Brewing outside and its cold

[user 29674]

I'm new to brewing outside, and this is the first time I've done it when its cold. Its about 24 degrees here outside right now. What adjustments, if any do I need to make to my calculations? I figure the only thing that will probably be affected is my boiloff rate, not sure if I need to plan for more or less.

 

[BA_from_GA]

yup, quite cold. only thing i figured differently for today was boil off rate (and propane usage)

 

[buzzkill]

nothing like a nice warm kettle to warm ya up.

 

[Bulls Beers]

It will cool down a little quicker too.

 

[user 29674]

But does it boil off more or less? I'm assuming more due to the larger difference in ambient and wort temps, but I want to be sure, since I'm still dialing in my equipment - I'm already adjusting up for more boiloff from my last brew session.

 

[kaiser423]

#1 Adjust for more boil off -- it boils off more due to the larger temp difference, and the fact that cold, winter air is usually dry.

#2 Here's what not to do:

Have a massive boil over, because you went inside for something and then hung out in there a little too long, leaving wet stuff everywhere.

When it's cold, that freezes.

Then, do not decide, that because it is cold you are going to pour your kettle out instead of siphon.

Because when you pick up that 5 gallons of boiling hot wort, and you spin around with it in your hands, on ice, things can get a little dicey.

I regained my balance, but I needed a beer afterwards.

I was home alone, and the thought of slipping on the ice, covering myself in boiling wort while falling down, and then passing out while lying in the wort while it cools and freezes to me would be a bad way to go...

Other than that, brew on my friend!

 

[HopHead24]

-12 here in MN. No brewing outside for me. Building a NG brewery in my basement featuring the Brutus 10.

 

[user 29674]

#1 Adjust for more boil off -- it boils off more due to the larger temp difference, and the fact that cold, winter air is usually dry.

#2 Here's what not to do:

Have a massive boil over, because you went inside for something and then hung out in there a little too long, leaving wet stuff everywhere.

When it's cold, that freezes.

Then, do not decide, that because it is cold you are going to pour your kettle out instead of siphon.

Because when you pick up that 5 gallons of boiling hot wort, and you spin around with it in your hands, on ice, things can get a little dicey.

I regained my balance, but I needed a beer afterwards.

I was home alone, and the thought of slipping on the ice, covering myself in boiling wort while falling down, and then passing out while lying in the wort while it cools and freezes to me would be a bad way to go...

Other than that, brew on my friend!

Thanks for the info, and thanks for the laugh. If you had, in fact, frozen yourself to your porch after scalding yourself with hot wort and passing out, it would not have been funny, but since you're safe and (reasonably) sound, it was a great mental image.

 

[user 29674]

Ugh, I hope my boiloff doesnt go up by much. I like to target 5.5G into the fermenter, and last time I ended up with 5.25 post-boil from a 7.25 pre-boil volume. I'm boiling 7.5G this time (in a 8G kettle!) trying to make it to 5.5. Hopefully it works out.

 

[Skins_Brew]

Anyone got any nifty tricks for keeping a garden hose from freezing?

 

[VanHolton]

Anyone got any nifty tricks for keeping a garden hose from freezing?

Keep it inside until you need it. I only use one for chilling, so that works for me.... Clean up inside where it's warm!

 

[C2H5OH]

Anyone got any nifty tricks for keeping a garden hose from freezing?

If you let the hose trickle a little, it will reduce the chance of a freeze up. (But not a guarantee.)

 

[archiefl98]

Anyone got any nifty tricks for keeping a garden hose from freezing?

Mine froze up the other day, not to mention that it didn't seal on the spigot so I drenched a bush in front of the house and it's now tilting forward and laying on the ground covered in ice. I decided to buy a drill pump for $6 and a couple of 3/4" hose-to-3/8" barb adapters at Lowes to recirculate out of a Homer bucket full of water and snow. I just kept filling up the bucket with shovels full of snow and it cooled to 70F in about 15 min.

I figure the best way to keep the hose from freezing is to not use it at all.

 

[MikeinAK]

I brewed last week and it was about 15 deg out. Keep the hose at a trickle if you can. Make sure it's at an area you won't be moving around. Ice skating and brewing dont' mix. A few times I had to open the hose full blast to de-ice my hose shut off. It sucked, it was kind of miserable. Also, the propane doesn't like to flow as much.

On the plus side, I hit all my mash temps without problem. :rockin:

 

[jacksonbrown]

I brewed outside in Madison, WI, yesterday. I chose Sunday over Saturday because the forecast said it would be 8 deg warmer and no winds. They must have confused the two days because it was the other way around. I had my wort sitting on super high flame for an hour and couldn't get it past 200 deg. Moved in to the garage (technically illegal in a townhouse) and finally got things going. I keep my hose inside since my utility sink has ahose hookup and made indoor cleanup a breeze (can't believe this was the first time in 2.5 years I thought to do that!).
I do not love outdoor brewing in the weather. That's why I try to stock up before it gets cold.

