Making sure my place is suitable for homebrewing

[Seb]

Hey guys, I haven't bought yet all the equipment for my new adventure of homebrewing and before doing so I would like to be sure my place can host this.

First of all I don't live in a house, I live in a condo, which has no backyards. So it's impossible for me to use gas tanks to brew since it's illegal do it inside. I know brewing kettles this way is better since you have a better control of the temperature, but all I have in my disposal is an electrical oven like this one. I know ovens are what's mostly used in homebrewing and it would be more thank ok to brew with it, but I wonder if there would be some other options available for me to better calibrate the temperature.

Also, my condo is rather small, so there aren't much room to let the beer fermenting. Tho, I have a basement (which is like 4 feet tall) and it's empty there, other than the water pipelines. I think it would be a great place to put the carboys or kegs. My only concern (other than moving the fermentation from upstairs to downstairs) is the temperature. I have no idea how it is since I never go. I would like a device down there to measure the temperature and see if there are lots of variation during day and night. Smart asses would tell me to drop a thermometer, but this way I would have to stand right by 24/24 to get measurements. I would need some high tech device that would take hourly measurements and note it for me, does it even exist?

If the basement's not suitable for the fermentation, I would need to keep it upstairs, in my dinning room. The way my condo's made is like a very long corridor with all the rooms (bedrooms and bathroom aside), including living room, dinning room and kitchen. Not gonna lie, it wouldn't be really good looking, tho it might impress the buddies and the ladies and would eat lotta space. How much space does the whole kit usually take in a room?

Thanks for answering me!

 

[dnslater]

Other more experienced brewers will certainly chime in, but here are my thoughts:

Brew from extract kits, at you can do this with a smaller pot - smaller 2 or 2 1/2 gallon boils should be easily done on your stove. This also requires less equipment. The main large equipment would be a bottling bucket and 6-7 gallon fermentor carboy or bucket. If you are looking to save space go for only a primary fermentor, since most here do not secondary.

If your "basement" is only 4 1/2 ft. tall, I'm guessing that it is actually a crawl space? If so, there is a good chance it is not well insulated. Does it have a dirt or stone floor? Probably large temperature fluctuations and likely not a very clean environment? All you need for your fermenting bucket is a small closet. You will also eventually need space to store your bottles for carbonating. You could store most of your smaller equipment in the bottling bucket when not in use, although it is best not to as it will scratch up the interior plastic surface.

I used to live in a narrow, three story condo, and there were large temperature differences between the top level and bottom level, so pay attention to the temperature in the room you are using for fermentation. You can get thermometer stickers for the side of your fermentor.

 

[cmoon]

If your doing stove top brewing, you basically going to be limited to either doing partial boils, small batches, or both. And the first thought that comes to mind is 'what's wrong with that.' Making 2 1/2 gallon batches can be a lot of fun. Just take all those recipes and divide them in half. You can even do the 2 1/2 gallon batches as partial boil if you can't get 3 gallons boiling on your stove top.

As far as your basement. Start measuring the temperature. If it isn't going to work try making a swamp cooler.

As far as space required for extract brewing, the bulkiest things will be the fermenter and your kettle. The ideal set-up of course is a chest freezer with temp control, but if you're just starting out, don't worry about that yet. Plus it sounds like you don't have the space.

 

[stratslinger]

You don't need any kind of fancy equipment to figure out the temperature in your basement or crawlspace... Go to Walmart and look for digital thermometers. I picked up one there at one point that was pretty cheap - definitely under $10. It measured the current temperature, and also recorded the maximum and minimum temperature over a period of time (there was a manual reset button - the max and min temps were since the last time the manual reset was pushed).

Pretty simple to use. And if it turns out that your basement/crawlspace is too warm, go ahead and do some searching here for swamp coolers - also, it's definitely possible to place your fermenter in a large bucket of water and swap out soda bottles full of ice in that water to keep it cool. If you crawlspace is too cool, then there are things like the brew belt that can be used to help increase the temperatures.

 

[Thehopguy]

This is easy man. My stove looks like yours. I bet money my apt is smaller than yours. They sell thermometers for like 10 bucks that have a minimum and maximum memory. Put it in ur basement. Done. Now go buy a starter kit

 

[unionrdr]

I use a 5G (20qt) stock pot out of a set of 4 SS ones Giant Eagle had on sale for $25. Gave my wife the other 4 smaller ones. With a fermenter pale,& bottling bucket added,you should be fine. Besides all the little bits-n-pieces like bottle capper,long stirring paddle,fine mesh strainer,etc. But you can put those in a box on the shelf in the garage.

