Making sure my place is suitable for homebrewing

[gnr9933]

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!

 

[zach976]

Your stovetop should be fine for brewing, I know a lot of people brew this way. For your basement, I would buy one of the wireless weather stations that you can buy for home and put the sensor in the basement so you can monitor the temps from somewhere else in the home.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Mallcrawler]

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and brew about 2-3 times a month ranging from gallon batches to 5 gallon. I brew on my electric stove and it works fine. I do have a propane burner that I will drag outside sometimes if I'm doing a full boil batch. As far as where to keep your fermenters I keep mine in a spare closet that is usually about 68-72 degrees or in the spare bathroom shower. I second the wireless weather station to keep an eye on fermentation temps if you decide to go the basement route.

 

[Qhrumphf]

An electric stove will work well for smaller boils. But for a full boil for a 5 gallon batch, it more than likely won't cut it.

Many of us are (or were) in your scenario for a long time, and have come up with workarounds, each with their own potential complications.

-Do "partial" boils, which is what most extract brewers do, boiling a smaller amount of wort and then topping off with water to reach the proper batch volume. While not ideal, this can be done with all-grain brewing too (I did it this way for several years).
-Brew smaller batches. Many folks now are doing 1 gallon batches, which an electric stove should be more than capable of doing a full boil on.
-Do "split" boils, where you boil the full volume of wort over multiple kettles on multiple burners
-Check out the "electric brewing" section of the forum, and go that route. It's highly effective, and if you do it right, cheaper and safer than brewing with propane. Plus year round indoor air conditioned brewing.

My recommendation would be to start with partial boils on your stove, since that's what most extract kits are designed for and presumably how you'll be starting out. And then I would recommend going the electric route. Building one or two GFCI boxes and heat sticks will cheaply and easily provide you with more than enough power, assuming you have the wiring capacity to handle it (my old apartment did, my current apartment does not, but at least now I've got a gas stove. Not as good as the heat sticks, but better than an electric stove).

As far as fermentation, the important thing to remember is that air conducts heat poorly. Fermentation creates heat, and ambient air won't do much to restrain it. Result is that fermentation temperature (the one that matters) can be as much as 5-10 (and I've even seen 15) degrees higher than the ambient air temperature. A cool basement is a good start, but you'd ultimately need to control the temperature of the beer.

Cheap, easy, and effective methods:

-Putting your fermenter into a big plastic tote bin, and then surrounding with water, and using ice bottles to adjust temperature down as needed. Water conducts heat (and retains temperature) much better than air, and a 5-15 degree spike seems reduced to 1-2 degrees, if noticeable at all (my own personal observations). If your ambient temperature in your condo is 70 degrees, you can very easily, and with very little effort (a soda/water bottle full of ice once or twice a day) hold fermentation very steady in the mid 60s.

-Also as effective, particularly in less humid environments, is start the same way, use less water, and wrap your fermenter in t-shirts or towels, allowing water to wick up the fabric, with a fan blowing on it.

And worth noting, with just a beginner equipment kit, some bare essentials, and a batch every once in a while, the space should be minimal. When you brew like I do in a small apartment/condo, your significant other will certainly notice. Especially if he/she isn't a beer drinker. Then it's beyond noticing to getting really annoyed by it...

 

[houstonbg]

gnr9933,

I've got a setup similar to you. I'm in an apartment with a modest stove and relatively little space, but I don't have a "true" setup in that I am currently running with a Mr. Beer Little Brown Keg.

With regards to your temperature dilemma, why don't you plan a day to take baseline temps set at 3 - 6 hours intervals starting at 6 AM and ending at 6 PM? If there is a swing, so long as its within the fermentation temp range for the yeast type, you should be OK.

Your other option is to set up a swamp cooler (you can get some ideas here).

 

[misterkidd]

I was in your position about 6 months ago... I've just started home brewing in my 2-bed apartment. Sounds like I have a little more space than you, but not much. I was concerned about space when I started but actually it's really ok. I got one of these and went brew-in-a-bag (so same container is mash tun and boil kettle):

So on brewing days I just pull this out, and put it back in the cupboard when I've finished. My two fermentors sit in a neglected corner of the kitchen under the eves and are not too obtrusive in my opinion (perhaps my wife would disagree). When nothing's fermenting (like now) it all packs up pretty small and packs away in the cupboard.

I haven't got any special advice about your fermentation temp issues except that I don't worry about it too much and am making very drinkable beer, which is better than no beer ^_^. So maybe if I were in your shoes i'd brew a batch, chuck it in your cellar and check the temp every day noting it in a notebook. Maybe not too close to the pipes though, which could be pumping hot water around?

 

[unionrdr]

I still use the same 5 gallon (20qt) SS stock pot I started with on our electric stove I bought aftermarket burners for. They can get 3-3.5 gallons of wort to boil in about 18 minutes. I do anything from kit-n-kilo to pb/pm biab with this set up. I brew & top off with spring water, two or three gallons of which is refrigerated for a day or so to top off with. Chilling the hot wort in an ice bath in the sink down to 75F or so. Then strain into fermenter & topping off with the chilled water, it gets down to about 65F. Great ale yeast temp.

 

[madscientist451]

I brew indoors on my electric range, I have two pots, a 24 qt and a 12 qt. I brew 4 gallon batches on my stove, but wish I had a bigger pot , maybe a 28 or 30 qt. I'll drain the first runnings from my mashtun into the bigger pot and get that started, then split my batch sparge in two and and use the small pot to catch the runnings. Your 4' basement should be fine, just see what temp you have down there.
I made a cheapo fermentation chamber in my basement with a 24"x24" cardboard box. I put 1" thick insulation board inside it , secured it with gorrilla glue duct tape. If its a little warm, I can add 1 or 2 liter bottles of ice, I can fit up to 4 bottles in there plus the 5 gallon bucket fermenter. Sometime I only need 1 , one liter but sometimes I need more to maintain the desired temp. I check the ice once or twice a day, it works great. If your basement is real hot this may not work, but put a thermometer down there and see what temp. you have. Your condo with a small basement is more than some people have to work with.

 

[ram5ey]

I brew full boil 6 gal batches on my apt electric stove. The wort isn't violently voicing but its still strong enough to not have any issues. I don't recommend the triclad bottoms though for stove brewing as they do tend to struggle to get as hot.

 

[brewbama]

I would need some high tech device that would take hourly measurements and note it for me, does it even exist?

I have an iGrill that I monitor from my iPhone. It graphs the temp over time and you can send the graph to your email. Works great.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[ChelisHubby]

If I was in your situation I would do 2 1/2 gallon batches so you get a full boil and better flavors I would use 3 gallon carboy and a swamp cooler in a dark place or just covered to stop sunlight or strong light. Your IPAs will taste better with the full boil. The down side is you get to brew twice as often. That is actually a good thing as you will get to improve your process and make better beer faster. The smaller batches are easier to store also.

 

[Cyclman]

Stovetop BIAB for 2.5G batches, easy to control fermentations with a keg bucket / ice bottles. Brew more often.