Cold weather question for the brewers up North.

[SamuraiSquirrel]

I live in Illinois. I started brewing this summer. I have been doing all-grain batches in my garage all summer and seem to have everything pretty much zeroed in.

I was just wondering how much the upcoming cold weather will effect my brew days this winter. I still plan on brewing in the garage. I just wondered if I need to adjust anything or plan accordingly for the cold weather.

Will my mash (mashing in a 10 gallon coleman cooler) lose a noticeably larger amount of heat over an hour if the outside temperature is 30 or 40 degrees vs. 60 or 70?

What about evaporation and heating effects also?

I'm expecting that the answer will be that there is only a small difference but just thought I'd ask before doing the first cold winter brew.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Your cooler mash tun will be fine, but everything else suffers. You will burn more propane. You will have to thoroughly drain all hoses and IC at the end of the brew day. You need a frostproof outside spigot.

Anytime you put some wet equipment on a counter it will freeze to the surface, and you will have icicles on your nuts.

Brewing in winter is indeed a very perverse pleasure.

 

[Brewin_CRAZY]

Dont forget that generally winter air is less humid thus evaporation will happen faster and you will loose more liquid (make sure to make up volume if needed before you cool it).

I couldnt agree more with gnome, you will use way more propane. But if you are lucky and have snow, go put your boil kettle in the snow while your cooling with your chiller and you will be surprised how fast things cool down (not to mention your tap water will be colder as well).

As for your mashtun, make sure that you adjust your mashin temp as all your grain will most likely be significantly colder.

Yea, it has its pluses and minuses but overall I think the term perverse pleasure it more than suitable, there is just a great feeling about brewing during the winter. One side note, make sure to have a nice big stout (9% or above) to keep you warm during brew days!!!

 

[foxtrot]

I slip a cardboard garment-shipping box around the burner/pot, which keeps the heat in real nice. I use it in the summer too, taking me to boil in less than 10 minutes! I cut the box down to a height of about 10" above the pot. It sits about 6" from the edge of the burner on all sides. The inside is slightly browned from the heat, but I've never had combustion since I've been using it, about 15 brew sessions. I boil on the deck outside so there is O2 from below to fuel the fire. On cement, you could place something under each corner for air. I'll eventually make something more Fire Marshall Bill approved, but the cardboard's working pretty good for now. Oh yeah, keeps wind away from the flame too.

 

[Marko73]

Another huge problem is steam from your kettle. You literally will not be able to see the boil. ..

 

[Trevor57]

Just a side note, shipping boxes are pretty fire resistant, which is why they stopped using wooden crates for shipping 60 years ago.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Another huge problem is steam from your kettle. You literally will not be able to see the boil. ..

Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now!

 

[boo boo]

Another huge problem is steam from your kettle. You literally will not be able to see the boil. ..

Yeah, which is excatly what happened to me today. Upside is that cooling water will chill wort a lot faster and less micro organisms blowing around to spoil your wort.

It's snowing here now. Brrrr.

 

[luvmy40]

This probably goes without saying, but I'd rather say it unnecessarily than have someone suffer the consequences...

DO NOT RUN A PROPANE BURNER IN A CLOSED GARAGE!!!!!

Cons:
Steam's a bitch (fogged glasses)
Boil takes longer
Grains are colder so adjust mash in accordingly
Nuts get frosty

Pros:
Wort chills faster
Your libation stays cold
Your pipeline doesn't run dry in February

 

[Netflyer]

Can you run a propane burner even in an open garage? If there is no breeze you could still die from Carbon Monoxide... no?

 

[Homercidal]

Can you run a propane burner even in an open garage? If there is no breeze you could still die from Carbon Monoxide... no?

No.

Just make sure to crack the door a bit and open a window a little. How much depends on how big your garage is. I have a huge upstairs, so no worries. You just want to make sure you have a bit of circulation.

If anyone is concerned, I think CO detectors are pretty cheap.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I have a huge upstairs

A little disappointed about the size of your downstairs though?

 

[GoldMiner]

Can you run a propane burner even in an open garage? If there is no breeze you could still die from Carbon Monoxide... no?

I use a fan to keep the air moving from the rear door towards the garage door.

 

[Brewin_CRAZY]

Can you run a propane burner even in an open garage? If there is no breeze you could still die from Carbon Monoxide... no?

Just to clear up a little... CO2 is much heavier than what makes up air and the little amount of CO that comes from combustion is not going to displace the air in your garage, so just crack the door a little. If you are worried crack a window, but at a minimum if you are worried BREW WITH FRIENDS (which you should do anyway)!!! CO/CO2 (i.e. lack of air) poisoning will make you pass out MUCH faster than kill you. All people are susceptible at different levels. If someone passes out get them to fresh air and clear out the garage!!!!

That being said, winter brewing kicks a$$ we need a smiley specifically for cold weather brewing of a smiley with a frosty southern area and drinkin a beer....

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

Regarding the propane in the garage issue, My plan was to brew in garage and leave the garage door open about a foot at the bottom and have a fan running somewhere to move some air around.

It will likely be good and windy outside so I would expect that there will be a good breeze or amount of air moving around. I was going to have a box fan blowing out also.

Sounds like this should be alright.

 

[metaltim]

man you guys are making me jealous.. I'm a cold weather lover stuck in a hot weather world.. Houston TX!

We finally just got our lows to be consistently in the 50's or lower. We had several days in oct. where the low was 70+.

Oh well, one day I will move, and I can only go north from here.

 

[Homercidal]

A little disappointed about the size of your downstairs though?

I'm not, but she may be...

You know what they say, It's not the size of the worm on your hook, it's how you wiggle it!

 

[springer]

Just to clear up a little... CO2 is much heavier than what makes up air and the little amount of CO that comes from combustion is not going to displace the air in your garage, so just crack the door a little. If you are worried crack a window, but at a minimum if you are worried BREW WITH FRIENDS (which you should do anyway)!!! CO/CO2 (i.e. lack of air) poisoning will make you pass out MUCH faster than kill you. All people are susceptible at different levels. If someone passes out get them to fresh air and clear out the garage!!!!

That being said, winter brewing kicks a$$ we need a smiley specifically for cold weather brewing of a smiley with a frosty southern area and drinkin a beer....

+ 1 on this . I brew in my detached garage all winter if its really cold outside. I also use snow in the recirculating water chiller . As the water in the bucket gets warm add more snow.


only one thing about the passing out... My friends usually pass out even if we arent brewing damn drunks