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David_Trucks

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Or in the garage...

My family and I are in the (very) early stages of looking for a bigger house, something in the 4 bedroom range. And with that, I want my own brew space. I currently brew with a friend, at his house. We currently do 5 gallon, BIAB batches, so I'd likely continue to do BIAB, but I'd definitely downsize to 2.5 or so gallon batches - something manageable and simple for me to be able to do alone. Plus, I don't need that much beer.

My plan is to have a burner, a big pot, a fermenter (just buckets or maybe upgrade to a speidel) and all the other things needed for small batch brewing. So my question is, where do you store your stuff? Where do you ferment? Where's your simple, clean water source? There's little chance I'd have the space inside the home for storage/ fermenting and I don't think I could splurge on a fermentation chamber just yet. What do y'all do?
 
For storage of your brew equipment and ingredients, could you use some shelves or a bench in a garage? Basements are also made for storing brew stuff.
 
Pappers_ said:
For storage of your brew equipment and ingredients, could you use some shelves or a bench in a garage? Basements are also made for storing brew stuff.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure what kind of space a new garage will have but, yes, I was thinking some shelving would help. But what about things that need to stay at a regular temp. such as grains? Winters here are pretty cold and summers pretty hot, especially in the garage.
 
I previously stored my bulk grains (in airtight containers with gasket lids) in my garage and in our current place in an unheated basement and haven't had a problem with either spoilage or stale-ing.

You said you're not sure that a temperature control for fermentation was in your current priorities, but to my mind, that is 1000x more important than the temperature you store your grains at. Get an old used fridge, a digital controller, put it in your garage and you have both a fermentation chamber and temp controlled place to store grain, perhaps. $150 would do that.
 
I've always stored everything on a metal shelving system in my garage.. as far as grains and stuff.. I rarely buy in bulk cause I didnt have the room to store it, and my fermentation happened in the spare bathtub :)
 
Basements in north Texas, where I'm at is very rare.
I have a shed and a garage. Currently I keep my equipment in either the garage or kitchen. After I repair the shed, I might store out there. I brew in the kitchen.
 
Pappers_ said:
I previously stored my bulk grains (in airtight containers with gasket lids) in my garage and in our current place in an unheated basement and haven't had a problem with either spoilage or stale-ing.

You said you're not sure that a temperature control for fermentation was in your current priorities, but to my mind, that is 1000x more important than the temperature you store your grains at. Get an old used fridge, a digital controller, put it in your garage and you have both a fermentation chamber and temp controlled place to store grain, perhaps. $150 would do that.
Click to expand...


I'd hope (fingers crossed) to find a place in the house for my fermenter. That was my thought anyway, until I could build a chamber. That's why I wasn't as concerned about that just yet.
 
I brew in the unused space at the end of our driveway in front of the garage. I have a 10X10 EZ-up that I setup and then used concrete screws to secure it to the ground. That gives me ample space and plenty of shade.

I store all of my equipment in the garage, and you'd be surprised at how much stuff you can store in very little space. My burners are on wheels, so I can just roll them out on brew day, unless they're already out there, as the weather is usually pretty nice here, so I'll just leave my stuff under the EZ-up unless they're calling for a big storm. I also take a folding table out with me to set everything else on. For storage inside the garage, most of my "big gear" fits on one wooden 5-shelf system from Home Depot. That would be a 10 gallon kettle, chiller, 3 Spiedel fermenters, 10 gallon and 5 gallon coolers, and a couple of 5 gallon buckets. I then screwed hooks into the side so I can hang up my mash paddle, spoon, bottle brush, etc.

As far as fermentation goes, I have a small chest freezer and an old wine fridge in the garage next to the shelves, both setup with reptile heat tape and STC-1000 controllers.

For my clean water supply there is a utility sink out in the driveway, and I dilute that with RO water from the filling station and the market.

As a beginning home brewer (me), I think one of the best investments I've made has been the fermentation chambers. It really helps take your beer from "meh" to "hey this ain't bad, what else can I do" really quickly. They're not expensive (about $100 or so if you're being really DIY) and don't take up much more room than the buckets themselves.
 
drgonzo2k2 said:
I brew in the unused space at the end of our driveway in front of the garage. I have a 10X10 EZ-up that I setup and then used concrete screws to secure it to the ground. That gives me ample space and plenty of shade.



