NYC Apartment Brewing Challenges

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cbauer210

cbauer210

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I started homebrewing about 6 years ago although the last 3 years I haven't brewed a single batch. Reason being is that I moved from a nice spacious place in NJ to a closet sized 600 sq ft apartment in NYC. I physically could not fit my equipment in my NYC apartment. This past week I said enough is enough....It is time to get back on board. I cleaned out my one and only closet and have forced myself to make some room for this hobby.

A couple days ago I brewed up an American IPA and pitched a Wyeast 1056 pack. There are only 2 places to even physically put my fermenter: A) Stashed in the closet by the front door where the temp is fairly constant at 70-80 deg. B) on the kitchen counter in front of a window where it can fluctuate anywhere from 50-80 deg depending on time of day, heat from cooking, and draft from winter air. It is winter here in NY so I can somewhat monitor this spot by opening and closing the shade and window. But I'm sure this method will disrupt my life and eliminate nearly any counter space....surely pissing off my wife.

I'm at a loss for what to do. I opted for the closet option knowing that it is warmer than ideal. The brew has been fermenting away now for almost 2 days. The temperature has been hanging out around 73 deg but it did get up to around 78 deg last night. I have no space for an ice bath or spare fridge. Am I basically screwed?
 
I brewed in my Apartment last year, and it was a hassle. Granted I do not think it was as small as yours, but I was doing all grain and things got messy. I had to get inventive along the process.

I would personally rather have a beer ferment a little colder than hot. You can put your carboy in a crate that is easy to grab and move. That way especially during the initial 7 days you could move the carboy gently from kitchen to floor trying to avoid the most drastic temperature changes during the first week or so. That is when you will get most funky flavors being produced.

Also if the ambient temperature “has been hanging around 73,” Then you know the temperature inside your carboy is probably 4 or more degrees higher. Which is pretty hot for an ale.

You could also just leave it in the cold kitchen and just plug one of those brew belts in when you see the temperature getting to cold inside the fermenter.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D6IUB6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Just a few things I might do in that situation. I'm sure others will chime in with other suggestions. Keep brewing, one day you will be laughing how you used to brew in such conditions, and brewing with space will be a breeze for you! :mug:
 
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I highly suggest fermenting in corny kegs. The foot print is way smaller. Look up primary ferment in a corny to see some discussion.

Also, take a look at the simple brewery in my sig. If you want to go AG, that might be a good option.

As to fermenting, given the choice between your fermenting conditions and buying commercial I would just buy beer. However, you must have a shower??? If you use a corny for your fermenter, you can strap a blow off to the side and have easy handles for moving it around. Use a cooling bath with T-shirt in the shower and just move it the couple times a day you need the shower. You really only need temp control for 3-4 days for normal ales if you are pitching the right amount of yeast. So 6- moves or so. I think that is a pretty easy trade off for some good beer.
 
I highly suggest you move out. NYC sucks ass! Take it from somebody who was born there and lived there for over 30 years.
 
My house is only 630 Sq. Ft. so I know your pain. I ferment in my bedroom. Usually just set my bucket/carboy next to the dresser. If you're worried about light, throw a blanket or tshirt over it.
 
Keeping the closet door open and adding a small fan near the opening will help to keep the temp in there more consistent with the rest of the apartment.
 
Another suggestion, grab one of those laser thermometers and scan around for the coolest walls and floor sections. then just snug the carboy up against the wall in that spot and wrap the exposed portion in a fleece blanket for insulation. That should help you keep it more consistent as the structure temp will fluctuate less then the air temp.
 
Keep in mind that the beer temperature will likely be about 7 degrees over ambient for an average fermentation. An ambient temp of 68º could easily prove a 78º ferment temp. Either look into Saison, or figure out a way to drop those temps. Hot fermented beer is really not very good (I know from experience).
 
Pick up a Craigslist dorm fridge and a temp controller, stick it in the closet. When I lived in NYC I could have paid the cockroaches to run really fast around the fermenter to kick up a cooling breeze. Those roaches were enormous.
 
