To those of you who brew outdoors

[gundarak]

Man all you guys are so neat and tidy .. i dont have the space nor the cash for such rigs!

I currently only have the capability of brewing 5 gal batches, so I do my brewing in my kitchen, and use my stove top and a 7 gallon pot as my kettle. Takes about an hour to get to boiling, but it gets the job done.

Storage is in the basement.. have a huge wirerack holding my glass carboys, bottles, beer thats bottle conditioning, grains, and a large plastic tub that holds all my brewing tools including my barley crusher, special malts (bagged and put into a plastic bin, put into the larger bin), etc.

Fermenting i do right here in my home office. My house is a consistent 65-75F all year. I cover the carboys with towels for light protection and some insulation, and religiously use blow by tubes going into a pot of sanitizer solution for the first few days of fermentation.

Here in Boston the basements can be perfect for lagering in the winter, so if I have a lager it will go downstairs.

 

[DurtyChemist]

Man all you guys are so neat and tidy .. i dont have the space nor the cash for such rigs!



I currently only have the capability of brewing 5 gal batches, so I do my brewing in my kitchen, and use my stove top and a 7 gallon pot as my kettle. Takes about an hour to get to boiling, but it gets the job done.



Storage is in the basement.. have a huge wirerack holding my glass carboys, bottles, beer thats bottle conditioning, grains, and a large plastic tub that holds all my brewing tools including my barley crusher, special malts (bagged and put into a plastic bin, put into the larger bin), etc.



Fermenting i do right here in my home office. My house is a consistent 65-75F all year. I cover the carboys with towels for light protection and some insulation, and religiously use blow by tubes going into a pot of sanitizer solution for the first few days of fermentation.



Here in Boston the basements can be perfect for lagering in the winter, so if I have a lager it will go downstairs.

I BIAB. You can't get very much more budget than that. Fanciest thing I did was upgrade to a Blichmann burner when I had the cash and bought a keg to do full batches in. It's just all where you spend your money. Do you want to have just one hobby or do you want three? You can spend more on one than three.

 

[passedpawn]

I don't keep any beer equipment, supplies, or the finished product inside my house.

All ingredients are in the garage, in bins. Fermentation chamber is in the garage, in a 15 cu.ft. converted freezer (can fit six 6g better bottles).
4-tap keezer is on my back covered patio.
Some of my brewing equipment is on shelves in the garage (mill, etc). But the 3 keggles and cornies are on the side of the house, in the sun rain. I haven't had any problems at all (except the damned lizards hide in the ball valves, and it's a surprise every time I see one floating in the kettle, I need to remember to spray them out before use). I'd love to keep that stuff in the garage as well, but I get 3 cars in there, and there just isn't the space.

 

[MattyIce]

I have a corner of the garage. I do not keep grain around though...just buy it per recipe.

 

[David_Trucks]

Update: things have changed dramatically since starting this thread. The family and I moved into a bigger house. Plenty of inside storage and extra space in the garage. There's a big patio for outdoor brewing and even a spot near the side of the house that would be great for small-time hop growing in the future!

I splurged and bought a speidel fermenter and an outdoor burner. I picked up a solid corona mill off craigslist for $15 and a food saver at a garage sale for $5! Both work great. Plus my realtor gave me a bunch of homegrown hops that I'll use in my brew next weekend. Things are looking up for sure. I've got all I need to brew on my own and can't wait to test out the new equipment! The only thing left I really need is a ferm chamber...

 

[yukonhijack]

Only in Oregon can you receive whole hops from your realtor!

 

[TxBigHops]

I bought a big Coleman extreme cooler from walmart dirt cheap. It holds up to 3 fermenter buckets plus water and frozen ice bottles, and it holds the temp well enough I can even ferment lagers.

And when I'm not primary fermenting anything, I store all the small stuff like racking canes and tubes, cleansers, scrub brushes and stuff.

As far as a swamp cooler or chill bag goes I highly recommend the cooler. Plus, when it's time to drink, you have a nice big cooler!

Cooler big enough for 3 buckets, and dirt cheap don't go together in my book. Normal size coolers are expensive enough. I love the idea, but can you provide a link to the cooler big enough (and cheap) to do this? Buckets with air locks are pretty tall. Or are you leaving the lid open?

 

[Magnus314]

Lid open. It's a coleman extreme from Walmart - don't remembver which size, but the big one. It was about $50 or $60.

 

[mgortel]

Garage is my "brew room" and brew equipment storage space.

 

[Magnus314]

Okay - it's the Coleman Extreme 5 120 qt size and it's available at walmart for $49.97. They show a green one, mine's blue and white, but it shows the same inside dimensions.

 

[augiedoggy]

I brew with electric in a spare bedroom I converted... The only real drawback is there is no water/sink so it has to be ran via hose or buckets from the bathroom in the next room.
its great in the winter though.
If I only had a basement... my garage is for other toys/tools.