I store all of my equipment in the garage, and you'd be surprised at how much stuff you can store in very little space. My burners are on wheels, so I can just roll them out on brew day, unless they're already out there, as the weather is usually pretty nice here, so I'll just leave my stuff under the EZ-up unless they're calling for a big storm. I also take a folding table out with me to set everything else on. For storage inside the garage, most of my "big gear" fits on one wooden 5-shelf system from Home Depot. That would be a 10 gallon kettle, chiller, 3 Spiedel fermenters, 10 gallon and 5 gallon coolers, and a couple of 5 gallon buckets. I then screwed hooks into the side so I can hang up my mash paddle, spoon, bottle brush, etc.



As far as fermentation goes, I have a small chest freezer and an old wine fridge in the garage next to the shelves, both setup with reptile heat tape and STC-1000 controllers.



For my clean water supply there is a utility sink out in the driveway, and I dilute that with RO water from the filling station and the market.



As a beginning home brewer (me), I think one of the best investments I've made has been the fermentation chambers. It really helps take your beer from "meh" to "hey this ain't bad, what else can I do" really quickly. They're not expensive (about $100 or so if you're being really DIY) and don't take up much more room than the buckets themselves.
Click to expand...


I know, I know, I need to get a chamber. Thanks for all the tips, maybe this is much more doable than I thought!
 
Pappers_ said:
You said you're not sure that a temperature control for fermentation was in your current priorities, but to my mind, that is 1000x more important than the temperature you store your grains at.
Click to expand...

This, a million times – temp control was the single biggest improvement in my beer's quality and consistency. A swamp cooler will only set you back $15 for the 15-gallon rope-handle bucket, plus however much water it'll take to rinse out and fill a handful of quart or half-gallon plastic milk/OJ containers.

Space-wise, somewhere inside the house, with few/no external walls, is a good bet; your home's climate control system will keep the space within a reasonable range, and having little/no exposure to the outside will make it less "swingy" with day/night and winter/summer cycles. I ferment in an infrequently-used bathroom, and my "beer cellar" started life as the pantry.

Water... you'll need to look at a water report for your city to answer this question. I'm lucky that tapwater in San Francisco spends its entire life in glaciers, mountain reservoirs made of impermeable granite, and pipes – almost nothing leaches into it, a quick campden tablet to knock out the chloramines and I'm good to go. But if your water's hard, you may need to reverse-osmosis or dilute with bottled water to get a reasonable mineral profile for brewing. Whatever you do, don't fill from a cheapo garden-grade hose, those things leach plastic like it's going out of style.
 
feinbera said:
This, a million times – temp control was the single biggest improvement in my beer's quality and consistency. A swamp cooler will only set you back $15 for the 15-gallon rope-handle bucket, plus however much water it'll take to rinse out and fill a handful of quart or half-gallon plastic milk/OJ containers.



Space-wise, somewhere inside the house, with few/no external walls, is a good bet; your home's climate control system will keep the space within a reasonable range, and having little/no exposure to the outside will make it less "swingy" with day/night and winter/summer cycles. I ferment in an infrequently-used bathroom, and my "beer cellar" started life as the pantry.



Water... you'll need to look at a water report for your city to answer this question. I'm lucky that tapwater in San Francisco spends its entire life in glaciers, mountain reservoirs made of impermeable granite, and pipes – almost nothing leaches into it, a quick campden tablet to knock out the chloramines and I'm good to go. But if your water's hard, you may need to reverse-osmosis or dilute with bottled water to get a reasonable mineral profile for brewing. Whatever you do, don't fill from a cheapo garden-grade hose, those things leach plastic like it's going out of style.
Click to expand...


Water is definitely something I'm wanting to take into account, but I don't know how to read my city's water report.
 
I store and ferment in the crawl space (aka cave) of my house. I also installed an RO system and sinks in there. This is convenient for me because I have access into the cave from my garage. The garage is not used for cars, of course. That would be a ridiculous waste of brewing and "work" space.
 
I store my stuff on metal wire shelves in the basement but brew outside....until I get my basement brewery built. I ferment in the basement and have a fridge for kegs and curing meat down there as well.
 
Last year we decided to move to a better functioning house and in that decision I wanted a dedicated space to store all my brew stuff. In my last house I had stuff stored all over and it would take me 1/2 hour to 45 mins just to set up and just as long to clean up and put stuff away.

In this house I have a small garage but with some well placed shelves I now have all my stuff in 1 place and my brew stand is on wheels so it takes me 10 mins or less to set up and no more dragging stuff either up or down a flight of steps.

Having my stuff in 1 place makes brewing like less of a chore.
 
I brew 5 gallon all-grain and store everything neatly and efficiently in my basement using 1 set of shelving. It's 6 feet with 4 shelves. In front of it I store the larger items, such as my mash tun and grain bins. (This includes my kettles, 7 glass carboys, and all your other paraphernalia to brew/bottle/keg.)
 
