I'm out of space - what are my options?

[Calypso]

I live in a (decent sized) apartment. But with a baby on the way, I'm running out of usable space. What are my options for additional space?

My thoughts, in rough order of preference:
1) Space that I can use to brew, ferment, bottle, and store beer. Requires: water, electricity, storage space
2) Space that I can use to ferment, bottle, and store beer. Requires: electricity, storage space
3) Space that I can use to store beer. Requires: storage space

I don't mind spending some money, but renting another apartment is probably not realistic. I considered a storage unit, but I don't think that would have electricity, and I'd really like whatever solution to support a chest cooler (which means, #3 above is pretty much of no interest to me).

Any ideas?

 

[MadHomebrewer]

Maybe look for an indoor climate controlled storage units. You should have electricity to run a deep freezer firm chamber. Water you would have to bring in and brew on electric equipment.

 

[Calypso]

I called every climate controlled storage unit company in my area and none of them provide an outlet. =/

 

[Phlyborn]

Do you have family or friends that live nearby? Maybe you could brew and ferment at their place. Just offer some samples as repayment. Is there a yard big enough for a small shed. You could run a heavy duty extension cord out to it for temporary use.

 

[BrotherBock]

Brew smaller. One gallon batches. You could have a shelf of many beers.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Sell the baby, the sooner the better, before you get too attached. Then use that money to buy more brewing equipment.

Oh, wait. I think I read that it's illegal to sell your kids now.

If I were in your shoes, I'd probably move to a smaller batch setup. You're not going to have a lot of time to brew and drink beer anyway, so may as well go with a 1-3 gallon setup.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

You could start drinking faster to save some storage space?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I am trying to move my operation out to my (powered) shed for the same reason that you are looking for more space.
Shed, or addition or adding a cellar may or may not be feasible for you. I've day dreamed about "cellaring" a keg at the bottom of a river or lake. I wonder if a spunding valve would work down there.

 

[PlexVector]

You could start drinking faster to save some storage space?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I am trying to move my operation out to my (powered) shed for the same reason that you are looking for more space.
Shed, or addition or adding a cellar may or may not be feasible for you. I've day dreamed about "cellaring" a keg at the bottom of a river or lake. I wonder if a spunding valve would work down there.

If you don't want to do the calculations, then once you have the keg in place underwater snorkel down and set the spunding valve in situ.

EDIT: Crap; the spunding valve and pressure gauge will have to be above the water.

 

[brewcat]

Babies don't take up that much room.

You don't have any closet space to store stuff? How much usable space do you actually need?

The chest freezer could go in the baby's room...

 

[TechyDork]

Babies don't take up that much room.

You don't have any closet space to store stuff? How much usable space do you actually need?

The chest freezer could go in the baby's room...

Fermentation chamber/changing table.... brilliant!!

You could ferment in a small dorm fridge if you did say 3 gallon batches. Do BIAB on the stove, and maybe use a heat stick to supplement if needed.

 

[notyal]

Start hyping up the benefits of co-sleeping and attachment parenting. (For the beer of course. Get that baby sleeping in its own room as soon as you can.)

 

[Sailingeric]

Time to buy a house!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

1-gallon batches ~

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Time to buy a house!

I hate to sound like the keggers who suggest kegging to solve bottling problems. But, its still a semi-decent time to buy a house before rates start going up. The joke with my fiance's family is I paid all of the down payment on the house to make room for my home brewing hobby. (the big reason was we were just sick of playing the "Whose the slum-lord landlord we deal with for the next 12 months", which is more pronounced in a college town like we live in) Seriously the basement stays a super even 55F from Feb through early April (so I'm betting all winter from October through end of March it stays at 55F), right now its in the 80s outside but the basement has stayed an even 66-67F for the past week of this horrible warm weather. Also having a basement gives you a TON of room for your beer projects.

 

[Calypso]

So many good ideas, thank you all.

Smaller batches: Doing smaller batches is a possibility. I'm setup for doing 5 gallon batches, but I guess all I would need is some smaller fermenters. But getting half as much beer for roughly the same amount of work seems silly to me.
Buying a house: Eventually. But that's not going to happen for at least a couple of years.
Co-opting friends' and families' space: Seriously considering it.
Submerging things in lakes: I've always wanted to take up SCUBA diving.

So what I would like is the space for a chest freezer (fermentation chamber) and refrigerator (chilling finished beer). I have the room for my gear (it's in the second bedroom closet), but I don't have the space for either of those refrigeration units. I could probably swing a dorm style refrigerator.

 

[madscientist451]

Seems simple to me, if you can't get a house right now, just downsize your brewing ambitions and live with it. A cheap fermentation chamber for 5 gallon batches can be made from a 24x24" x 18" cardboard box with some insulation board. Keep it cold with 1 & 2 liter frozen water bottles. You can easily get 10 degrees below ambient doing this and the temp. is pretty stable once you figure out how many frozen bottles to use. Make a little stand/shelf for it so a few cases of bottles can go underneath it, a shelf above would hold the brew pot and other stuff. The whole rig would take up like 30" square by 6' high. Can you spare that much space in the corner of a room or a closet? Get a Japanese shoji screen type thing to hide it in the corner. You'll be brewing in your kitchen, so maybe downsizing to 3/4 gallon brews makes sense? Just some ideas, best wishes to you and your new family, cheers!

 

[iijakii]

You can fit a carboy into some pretty small fridges. You mention having a closet where your brewing gear is stored already - could you just add shelving in there?

If youre handy re woodworking you can do all kinds of neat stuff. Build a bench out of a chest freezer. A cool cabinet. As someone else mentioned, baby-changing station would be easy.

You dont have a patio you could store a mini fridge on?

 

[Firewalker11]

Three words:

Brew-Bud-Dy! I bet you work with someone that owns a garage or a basement, right? You pay him/her in beer, win | win.

 

[jrgtr42]

Truth be told, I brewed 5-gal batches out of a tiny (a few hundred square feet) 1-bedroom apartment. The only part that was difficult was temp control when fermenting, but I got around that by avoiding brewing in the hottest part of the summer. I was able to store the brew gear in parts and pieces in various places, and the finished beer went under tables and cabinets. As long as I was able to keep my beer out of the direct sunlight, I called it good. If you have a closet you can keep dedicated to your beer even after the little one arrives (congrats, by the way; I have one that is a month old today ) you should be in good shape. Of course cellar temp is better, but as long as you are comfortable, anything you make that is destined to be consumed relatively quickly will be fine for as long as it takes.

 

[DatsyukianDeke]

Seriously the basement stays a super even 55F from Feb through early April (so I'm betting all winter from October through end of March it stays at 55F), right now its in the 80s outside but the basement has stayed an even 66-67F for the past week of this horrible warm weather. Also having a basement gives you a TON of room for your beer projects.

I'm in the middle of looking for a two bedroom apartment and saw a place the other day with a nice, large basement that had storage space and a long workbench. I pretty much told the guy I'd take it after I saw that. I just started brewing in February and it did not take long at all for it to overtake me small single bedroom place.

 

[BrotherBock]

getting half as much beer for roughly the same amount of work seems silly to me.

Quality not quantity. Still having fun, right?

 

[Toga]

The 7.9 gallon wine buckets fit perfectly on the bottom shelf of a 4.3 cubic ft Avanti dorm fridge that does not have a freezer. No mods to the fridge are needed with this one. All you will need to do is build a bottom shelf out of wood to replace the glass shelf. I am using one now. It works perfect for a fermentation chamber.