You must have a lot of stuff or a weird floor plan if you can't find room for a fermenter. Here's a thread i started awhile ago:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/apartment-all-grainer-lets-see-your-pictures-183608/

Since that thread i built a 7.2cu/ft 4 tap kreezer and dedicated the second sanyo mini-fridge for fermenting. I currently have 4 beer with brett/bugs tucked around my room aging and an IPA and hefe in the fermenting fridges.
 
I think you are REALLY in need of thinking "outside the box" for this. I live in a tiny house that has no basement, with 1 shared closet but a huge unattached garage, that is unheated...

My suggestion is brew smaller batches, often. I would set myself up to do 3 gallon all grain batches on the stove top. The pots/coolers/ and equipment would be smaller in size as well.

Have a coffee table? sell it. Get a nice wooden toy chest or flat topped chest. I use one of these for my coffee table and have often thought about converting it into a micro fermentation chamber.

The only issue is size but I bet you could make one/ find one that held 2 - 3 gallon carboys and or some other smaller vessels like the Miller/Coors/TAD systems, say 6 of those bottles. If you get the fore mentioned systems you can just dedicate that space in your fridge for one and you can have your beer on tap! The biggest drawback is the cost of the CO2 carts and the space it takes to have 2 of those giant bottles. (They take about 1 week + 1 cart to carb and 1 cart to serve. You could rotate 1 carbing and 1 drinking.)
 
You can ferment in a mini-fridge quite well if you use a corny or a cube for fermenting in. You could have a fridge, with all your brewery stuff stacked on top of it. All of that would fit in a closet no problem. If it is a particularly small closet, you could easily build a small mother-of-a-fermentation-chamber.
 
Simple_Brewery_stored.png


If you have 18" square of floor space and 6' vertical, you could do this and be all set.
 
When you're brewing in NYC space is a challenge, there's no two ways about it. I'm lucky to be in a decent sized one bedroom in Brooklyn and I can get all my stuff into the kitchen.

Keep looking around your space. Is there anything that you can fit your carboy under for two week increments? Like a kitchen table? What about a high area, could you do a cooler ice bath on top of the fridge? Or dresser/wardrobe? Or some (very sturdy) cabinets? You might win a darwin award taking it down, but with a friend to help with the lifting and some care it might work. Think vertically.

Do you have any storage space in the building? You could brew in the apartment and carry the fermenter into the basement. If your super is cool or bribe-able (I've never met one that wasn't one or the other) he could probably find a cool spot somewhere in the basement that you could stash it for a couple weeks. If you gave him a Christmas tip this would be a great time to call in that favor while it's still fresh in his mind. A promise of a six pack of homebrew could go a long way too.

Worst case scenario you could always hop on the 2 train and take it out to the Grand Army plaza stop and park it at my place. I'll even let you come back in a couple weeks and drink some of it...
 
try to find some one gallon jugs.split your batch into the jugs and scatter around the apartment. you might have enough nooks and crannies. or just brew smaller batches
 
Airborneguy said:
You could always use the money you spend on rent in Manhattan to pay a mortgage in SI or back in Jersey. :)
Click to expand...

Yea, but then you're stuck living in SI or Jersey...

I live in roughly the same size apartment as you and found it a challenge to make space for my brewing and keep the wifey happy. I was able to quarantine a roughly 3ft x 2ft piece of floorspace and built a custom fermentation/storage cabinet. Now I am fortunate that my place has a consistent 66-70deg temp but I could easily set up a temperature controller for the cabinet to maintain temp. And if you find/build a cabinet that fits the house, it keeps the wife content. I do 3gallon batches and can ferment 4 batches and store all of my equipment inside it as well as age the bottles.


ferm_cab1.jpg


ferm_cab2.jpg
 
I don't miss my old 6' x 10' bedroom in my alphabet city apartment, but if you need space, do what everyone else with no space in Manhattan does...build a platform for the bed, and make use of the floor space.
 