I finished off half of my garage as a kind of man cave. I have my desk, sleeper sofa (for guests), Big screen tv in there and built storage along one wall. We never used the garage for cars.

All my brew stuff is in there and thats where I ferment as well.
 
Roadliner said:
I've always stored everything on a metal shelving system in my garage.. as far as grains and stuff.. I rarely buy in bulk cause I didnt have the room to store it, and my fermentation happened in the spare bathtub :)
Click to expand...

Tell me more about this "bathtub fermentation" you do. :drunk: I'm fascinated.
 
I store everything on a workbench I built in the garage. Before that, the huge tubs that I have most of the miscellaneous stuff stored in would sit in my den in front of the fireplace with all the other stuff piled on top, LOL.

It doesn't get super cold here (Texas) very often, but it does get pretty damn hot. I ferment in the garage in cool brewing bags currently. If it's hot, I put bottles of ice in to try to maintain temps. If it's cold, I use a small space heater to warm up the area outside of the fermentation bag. Not very precise temp control, but the bags do hold temp pretty well. I plan to build a fermentation chamber soon, but we're also in the process of looking at houses, but downsizing. I do have to say, though, that the fermentation bags have saved me from having to clean up a few messes since they keep everything contained.
 
I brew on the back patio. To afraid of the SWMBO if I have a boil over in her kitchen. Ferment in the corner of the dining room I only do up to 2 five gallon batches at a time so it don't take up much room. Fermentors either sit in ice bath or have a heat pad depending on the season. Everything is stored in boxes on the shelf in the garage. Only worry about yeast and hops that go into the outside fridge.....
 
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!
 
Laundry room and my brew gear stays there full time. She just asks that I keep the door closed. Bigger pots are stored in the garage under my work bench. Grain and stuff is stored in the home office closet.

IMG_2568.jpg
 
Plastic (fermentors, and other scratchable equipment) gets stored in the basement, away from animals that may get into the garage. Plastic Better bottles don't liek being exposed to the highs and lows of my garage and are kept in my basement.

Garage - I got a mail cart and keep my chiller and pots on it and wheel it to my brewing area. On the lower shelves I have dish soap/sponges for cleaning, brew salts, and other brew day equipment.

For BIAB - it would be NICE if you had a pulley available to hoist the bag, and to let it drain so you don't have to squeeze it (even though squeezing is more manly and the mark of a true biab brewer ;) )

It takes just as much time to make 5 gallons as it does 2.5. If you make decent beer, you can give away the extras and make new friends :fro:
 
David_Trucks said:
Where do you store your stuff? Where do you ferment? Where's your simple, clean water source? There's little chance I'd have the space inside the home for storage/ fermenting and I don't think I could splurge on a fermentation chamber just yet. What do y'all do?
Click to expand...

I picked up a used armoire to store my brewing equipment in and keep it inside my garage. The armoire seals somewhat tight keeping most of the dust out.

For fermenting, I bought a second hand True T-12 commercial fridge and installed a temp controller. A definite need in Texas to maintain constant fermentation temps.

I used spring water for much of my previous brewing, but recently began using a water filtration system as my tap water tastes great. The system should pay for itself after a couple 10 gal batches.

My recommendation is to start with what you can afford. An inexpensive garage shelf would work to store your equipment. Also keep a close eye on Craigslist for a deal on a fridge/freezer to convert into a fermentation chamber. Controlling fermentation temps is essential to brewing great beer. Cheers!
 
I store most stuff in the garage. I built a workbench on the right wall and store bottles in a bottom cabinet, pots and car washing bucket in another, keggle next to where I park, kegerator in the corner, bottles along the perimeter on this little cement "shelf" they built into the foundation, kegs next to the kegerator, BIAB bag, mash paddle, pH strips, bottle capper, tubing, sanatizer, clips for bag all in one cabinet.

I store my yeast starter stuff and small things such as gelatin in the pantry. I took one small shelf for my "indoor" brewing in the pantry and then growlers wherever in the pantry.

Edit: I ferment in the guest bathroom where the second sink WOULD be but we don't havea double sinks. Also have 10 gallons in the guest room. In the apartment I stored it all outside and fermented next to the dining table in a corner because it's not a pretty bucket but it doesn't take up much space.
 
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.
 
gundarak said:
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.
Click to expand...


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.
 
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.
 
I have a corner of the garage. I do not keep grain around though...just buy it per recipe.
 
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...
 
Magnus314 said:
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!
Click to expand...

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

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