 

[Seb]

The more I think about it, the more I think the basement ain't a good place. Especially because It's going to be tricky to move the fermenter.

I might want to buy a chest freezer and put my fermenter in it so I can control the temperature. I think it could fit there :
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/3351/img0506fg.jpg

As for the stove, I'm planning on making normal batches of 6 gallon that's why I'm looking for other options. Could I possibly put a stove element directly inside a kettle?

Also, I'm open to the idea of buying expensive equipment (tho not the vessels at 5k). My goal is to make the best possible beer without much trouble. I'm not looking for cheap ways to make beers.

 

[Seb]

I've been looking for some Chest Freezer on the internet (mainly on sears.com) and I'm now wondering if we can control the temperature at all. Fermentation needs to be done at around 70F while chest freezers are at around 0F.

Not sure if we can adjust the temperature level of the chest freezer much higher. :S

 

[Thehopguy]

Not sure if we can adjust the temperature level of the chest freezer much higher. :S

This. http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/johnson-controls-a419-digital-temp-controller.html

 

[NWMOBrewer]

if ur looking at putting heating elements in the kettle to help the boil, look into heat sticks, do a search on here for them. I don't know your time situition, but what I would do, and did do for my keezer sizing, is take a detailed map of your condo, including as many distances as possible, including where you have/want to put your table, etc. Then make another piece of paper to represent your ferm chamber, and move it around your scaled map of your condo. Then you would be able to see where you want it better. Its my suggestion so you know what size you can handle/want to handle. Hope it wasn't confusing.

 

[seabass07]

+1 for the heat stick. The heat stick and stove top is good for 7 or 8 gallon boils. Just be careful since they draw a lot of amps and can be really dangerous if not sealed properly. You could also put the water heater element directly into the side of the kettle.

 

[C-Rider]

This is easy man. My stove looks like yours. I bet money my apt is smaller than yours. They sell thermometers for like 10 bucks that have a minimum and maximum memory. Put it in ur basement. Done. Now go buy a starter kit

For a little more you can get one w/a remote and you might be able to read the temps down there from upstairs. :=)

You could also do small BIAB batches. That way you can go AG and enjoy lower costs and greater variety.

 

[C-Rider]

SAM's Club has a small chest freezer for $200. It's only 19" deep. Not sure how many fermenters you can get inside. Two at least. I'm thinking about one for say a Sept purchase.

 

[stratslinger]

This. http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/johnson-controls-a419-digital-temp-controller.html

Also check out this thread. It provides instructions on a DIY solution. A cheaper alternative to the controllers you can buy, and it gives you a neat little DIY project (if you enjoy that sort of thing).

 

[ayoungrad]

I live in a small condo. I do BIAB 5 gallon batches. I don't like to top off and my stove will only boil about 4 gallons at a time so I perform 2 separate boils for each batch. It takes longer but results in better beer IMHO.

For fermentation I have a NuCool 2.8 cu ft compressor-less fridge. It is extremely quiet and is the smallest fridge that will fit an ale pail or carboy and I keep it in the main room in my condo. I use a Johnson controller (just plug it in - no rewiring of any kind needed) with this. The frigdge blends into the condo - I put my network printer on top of it and you would never know its there. This fridge is no longer made but you can find them on cragslist or look into the Avanti version.

For other equipment storage, I use the box my kit came in and store that in a closet (buckets, carboy, tubing, paddle all go in this). Other than that, the only other big item/items are boil/mash pot (I have 2 for BIAB process) that I also store in a closet.

All of this info and details can be found throughout this site.

 

[h22lude]

You have plenty of options. Size shouldn't limit how you brew, for the most part.

In terms of your stove, you can do partial boil and top off like I do, you can do smaller batches, you can do two separate boils for the same batch. You don't have to do a full 5 gallon batch to get good results. You can still do AG with a stove top.

For fermenting, you definitely need to find out where you can put it to keep it at 68 to 70. If your basement/crawl space can keep that temp, that is a perfect spot for it. Don't worry about moving it. As long as you move it carefully, you won't hurt the beer. Or you can bring the wort down there, aerate it and then put the yeast in downstairs. You won't need to move it again until you are ready to bottle. Then you just move it carefully. I have moved many primaries with no harm done to the beer.

If the basement doesn't keep the temp at the range you need, you could make a little fermentation chamber down there and either heat it or cool it depending on what you need. If you don't want to do that, you can find a corner in your apartment that is out of the way. It is a pretty small bucket, it won't take up much room. Hell you can put it in a coat closet or your bedroom closet. You could also find a small fridge that could double as a kegerator. You could keep that in your kitchen, dining room or living room.