 

[chucke]

Anyone got any nifty tricks for keeping a garden hose from freezing?

Unroll it on a hill so the water drains out.

 

[balvey]

Mine froze up the other day, not to mention that it didn't seal on the spigot so I drenched a bush in front of the house and it's now tilting forward and laying on the ground covered in ice. I decided to buy a drill pump for $6 and a couple of 3/4" hose-to-3/8" barb adapters at Lowes to recirculate out of a Homer bucket full of water and snow. I just kept filling up the bucket with shovels full of snow and it cooled to 70F in about 15 min.

I figure the best way to keep the hose from freezing is to not use it at all.

heh, I have that same Chicago Electric drill. Bought it two weeks ago at Harbor Freight for $15. Pretty sure I burnt it up last night running 14 pounds of grain through my Corona. Never seen a drill smoke like that.

 

[archiefl98]

heh, I have that same Chicago Electric drill. Bought it two weeks ago at Harbor Freight for $15. Pretty sure I burnt it up last night running 14 pounds of grain through my Corona. Never seen a drill smoke like that.

Yeah, it's a hooptie. The shaft or chuck or something on this one is off-kilter so it wobbles around like crazy. Can't use it for drilling, but it seemed to work all right for running the drill pump. I figure I always have the Milwaukee as backup.

 

[user 29674]

I had that same drill for about 10 seconds too. Burned it up trying to mix a little mortar with it.

 

[brrman]

My hose was frozen last week, so instead of simply bringing it in to thaw for an hour, I went to work and ran a new water line to my garage. LOL The convenience of that just rocks.

 

[hoppysailor]

We brewed Saturday with the temp around 20. Not really that cold for a Montana winter but cold enough to freeze the water in the hoses I use for my immersion chiller. I always lay my houses out on a slope when I'm done with them so they'll drain and not freeze. This time when it was time to turn the chiller on water made it to the chiller but not through the outlet hose. After screwing around trying to break up the ice in the outlet house with no luck, I threw it in the hot tub to thaw. By this time, the water in the inlet hose had frozen too so it had to go in the hot tub as well. The hot tub was a little grassy but we made beer!

 

[jpsloan]

I was set to brew a batch with a buddy in from out of town on the 2nd. Got outside, found out that even though I had disconnected my hose before the freezing temps hit, there was enough water left in the coil of my hose to freeze and expand all the way out. Not only was it frozen solid, it was stuck in a coil around my winder thingy. So much for that.

Hasn't thawed yet... the hose is in the northern shadow of my house, so I'll have to wait until the air warms up... hope my crushed grains hold out!

 

[kanzimonson]

Another cold brewing tip: before submersing my immersion chiller in the boiling wort, I lay it over the top to let it warm in the steam - otherwise you'll dunk this cold mass into your wort and have to wait several minutes just to get it back to boil - and when you're talking towards the end of the boil, you're wondering about late hop additions and if you'll be losing flavor and aroma, etc. Yep, learned this from experience.

 

[flyerwire]

Another cold brewing tip: before submersing my immersion chiller in the boiling wort, I lay it over the top to let it warm in the steam - otherwise you'll dunk this cold mass into your wort and have to wait several minutes just to get it back to boil - and when you're talking towards the end of the boil, you're wondering about late hop additions and if you'll be losing flavor and aroma, etc. Yep, learned this from experience.

good tip, i did it in my shed with a co2 detector and the door open to try to keep the heat in a bit. It worked a little to well, i left it for a bit and came back and my entire shed was dripping wet from the condensation from the boil

 

[CottageGroveBrew]

Brewing in the garage when it is below 0 sucks. It does make cold crashing before transfering to kegs easy.

 

[SugarJohnson]

This thread came at the right time. Like Jackson Brown I brewed yesterday in WI. It was about 1 degree with the windchill. I brewed in the garage with the door half closed and it was still freakin cold. This was the third batch on my new brutus. Circulated sanitizer through the march pumps and by the time I started to recircualte wort the water in the pump head froze the impeller solid. Beware this is a quick way to burn out the pumps, luckily I caught it. If the fans on the pump dont spin turn it OFF. Second the Love temp probes were unable to keep accurate temps in the thermowells (T set up like in Lonnie's original design). The cold was cooling the stainless T as fast as the wort was heating it. Made for an interesting brew day firing gas controls manually. Good thing for analog thermos.

 

[oceanselv]

For any water lines that do not come in contact with the beer, you can always add RV grade antifreeze. Propylene glycol is RV anti freeze and is found in many pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. It is sweet tasting and will probably add a sweet taste to your beer if you get it in the wort. But tiny amounts won't kill you like normal antifreeze, ethylene glycol, will. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_glycol