Just a thought on brewing location.

[OneInTheHand]

I'm a novice brewer at best. Just finished brewing a basic extract kit. Have been looking over future equipment. And in consideration of electric vs propane, which is a natural extension of inside vs outside... I think it comes down to where do I want to sit. In the end we are all watching water boil, with the correct prep, our equipment should be clean and sterile. So for me at least, it doesn't come down to cost (it's cheaper to be sober), and it doesn't come down to technical capabilities (for example temperature control), it comes down to where do I want to park my ass for an hour or two and wait for water to boil.

The best beer is the one in your hand.

Cheers,
George

 

[C-Rider]

I'm a novice brewer at best. Just finished brewing a basic extract kit. Have been looking over future equipment. And in consideration of electric vs propane, which is a natural extension of inside vs outside... I think it comes down to where do I want to sit. In the end we are all watching water boil, with the correct prep, our equipment should be clean and sterile. So for me at least, it doesn't come down to cost (it's cheaper to be sober), and it doesn't come down to technical capabilities (for example temperature control), it comes down to where do I want to park my ass for an hour or two and wait for water to boil.

The best beer is the one in your hand.

Cheers,
George

I do mine on a screened in covered deck. But I sure don't sit and watch the water boil. I have a digital thermometer w/a temp alarm set to 205*. When I hear it I go out and make sure there is no boil over.

But backing up .... during the mash I'm measuring out the hop and other additions that go in during the boil.

During the boil I wash out everything used up to that point and have timers set to when the hops are added...During the wait I each lunch. And up date my notes.

 

[madscientist451]

I'm a (mostly) inside brewer. When it's ten degrees outside and windy, I'm glad I'm not trying to brew outside. When its 100 degrees out, the A/C feels good although I feel a little guilty heating the kitchen up on a hot day.
Also part of your decision is batch size. My inside batches are 3-5 gallons. The kitchen stove supplies the heat. Super simple, cheap and I do other tasks around the house while I'm brewing.
If you are brewing 10 gallons, you'll need 240 volt for electric, so most people will opt for brewing outside with propane.

 

[kh54s10]

I brew on an enclosed porch, with the windows open. I too don't "watch water boil" There are periods where I am not doing something else. But most of the time is setting things up for the next step or cleaning up the last step.

My ideal would be a dedicated brew room inside. Electric, with everything right there in the room. Right now my grains and fermentation is in the basement and the brew rig is out back on the porch.

 

[eadavis80]

I just enjoy listening to a football game if I brew in the fall or sports talk on a summer late morning/early afternoon while I brew in my garage with the door open. I always fill my birdfeeders before I start brew day and I enjoy just watching the birds and zoning out for a few hours while I brew. Most of the time I brew alone, but sometimes a buddy or two come by and we sip on a few while we do our thing.

 

[Yesfan]

Mine is my garage. I have a couple of chairs in my brew area where I just kick back and relax (and have a home brew!) with some tunes in the background. Like the others, I gather my grains, measure them out, then mill as the strike water is heating. Then I gather my hops during the mash. Once the hop schedule is started, it's just a matter of cleaning up everything else and sanitizing my carboy(s).

 

[mongoose33]

Part of my journey has been figuring out how to reduce the time spent brewing...not that i don't like it, but my first brew day was something like 7 hours. I now have it down to 4 hours.

A huge part of that has been finding a way to keep all my brewing stuff together as much as I can. I used to run up and down the stairs to the basement 10 or more times as I forgot this, or needed to get that, or left my notebook there and had to retrieve it, or....

So unless you like the brew day being really long, if I were you I'd consider spaces that allowed me to keep most of my brewing stuff right there.

I brew in my garage. Both doors open in reasonable weather. In cold weather I brew in front of a window in which a fan has been placed to exhaust steam from boiling, as that is no good in the enclosed and insulated garage space.

I didn't have room to keep permanent cabinets or other storage in my garage, but I had a nook into which I could roll a cabinet on wheels; it stores most everything for brew day except mill, fermenters, and immersion cooler.

It's all right there where I'm brewing, and it saves steps and aggravation. I've included a couple pics below showing it. Not that this will work for you necessarily but it may give you ideas based on your own space.

 

[Jtk78]

I brew in my garage as well, with very little sit time. I made that mistake once. Prep and clean between means shorter brew time for me. I also usually do 2 batches staggered for chilling purposes.

Edit - Nice setup mongoose!

 

[BigCrazyAl]

I brew outside as my stove can only handle a couple gallons at best. The wife also doesn't enjoy the smell of boiling wort so I choose to enjoy a nice sunny day in the driveway.

Set up is a bit of a pain since I store everything in the basement. I'm still getting my process figured out to limit the length if a brew day. My last brew was my first all grain batch and lasted 6 hours or so.

I wasn't cleaning as I go this time since the mash/sparge is all new to me. Next time I'll be in and out of the house during the mash and boil getting things cleaned and put back away.

Here's my budget setup

 

[Murphys_Law]

I brew on my patio. I keep my gear in my basement and my desk is 10 feet off the ground so I have a lot of exercise during brew day! Down the basement to get my gear...down my deck steps to the patio brew area...up and down several times during the session! I have gotten pretty damn organized to minimize the up-and-down.

Next house will have a dedicated inside brew area including sinks, drains, etc.

 

[beernutz]

I brewed inside on stovetop for many years then at my wife's urging (insistence) I moved outside using a couple of propane burners which worked reasonably well. She wasn't crazy about the smell or the rare boilover incidents.

After a long break from brewing I came back and built a rolling brew structure that stays under my deck but can be pushed out onto a patio on nice days. On rainy days (really that's the only inclement weather we get here) I can brew under the covered deck or even push it back under the deck if unexpected rain pops up.

It connects to my house natural gas so that I never run out of fuel and is pretty economical to use. I really try to keep 100% of my brewing outside as though my wife loves that I brew she also likes a clean house.

I really like brewing outside whether it is raining or not. I am having at least 3 other homebrew club members over to my house in a couple weeks for a first-ever brew day and I think its going to be a lot of fun but everyone except me will be using propane.