Indoor AG brewing.

[zoebisch01]

I brew AG indoors on my Propane gas stovetop. I have a downdraft blower. It is actually really nice in the winter. Warmth and humidity. Pushes back the dry cold winter . I have a CO/fire alarm and it has never gone off. The windows get a little wet but that gets reabsorbed into the air fairly quickly in the winter.

 

[srm775]

Fingers,

I appreciate everyon's concern, but I feel alittle like I'm at a Big Brother convention with all the paranoia floating around. My folks, and many olther people I grew up with still cook indoors with propane (25+ yrs), year round, often with the equivelent of 100,000+ btu/hr consumption. No rpoblems, ever,......none.

Every resuarant I have ever been in or worked in (was a cook for some years) has exhaust hoods approx equal to the size of the burner area, with large fans. True, most are NG, and not LP, but as far as CO goes, these places are often running 500k to 1M btu/hr, with little or no intake air.

I'm not sure if I'm jumping in here prematurely, but Propane is no more dangerous than natural gas. Don't forget, there are MILLIONS of homes that heat and cook with propane gas. My father's hunting camp is heated, lit and cooking is done with propane and wood. The forklifts and moving vechicles you see at big-box stores (lowes, home depot, walmart) are all powered by propane cylinders.

I brewed all-grain with full boils on my 280,000 btu propane turkey fryers for a number of years in my basement and never had a problem. I had a garden basement (only partially underground), I set my fryer right underneath a window, place my $15 window fan in the window and turned it on high, cracked a window slightly on the opposite side of the house and brew away. So long as the flame on your burner is completely blue, you're using up all the propane and creating very little CO. Have some exhaust and fresh air intake and you should be fine.

 

[olllllo]

I'm not sure if I'm jumping in here prematurely, but Propane is no more dangerous than natural gas. Don't forget, there are MILLIONS of homes that heat and cook with propane gas. My father's hunting camp is heated, lit and cooking is done with propane and wood. The forklifts and moving vechicles you see at big-box stores (lowes, home depot, walmart) are all powered by propane cylinders.

I brewed all-grain with full boils on my 280,000 btu propane turkey fryers for a number of years in my basement and never had a problem. I had a garden basement (only partially underground), I set my fryer right underneath a window, place my $15 window fan in the window and turned it on high, cracked a window slightly on the opposite side of the house and brew away. So long as the flame on your burner is completely blue, you're using up all the propane and creating very little CO. Have some exhaust and fresh air intake and you should be fine.

Ugh. It's that guy again

Just kidding, srm775. Thanks for sharing. I'm just reflecting on the rash of single issue one post accounts lately. Welcome BTW.

 

[olllllo]

I'm not sure if I'm jumping in here prematurely, but Propane is no more dangerous than natural gas. Don't forget, there are MILLIONS of homes that heat and cook with propane gas. My father's hunting camp is heated, lit and cooking is done with propane and wood. The forklifts and moving vechicles you see at big-box stores (lowes, home depot, walmart) are all powered by propane cylinders.

I agree with some of your points however we are looking at a difference in scale here. Forklifts used in big-box stores are in warehouse environments (ventalation, high celings, spacious) If fingers had that type of a basement, well he'd have no problems even if he brewed over a bonfire.

 

[srm775]

I agree with some of your points however we are looking at a difference in scale here. Forklifts used in big-box stores are in warehouse environments (ventalation, high celings, spacious) If fingers had that type of a basement, well he'd have no problems even if he brewed over a bonfire.

How'd you get that picture of me? I rarely where my "propane" t-shirt anymore.

My point was really that many people still cook, indoors, with propane and it's not a problem. Whether it's in their stove and on their range, or in the basement with a window open, I really don't see that it would be a huge problem.

 

[FlyingHorse]

I'm not sure if I'm jumping in here prematurely, but Propane is no more dangerous than natural gas.

I don't think anyone's arguing against the use of propane; if you're using it on an appliance designed for indoor use, with proper hard-line plumbing from an outdoor storage tank (just like you would with NG), no problem.

I think the precautions are being given against using a burner designed for outdoor use, and (especially) storing and using a 20-lb portable propane tank indoors...even the propane industry sites warn aganst this, and it's against he law in some places.

 

[AiredAle]

I brew with propane in my basement utility room, and have done so since 1985 without a propane-related incident. I close the utility room door, open the window across the room from the burner, and have a modified bathroom vent fan with a hood about 1 foot above the top of my keggle. The hood is an old plastic trash can lid, about 6 inches wider than the keggle. This works well enough that the females in the house don't complain of brewery smells. The dog doesn't seem to care. The hood over the keggle captures most of the water evaporated by boiling, and the water from propane combustion. I have cold water pipes running across the ceiling, and get a little condensation off them, but no worse than on a humid July day.

If you get good exchange of air in the room, you will keep the CO2 and H2O levels low. If you have good combustion, meaning lots of oxygen mixing with the propane during burning, you will have low, or no CO levels. Burning propane does not necessarily produce CO, any more than burning natural gas does, if adequate O2 is available for complete combustion.

My biggest concerns are: 1) a boilover that extinguishes the flame and lets unburnt propane woof out of the burner.... and 2) a leak in the regulator-hose-burner connections. If you are careful of these, you should be okay.

I would never run the big propane burners we use without positive ventilation to ensure removal of combustion byproducts and constant introduction of more oxygen into the room for the burner, and for me.

 

[woosterhoot]

I brew with homemade burner I made out of used oxy acetelyene torches and duct tape. I use it in my basement bathroom with the fan on though. Been doing it since 79.

 

[AiredAle]

woosterhoot, I have to assume your comment is directed at me. If you have some useful observation or comment, let's hear it, and we can debate it on a logical or factual basis. Otherwise, I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig.

 

[woosterhoot]

No my comment wasn't completely directed at you, at the time it was so funny because I was imagining a wanna be Red Green show type guy trying to make some of the things in the thread. I thing my point is using a outdoor burner with a temporary screw on connection inside is dumb. Not trying to hurt anyones feelings or anything. I don't know what your setup looks like and for all I know its completely safe. I just think that it could also be dangerous because someone who may not know as much as you do will try to set up a cob job bs system and kill themselves. Happy indoor brewing.

 

[Bobby_M]

That's a bit of a BS position. There are billions of activities done safely with exacting precision that can kill someone who doesn't know the devil in the details. Anyone that logs on to the internet, gets a crazy idea and later kills themselves are just a part of the Darwin awards. Do we all have to put 2-page disclaimers in our sigs now?

 

[BierMuncher]

I'm going in.

Guess I'll see you on the other side.

 

[woosterhoot]

No I don't think you need to write a disclaimer. Im all for DIY projects it just seems this one could be particularly dangerous. Everyone keeps refering to CO2 levels, how about propane levels. I mean when I use my propane grill smoker outside I always use leak detecter on the threaded connection, but inside this could be particularly dangerous if there is even the slightest leak. That's why piping is usually pressure tested. Im not trying to be a worry wort or discourage setting up an indoor brew space, I think its a great idea. Just how its pulled off is more important than building a mash tun or kegerator. The ideas about hard piping and locating the propane outside are all excellent ideas that will make it much more safe. Some of the other ones on this thread not so much.