the apartment brewer

[SPR-GRN]

No advice really, but I've been an apartment brewer since I started, im on year six now (I move a lot for work). When I was in Vermont I had an "office" that was basically a dedicated lagering room, it was great, although the electric range was somewhat prohibitive, so I only did PM. Now that I'm in Brooklyn, I tried a lager this winter and sadly the fermentation temp was too high because I didn't have that cold room :-(. It turned out good, just poor head retention. Brooklyn is where I started AG brewing because I had a gas stove top that kicked out crazy fire! It was difficult because the top if the brewpot was so high, but I made do, and my dirty blonde became my second "repeat recipe" and although I may tweak it a bit, it's awesome. I don't know about romantic, but apartment brewing brings you closer to your beer... Litterally...

 

[Gtrman13]

I'm an apartment brewer. Plenty of obstacles, but I think part of the fun is finding creative ways to deal with them. Such problems include, storage of pots, buckets, carboys, etc., electric stove that won't boil more than 4 gallons, no spicket to hook up a wort chiller, no room to even think about some sort of lagering fridge.

 

[clawler]

I am an AG apartment brewer and I can get 5.5 gallons up to a rolling boil in 30-40 mins on my electric stove. I use two burners and it works out well. The problems I have is that I have little room and that when I brew it smells throughout the house and SWMBO does not like it. It takes me about 5 hours from prep to clean up to do AG in my apartment. If anyone has questions Id be glad to help but I cannot wait until the spring when I get a house!

I subscribed to this thread because I thought was going to need it but I don't.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/

I haven't converted to AG yet, but your situation sounds very simliar to mine. I will be buying a home in the spring as well. Are you going to make a single or three tier system for your garage?

 

[241]

Another apartment brewer here. You guys have some good ideas.

I'm in a 650 sq foot 1 bed/1 bath with a patio and a garage. I do full boil recipe kits on the patio with a propane burner, then bring the kettle into my kitchen and chill with my immersion chiller hooked up to my sink, and transfer to fermenter. Then I carry the carboy down my stairs in a crate and out to my disconnected garage, pitch yeast and put in a chest freezer. Lots of moving around but it works well for me.

Later I plan to move to BIAB because I don't have room for big coolers, but I'm still dialing in the process of brewing

 

[bovineblitz]

Hook on the ceiling in a closet or a corner = plenty of room for a cooler