To the OP, we did a show on "urban brewing" on Final Gravity Podcast:
Check out Episode 11.5:
http://www.finalgravitypodcast.com/archives.htm

Airborneguy said:
...with my room, just for beer, the size of an entire Manhattan apartment.

:mug:
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Amen. I used to live in Staten Island (West Brighton), and the house I lived in was massive. I had a full-sized basement that I used for most of my brewing gear and fermentation/cleanup area.

And now I live in Jersey where I have lots of space. Unless you're living in the ghetto in Newark or Elizabeth, NJ is a pretty nice place all around.
 
culturejam said:
Amen. I used to live in Staten Island (West Brighton), and the house I lived in was massive. I had a full-sized basement that I used for most of my brewing gear and fermentation/cleanup area.

And now I live in Jersey where I have lots of space. Unless you're living in the ghetto in Newark or Elizabeth, NJ is a pretty nice place all around.
Click to expand...

IMHO the rural areas of Jersey are 100 times better then living in a hell hole like NYC.

I grew up in NYC. I moved to the mountains of western NC about 6 years ago. It's the best decision I have ever made.
 
maida7 said:
I grew up in NYC. I moved to the mountains of western NC about 6 years ago. It's the best decision I have ever made.
Click to expand...
Funny. I grew up in coastal NC and went to school in Raleigh (NC State). Then I moved to Staten Island and worked in Manhattan for about 5 years. Now I've been out in Jersey for about 5 years. I've liked all the places I've lived, but I'd have trouble living in NC again because of cultural differences I've always had (not religious, I like minorities, I'm liberal, I like gays...I'm a terrible fit for the south). But Asheville would be the only town I'd consider because it's full of liberals, hippies, gays, artists, and all that sort of "undesirable" type that I so enjoy. ;)
 
culturejam said:
Funny. I grew up in coastal NC and went to school in Raleigh (NC State). Then I moved to Staten Island and worked in Manhattan for about 5 years. Now I've been out in Jersey for about 5 years. I've liked all the places I've lived, but I'd have trouble living in NC again because of cultural differences I've always had (not religious, I like minorities, I'm liberal, I like gays...I'm a terrible fit for the south). But Asheville would be the only town I'd consider because it's full of liberals, hippies, gays, artists, and all that sort of "undesirable" type that I so enjoy. ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm a liberal yankee and sometimes I run into the traditional neo-conservative religious crazies. My neighbor is still convinced that Obama is muslim and was not born in the US. But Asheville is full of progressive thinking people. Overall liberals are the majority in Buncombe County. Lotsa hippies in Subarus with coexist bumper stickers. But people on both sides are generally nice to each other. It's possibly more diverse politically then NYC. Racially and ethnically it's not. The mtn area is almost all white.

Also Asheville has lotsa great beer. Asheville is a beer mecca. I think we have 10 breweries now in our tiny city.
 
Move to a bigger apartment! Are you in Manhattan? If so, consider moving to Brooklyn...A friend of mine lives in Parkslope and she has 1000 sq ft. for around 1300/month. There'd be plenty of room for brewing in a place that size. Plus you'd be closer to BierKraft (its right down the street from my friends place)! :)

However, most apartments have the same problem with the building controlling the heat. Her apartment has indivudually controlled steam radiator heat and it can get ridiculously hot with them running. If you turn them off the temperature drops instantly. So, I don't know what to tell you about temp control. Its just not easy in a place like that.
 
And I was born in NC... wierd coincidences all around!

I know it sounds off topic and a little stuck up, but it is relevant to bring this stuff up because brewing is not really a practical hobby when you live in an apartment that small. My wife has already agreed 100% that my brewing will be a consideration in our next house. I already have an entire room in this one, and am looking for a nice detached garage or a workroom off the basement with our next house. If you plan on really getting back into this hobby, you are either going to take over your apartment, or have to find another place to brew. While some people have suggested minimalist setups, you simply aren't going to have the flexibility and growth curve of people who aren't limited in space.

