Do I need a ventilation hood?

[reuliss]

Folks, I'm moving into a new house and plan on brewing in the garage. In planning my setup, I originally intended to build or buy a ventilation hood for over the boil kettle. But to be honest, I'm not thrilled with the idea of installing this in the garage in case I have to sell the house later.

I'll be in central Pa, and when the weather is nice I'll open garage door. But when it's too cold or too hot (I'm going to install a mini split unit to heat and cool garage), I intend to keep the door closed. Would it suffice to simply use a window fan on exhaust mode? Do you guys think that would do an adequate job of removing the steam from the boil? I certainly don't want a mold situation.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kh54s10]

It depends. How often do you brew? How big is the garage? What is the humidity on brew day? How well sealed up is the garage?

Thoughts: Are you using propane? If so, you do not want to brew with the door shut under any circumstances.

You are going to boil off between 3/4 and 2 gallons if you are doing five gallon batches. That moisture will stay in the garage without ventilation.

I brewed on a closed in porch, but opened as many windows as I could depending on wind and temperature. Always at least two 2x4 foot windows on opposite sides of the porch. I did not have any extra ventilation, the porch was not insulated at all. I had no problems.

I would at least use the fan to exhaust some of the moisture. Or open the garage door when you are finished.

 

[mongoose33]

I live in Wisconsin, similar weather issues as you have (I used to live in State College, I know. ).

I also brew in the garage, and in the winter I'm concerned about condensation from the boil infiltrating the insulation and wrecking it.

A buddy and I devised this system to capture most of the steam on a winter brew day and direct it outside. We crack the service door of the garage and use a small propane heater in front of the entering air to keep things tolerable. On a 15- or 20-degree day we can keep the garage about 60 which is more than nice and comfortable.

The key is that we have a sort of tunnel/corridor/hood arrangement that draws most of the steam out from the kettle. If you just have a window open and a fan, it will draw general air which won't be as moisture-laden as the air above the kettle. So you want to somehow capture most of that and direct it outside.

The pics aren't the best, but you can see the fan in the window (see the snow on the ground outside?), and I have a sort of corridor/chute/whatever, extending out from the window, including a piece of hardboard on top. I have another piece of plywood clamped to that to extend over the kettle, and it captures....oh, I'd say 90 percent of the steam that rises from the kettle.

I have foil-backed insulation I place between the kettle/burner and the wooden bench behind to insulate against the heat. Even without, it doesn't get very warm on the wooden bench behind it, but I just like the added value of the insulation.

 

[bleme]

You might consider a condenser setup like this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...denser-no-overhead-ventilation-needed.636955/

 

[reuliss]

It depends. How often do you brew? How big is the garage? What is the humidity on brew day? How well sealed up is the garage?

Thoughts: Are you using propane? If so, you do not want to brew with the door shut under any circumstances.

You are going to boil off between 3/4 and 2 gallons if you are doing five gallon batches. That moisture will stay in the garage without ventilation.

I brewed on a closed in porch, but opened as many windows as I could depending on wind and temperature. Always at least two 2x4 foot windows on opposite sides of the porch. I did not have any extra ventilation, the porch was not insulated at all. I had no problems.

I would at least use the fan to exhaust some of the moisture. Or open the garage door when you are finished.

All good ideas. I'm going with an electric setup, so no carbon monoxide worries!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

You may have no worries about co2 in your electric rig, but someone else reading this thread in the future may not pick up on that little tidbit.

Stay safe, everyone.

When I wanted to tick off SWMBO and she mentioned a co2 detector, I just causally said I'd have her rat dog join me. When it keeled over it was time to ventilate.