Help! condensation on walls during brewing

[brockd]

Hi all,

Relatively new to brewing - going since Oct. We've had quite a cold snap here today in Toronto and, while I have the goodies on the boil, I've had quite a lot of condensation on my kitchen walls. I don't wanna have any paint/mould issues. Any ideas how to stop it?

 

[slym2none]

You need adequate ventilation. If you don't have a stove-fan, you need to open doors and/or windows. Sorry that it's cold out...

 

[Moose_MI]

I'm pretty much destroying the drywall in my garage 1 brew at a time.....a small price to pay

My wife keeps telling me to convert my garden into a brew shed.....she has no idea what sort of danger she is in ... Pandora's box is a bee-otch to close....

 

[Stillraining]

There is roughly a gallon an hour of boil off..That water vapor has to either get sucked or pushed outside, or it will condense and hide in your house somewhere. A large fan and some open windows and doors will do the trick.
I brew outdoors even when its below freezing out..no moisture issues that way.

 

[PADave]

Brew outside. I only do 1 gallon batches inside, otherwise it's too much moisture being boiled off for inside.

 

[masonsjax]

I brew in my basement and have 2 dehumidifiers down there that run all the time. It's a big space so a couple of gallons worth of humidity isn't noticeable, but the humidifiers do kick on once the steam starts rising.

 

[SeraW]

I brew 3 gallon batches in kitchen. The stove fan gets most of it but I still have to open the doors and windows for part of the time. I also move my bass into the bedroom (a little humidity is okay, but too much can contribute to molding inside the body.)

 

[signpost]

I brew 3 gallon batches in kitchen. The stove fan gets most of it but I still have to open the doors and windows for part of the time. I also move my bass into the bedroom (a little humidity is okay, but too much can contribute to molding inside the body.)

It would be a shame to have a moldy bass.

When I lived in Arizona, I never had this problem. But then when I moved back to Michigan, I had cupboards above my kettle dripping condensation back into the boil.

The best solution I came to was to move the boil outside on a propane burner. If it's too cold for you out there, then you probably either need to mop down the walls as you brew or wait for spring time.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I've always brewed in my kitchen. I came up with a brilliant idea to create enough draft to vent the moisture. I bought a 225 year old house that leaks like a sieve. Vents really well

 

[kaffeenjunkie]

You may want to look at eventually adding a hood and fan over your brew kettle.

 

[johnhenryrolf]

Get a dehumidifier.

 

[brockd]

All very good ideas. We've been doing 3 and 5 gal batches so getting quite a bit. I have a dehumidifier that I'll try in conjunction with cracked windows next time.
Miight try to get my hands on a propane burner - not sure how well it'd work at -20C though...

 

[johnhenryrolf]

We've had problems in our house, because it's new and pretty airtight. Had to get a dehumidifier, because when the air conditioner wasn't running and it got cold outside my humidity inside was running almost 70% and it was raining inside. Got it down to 40-50% now and haven't had anymore trouble. Good luck!

 

[mongoose33]

I'm pretty much destroying the drywall in my garage 1 brew at a time.....a small price to pay

My wife keeps telling me to convert my garden into a brew shed.....she has no idea what sort of danger she is in ... Pandora's box is a bee-otch to close....

I have the same issue--garage is drywalled and when I brew that steam just rises to the ceiling and I'm afraid it's collecting in the insulation above (no vapor barrier as far as I know).

So what I do is brew w/ the garage door open and I place a fan about 2 feet higher than the boil kettle and set it to blowing the steam toward the door. Seems to work ok.

I'm stoked for this weekend--supposedly we're going to be as high as 50 degrees on Saturday, I may brew in shorts and short sleeves! The fan, it'll be blowing!