on preheating my mash cooler. Do I have to worry about a higher evap rate on my boil?

Any tips would be appreciated. I havent really brewed in the cold before and worry I will run across something new.

Come to Ny and do a batch outside, then go back to Denver and think its a heatwave.

 

[bierhaus15]

Brewing a Bohemian Pilsner right now in the garage. Outside temp is 15F and with the windchill it's around 5F. It's bloody cold!

 

[rustbucket]

Come to Ny and do a batch outside, then go back to Denver and think its a heatwave.

Agreed, hell once it warms above 40 in the spring, the shorts come out. (it a heat wave!)

 

[AggieChemDoc]

I brewed on Sunday. Temps were ~20 and snowing all day here in WV. I preheated my mash tun with a gallon of hot water and hit my mash temp of 156 on the nose. Lost 2 degrees in an hour in my Coleman Xtreme mash tun.

 

[Homercidal]

I've brewed in the garage and it was ok, but I planned on losing a few degrees. Maybe next time I'll try wrapping blankets around or something. I've also mashed inside during the winter and crushed and boiled outside. The boils happening right outside the patio doors. Either way works, but I prefer not being so cold if I can help it. Having company and food and drink helps.

 

[mrgreen4242]

Brewed in the garage this week at about 12F. Not bad, really. I mash a little lower anyways as I seem to taste the hops more (my favorite part of beer) at a lower FG, so it works out ok for me.

 

[SwampassJ]

It's 77 outside, I need to go put socks on.

 

[Brewdouche-RuBrew]

I insulated my brewpot with some sheet tin, and fiberglass. That really increased my heat stability.

 

[mattozan]

I live in California, so I can't complain about the cold you guys are dealing with. But I still seem to have a problem today.

It's about 46°F today, and I can't quite get a rolling boil going outside.

I'm doing 5 gallons in a keggle. My burner is a Camp Chef 70k BTU. I've got a nice blue flame. But the temp seems to plateau at about 205°F. I kept waiting, and waiting, but it never started to roll. I wrapped a sleeping bag around the keggle for insulation, but it didn't seem to help.

I don't have a shield around the burner stand, but it isn't windy at all, and my spot it pretty sheltered.

After waiting over an hour (I did have some extra water to boil off anyway...) I just called it, threw in my hops (had to stir them in), and set the timer for 60 min.

Any suggestions? This is the first time I've tried AG outside in the winter, but I'm going to be doing this regularly now, and I'd like to do the best I can.

 

[k47k]

46 degree is not cold and should not result in your wort not coming to a boil.

Perhaps your propane tank froze up? when this happens output suffers. I put my tank in warm water to prevent freezing up.

I brewed in 10 degree weather the other day.

 

[wizardofza]

+1 with the propane tank freezing up. From time to time I have to shake it, especially when it gets close to the last 1/3 of the tank.

 

[zac]

I'm going to brew tomorrow in Denver and its supposed to be about 38F. I will be brewing in my carport and will be freezing my n**** off!

Does anyone have any tips for brewing in the cold? I plan on preheating my mash cooler. Do I have to worry about a higher evap rate on my boil?

Any tips would be appreciated. I havent really brewed in the cold before and worry I will run across something new.

My last brewing was done in 8* weather, with a little wind. Other than the deck being a solid sheet of ice, no problem. If you can fabricate yourself a windbreak, that helps. I always dough in a few degrees higher & make sure to pre-heat the tun in sub freezing weather. rH will determine more with boil off than temp will, but that can be easily solved by adding more water late in the boil.

I once brewed when the high was -13*, and that was a pain. Actually, any sub freezing weather causes my plate chiller to freeze up...and my sanitizer bucket to get slushy.... it sucks, but it beats brewing in the 100* heat we get in the summer.

 

[Brewdouche-RuBrew]

46 degree is not cold and should not result in your wort not coming to a boil.

Perhaps your propane tank froze up? when this happens output suffers. I put my tank in warm water to prevent freezing up.

I brewed in 10 degree weather the other day.

Thats a great tip thanks

 

[mattozan]

+1 with the propane tank freezing up. From time to time I have to shake it, especially when it gets close to the last 1/3 of the tank.

I'll try refilling my tank and doing a test boil.

 

[mattozan]

I'll try refilling my tank and doing a test boil.

Topping off my propane tank did the trick--thanks!

I brewed on Saturday, and the temp was the same as my problem day four weeks ago (46F).

But this time I had a full tank, instead of 1/3 full. Wort came to roiling boil no problem! Didn't even have to make a warm bath for my tank.