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Joshua79

New Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2022
Messages
3
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Location
Waco, TX
Okay. I’ve recently gone all grain, but haven’t made a batch at home yet because I’m deciding on my set up and location.

I have almost all the tools. The one thing I’m still missing is a glycol chiller to control temps during fermentation.

I was just going to setup in my basement, but I can’t boil with my propane setup indoors. Just too much risk.

So, I was going to make my wort in the basement, then transfer to garage to boil. But then, I’d have to transfer to the fermentation vessel and back down to the basement for fermentation.

I’d prefer to do it all in one place. The garage to be exact.

As I mentioned, I’m currently gathering material to make my glycol chiller, so low temps will not be a problem. However, I live in PA and we get really cold winters, so I’m not sure how the cold air will affect my fermentation vessel. My FV is an anvil bucket. I have the cooling system that goes with it (which is why I'm making the glycol chiller), and I have the jacket for the vessel.

Here's my question....

How do you all ferment in your unheated garage in the winter months?
 
An insulated box (such as a refrigerator, or home-built) with a small heat source (reptile bulb in my case) and thermostatic control works well. Indeed, the refrigerator could work well in all seasons, with no need for a glycol setup. Glycol is thought to be most appropriate with multiple fermenters.
 
Why is it necessary to ferment in the garage? Most ales are going to be in the 60’s. Lagers will be cooler of course.
 
Brew in the garage and ferment in the basement. That's what I do. Not ideal carrying wort down stairs, but I use a food grade 5 gallon bucket, and I make two trips. I have my unitanks setup up next to my glycol, and I use an oversized funnel to get the wort into my unis.
 
What about going all electric in your basement? Right where the rest of your equipment resides. Only down side is you'll have to vent off the steam from boiling.
I have electric. I brew in my kitchen. And yes, I have to carry mine down to the basement. I wish I could do it all in one place. Sometimes we just have to do what works.
 
Okay. I’ve recently gone all grain, but haven’t made a batch at home yet because I’m deciding on my set up and location.

I have almost all the tools. The one thing I’m still missing is a glycol chiller to control temps during fermentation.

I was just going to setup in my basement, but I can’t boil with my propane setup indoors. Just too much risk.

So, I was going to make my wort in the basement, then transfer to garage to boil. But then, I’d have to transfer to the fermentation vessel and back down to the basement for fermentation.

I’d prefer to do it all in one place. The garage to be exact.

As I mentioned, I’m currently gathering material to make my glycol chiller, so low temps will not be a problem. However, I live in PA and we get really cold winters, so I’m not sure how the cold air will affect my fermentation vessel. My FV is an anvil bucket. I have the cooling system that goes with it (which is why I'm making the glycol chiller), and I have the jacket for the vessel.

Here's my question....

How do you all ferment in your unheated garage in the winter months?
I use an aquarium heater stick in my glycol tank and circulate through my fermentor.
 
I'm with you on that. I too brew in the kitchen and carry the fermenter to my ferm chamber in the basement. Age and shoulder problems have forced me to drop down to 2 1/2 gallon batches. I've tried brewing in the basement, but don't have a way to vent the steam. I'm planning to add ventilation, just not a priority.
I have electric. I brew in my kitchen. And yes, I have to carry mine down to the basement. I wish I could do it all in one place. Sometimes we just have to do what works.
 
Hey @Joshua79 ..can you come back and comment... I'm trying to wrap my head around 2 statements:
I was just going to setup in my basement, but I can’t boil with my propane setup indoors. Just too much risk.

So, I was going to make my wort in the basement, then transfer to garage to boil.
How are you going to make wort in your basement? Electric?..If so, why not stick with that? Is this a 2V, 3V, AIO or BIAB?
:mug:
 
I brew in the basement, ferment in the basement too. Electric HLT and natural gas for the boil kettle. Good exhaust system, make-up air, fire extinguisher, carbon monoxide sensor plus personal PPE.

The garage would be nice too but it would need a heat source for the cold Wisconsin weather. The basement already has everything and it's close to my cold beer.
 