And if you live in Manhattan, you can afford the space, so this isn't like rubbing our big houses in the faces of some poor, laid-off guy who really wants to hang onto his favorite hobby.

culturejam said:
Amen. I used to live in Staten Island (West Brighton), and the house I lived in was massive.
Click to expand...

My homebrew club is actually the "New Brighton HomeBrew Society" started by a couple of artists from the north shore. I went to St. Peter's for high school. We are considering looking there, because like you said, the houses beautiful, old, and HUGE! But, I am partial to the New Dorp area where I grew up, and where I know I can get a detached garage for my brewing needs.
 
Airborneguy said:
My homebrew club is actually the "New Brighton HomeBrew Society" started by a couple of artists from the north shore. I went to St. Peter's for high school.
Click to expand...
Nice! We lived on Kissel Ave. There are like three of them, but we lived on the one between Castleton Ave and Forest Ave (half a block from St. Vincent's).

Our house was a massive two-family home. Our side alone was about 2500 sq ft. And there was a detached garage, but the landlord reserved it for his stuff. Whattayagonnado? :D
 
cbauer210 said:
I have no space for an ice bath
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that? Mine only extends a few inches from the radius of the carboy.

As a NYC small-apartment homebrewer (note my username :D ), one of the best non-standard purchases I ever made was a 40-quart aluminum pot at one of those restaurant supply places in Chinatown. I use it both as a brewpot and as a swamp cooler for the fermentation. As a brewpot it extends over all four burners on my tiny oven, vastly increasing the quality of the boil (it does require full-volume boils; evaporation is of course higher given the higher surface area relative to more conventional brewpots). After the wort is in the carboy I clean the pot and put the carboy into it, then fill the pot most of the way with water. I regulate temperature with ice packs I made from old bottled-water bottles. Be sure to throw some iodopher in the cooling water or nasty things will grow during your fermentation.

There are some special care instructions before you use aluminum as a brewpot so you'll want to pay attention to those if you go that route. But even if you don't I'd be surprised that you don't have even a couple inches on each side to fit one of these pots for cooling.
 
Seriously dude, move out of the city. It was the best thing the wife and i ever did. We're in Astoria now, paying half the rent on an apt thats twice the size (1000 sqf @ $1700) and only 15 minutes to midtown.

Nokitchen: amen to the brewpot cooler, i do the same thing.

Is there an NYC brew club out there???
 
Avoid the NYC Homebrewers Guild (the Manhattan one). Very pretentious group. I went to one event and quickly decided never to go back. The emails I got regarding a simple question from the "dear leader" were the most offensive emails I have ever recieved from someone I don't know.
 
Airborneguy said:
Avoid the NYC Homebrewers Guild (the Manhattan one). Very pretentious group. I went to one event and quickly decided never to go back. The emails I got regarding a simple question from the "dear leader" were the most offensive emails I have ever recieved from someone I don't know.
Click to expand...

Huh. That's vastly different from my experience there over the last couple years. I'm sorry that happened. I assure you that if you return that won't happen again. I'm not a club officer or anything but I can vouch for the non-*****iness of those who are.

My biggest problem is that the group has outgrown its meeting space and won't admit it out of loyalty to the people who have been so helpful for so long. They need a much, much larger space.
 
Nokitchen said:
Huh. That's vastly different from my experience there over the last couple years. I'm sorry that happened. I assure you that if you return that won't happen again. I'm not a club officer or anything but I can vouch for the non-*****iness of those who are.
Click to expand...

It could have been an isolated incident, I'll admit that, but it was only last year. Vlad (?) sent some pretty heated emails to me when I asked him a question about the contest last year. It really surprised me because I can say 100% there wasn't anything in my email that was even remotely offensive. The question was trivial also, nothing 30 seconds with zero drama couldn't have handled (and it wasn't about score sheets ;) ).
 

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