 

[Munchman]

Also check out this thread. It provides instructions on a DIY solution. A cheaper alternative to the controllers you can buy, and it gives you a neat little DIY project (if you enjoy that sort of thing).

+1 to this! Fun little project and works great for $50

 

[rodisian]

I'm working with a similar space issues. At first, I was worried about the equipment.. but with Partial Mashes or AG BIAB, the equipment has turned out to be the LEAST of my storage worries-- I'm a very new brewer but I've been hard at work - and now I'm having trouble finding storage for all my filled bottles! But that's quite a good problem to have

 

[Seb]

Well after reading all of your suggestions I think I will go as follow :

I will use a chest freezer with the temperature control device that has been linked here to ferment my beer. I won't place it in my basement, anyway it won't fit in the small hole to get down there.

As for the brewing process, I think I will do half batches, this way I'll be able to brew on my stove without the need of a heat stick. Plus, 48 bottles of beer is quite a lot to put in the fridge.

Is it true that with a 5-6 gallon batch you can't BIAB AG?

 

[thughes]

You can BIAB any size batch you want. I do 1, 2.5, 5, and 10 gal batches.

 

[cmoon]

It's funny, I was doing the whole BIAB thing without knowing what it was (partial mash). It would be very hard to do BIAB 5-6 gallons all-grain as that bag will need to hold maybe 10-20 lbs of grain. Again, this means bringing ~5 gallons of water to mash temperature, never mind the ~5 gallons of additional water you'll need to bring up to temperature for sparge. You could probably definitely managed the volumes for 2.5 gallon batches, and that could be pretty rewarding.

Honestly, I don't know if I've ever really considered how easy it would be to do 2.5 gallon BIAB AG. Just get a small cooler (like maybe 25-30 qts or something), a fruit bag and a 7.5 gallon kettle, and you're good to go.

If your just starting, going the small cooler/fruit bag route might be ideal too, because you could use effectively the same set up for extract, partial mash and finally all grain. Almost makes me wish I was doing smaller batches.

I think the biggest problem you'll have (if you drink a lot of beer) is that the 3 gallon and 6 gallon fermenters take up almost the same amount of space.

 

[ayoungrad]

I do 5 gallon AG BIAB with a 5 gallon stainless steel pot as the mash tun and then I do batch sparging to get efficiencies in the 85-90% range. AG is a non-issue with BIAB.

If I go over 12-13 pounds of grain (the exact number depends on your ratio) I supplement with DME. I have made beers up to 1.090 with this technique and could easily go higher.

 

[ayoungrad]

To do a mash, you don't need 5 gallons of water at mash temp. You need 5 gallons of water and grain at mash temp. This usually means bringing 3 gallons of water to about 166 degrees. Easy. Peasy. Lemon squeezy.

 

[ayoungrad]

BTW, 12-13 pounds of grain will get you to 1.060 or higher depending on your efficiency...

 

[Seb]

What's the mash process exactly? Is it the process of steeping the malted grain in water to make the wort?

 

[ayoungrad]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

 

[ayoungrad]

As far as mashing goes - check out some books. But, yes, mashing involves converting starches to sugars (creating wort) that can then be fermented.

 

[cmoon]

To do a mash, you don't need 5 gallons of water at mash temp. You need 5 gallons of water and grain at mash temp. This usually means bringing 3 gallons of water to about 166 degrees. Easy. Peasy. Lemon squeezy.

I'm not saying this to be argumentative, but most of my mashes involve 4-5 gallons of water, then another 5-6 for sparging.

I'm not trying to tell Seb what is possible, but rather what would be easy.

 

[ayoungrad]

Not taken as argumentative at all.

But the amount of water for the mash depends entirely on your mash ratio. Many homebrewers (but not all by any means) tend mash ratios of between 1 and 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. If you do higher, then you would absolutely need more water. But for most purposes, this is not necessary. And doing thicker mashes will enable you to do bigger beers in the smae sized mash tun (for me in the same stainless steel pot).

And I find doing 5 gallon AG BIAB batches to be easy in my small condo. And my process may even be a similar process to yours (I used the link I posted when I first started).

 

[ayoungrad]

And I split my sparges. I do two smaller sparges instead of one larger one. This does two things for me - it increases my yield and I can boil less water in preparation for each sparge. It requires a little volume/pot manipulation and pouring back and forth but it works well and is easy once you get the hang of it. I believe my total sparge volume tends to be similar to yours. But since I split the total volume in half, it only requires getting 2-3 gallons of water heated at once instead of 5-6.