I'm with you on that. I too brew in the kitchen and carry the fermenter to my ferm chamber in the basement. Age and shoulder problems have forced me to drop down to 2 1/2 gallon batches. I've tried brewing in the basement, but don't have a way to vent the steam. I'm planning to add ventilation, just not a priority.
I’m with you, I’ll be 64 in a few weeks. I’m doing 3 gallon batches. I have to brew twice to fill a 5 gallon keg.
 
I'm with you on that. I too brew in the kitchen and carry the fermenter to my ferm chamber in the basement. Age and shoulder problems have forced me to drop down to 2 1/2 gallon batches. I've tried brewing in the basement, but don't have a way to vent the steam. I'm planning to add ventilation, just not a priority.
I had virtually all of these problems that you guys are describing. Then my eyes were opened and I was able to shift brewing to the basement with a couple of simple modifications. I acquired an Avantco induction burner so that I could continue to use my existing kettle and, most importantly, a steam condenser. No need to install an expensive ventilation system to vent steam. There's info out on the web about how to make your own steam condenser, but I found it simpler and no more costly to buy a well-made one. Several vendors sell them. I got a Steamslayer from https://www.brewhardware.om https://www.brewhardware.com/produc...eam Slayer (tm) is a tool that eliminates the
The detailed info and instructions were what sold me, and I was not disappointed. It takes a bit of adjusting to the closed boil process, but I can now do everything in one location and don't care if it's 95 F or -20 F outside. No more carrying 60 lb loads of wort and kettle down basement stairs.
 
I'm with you on that. I too brew in the kitchen and carry the fermenter to my ferm chamber in the basement. Age and shoulder problems have forced me to drop down to 2 1/2 gallon batches. I've tried brewing in the basement, but don't have a way to vent the steam. I'm planning to add ventilation, just not a priority.
Get a steam slayer. Just spend the money and get one. I dicked around trying to make something work, spending more than the cost of a steam slayer with mediocre results. Just buy the steam slayer.
 
My basement is unheated and drops to the low 50s and maybe once in a while into the high 40s. I have always used seedling heating mats and then maybe a blanket if it seemed the temperature wasn't quite hitting ale temps. The mats 10"x20" matts are usually about 20 watts, the 20"x20" are 40 watts. My garage gets a little colder, I have frozen an inside valve which was on the outside wall. I have 80 watt cone shaped heaters on my unitanks but I did not get to test them out last winter. I think you'd be fine with a 20"x20" heating mat, maybe the smaller one. It would completely surround your Anvil bucket if you have the 7. You could add insulation like a blanket if needed. I built a sleeve for my carboy out of a camping sleeping mat recently. I use that for insulation on a carboy for chilling with my glycol chiller. Make a cylinder out of the mat and then make a top and bottom. Duct tape sort of holds it together, I have had some trouble with moisture buildup from condensation but nothing that more duct tape can't fix! If you make one, make it loose so that you can slip in the heating mat and get the bucket out.
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I'm in Florida so no basement here.

I too brew in my kitchen, but then bring the wort upstairs to my spare room where my glycol chiller and unitank are set up. I use a sanitized 3 gallon plastic carboy to transfer the wort upstairs to the unitank. I do 2 - 3 trips (carrying about 2 gallons at a time, so it easy to manage) and dump it in. It's a lot of extra steps, but there is no way the unitank can be carried around full of wort.

If I am using my anvil bucket, I just bring that downstairs to my kitchen and fill the whole thing up, and then carry it back upstairs to hook it up to the glycol chiller. It's heavy, but I just take my time. It's always in the back of my mind that the handles might break, but they have held up fine carrying it full of wort for a few years now.

If you're basement gets cold, you will definitely need something to warm up the anvil bucket. Especially when fermenting an ale. Most inkbird controllers can control heat and cold and could control heat to warm your anvile bucket up when it gets too cold . Check morebeer. I know they have a few items on there that are good for heating carboys and other FV that would work with your anvil bucket. As mentioned the aquarium Hester is a good option too. Possibly even a heating pad for your back could work too. I taped one on my anvil bucket once when I wanted to keep my beer in the 90s for a kviek strain I was using. Worked pretty good!
 
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