What a wonderful day to brew!

[Shonuff]

It's 22 degrees and snowing. What a perfect day to brew outside! Well in the garage but I couldn't think of a better way to spend my Saturday.

Maybe I'll mash inside.

Gonna try a Southern English Brown.

Anyone else fighting the elements?

 

[flyangler18]

25 degrees here- and I'm preheating my smoker as I type. Smoking a few whole chickens and some ribs.

 

[Kilgore_Trout]

It's going to be an indoor brewday.

27 and windy!

I'm going to be attempting a 7gal-ish boil on the stove, wish me luck .

 

[Evan!]

I'm glad I brewed last night. Woke up to frozen hoses this morning. That would have been a PITA.

 

[Kilgore_Trout]

I'm glad I brewed last night. Woke up to frozen hoses this morning. That would have been a PITA.

What do you do about this?

I've yet to use the wort chiller in this weather... my plan is to just steal the sink water line, my sink doesn't have an adapter :/

 

[Revvy]

It's 19 in Port Huron, with a nice lake effect snowsquall, and I'm about to head out to support my best friend as he jumps in lake Huron for our towns annual Polar Bear Plunge...

Groan....I keep thinking it's bad enough I'm gonna be taking pictures, then I remember that my damn fool friend is going in the water.

 

[gallagherman]

I'm jealous, I ordered a kit from Austin Homebrew this week and it looks like is won't be here till monday, this weekend is lost... Can't wait for next weekend.

 

[Bob869007]

It was a nice chilly 47 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky, at least I didn't notice any. It's going to be a similar day today. If I didn't have to make a big batch of chili for a party tonight I'd be brewin again today. In these parts it don't get to cold in the winter. We usually get 1 week of below freezing temperatures. In the summer time 75 is sweltering hot.

 

[TBLbrewer]

I brewed in the garage yesterday. It was a balmy 28 degrees in northern Indiana. My mash tun held a steady 150 degrees for the entire hour regardless of how cold the temperature in the garage was.:rockin:

 

[Coastarine]

I'm out here fighting the elements, heating my strike water as I type! I'm brewing this:
7lbs belgian pale malt
1lb belgian aromatic munich
1lb vienna
0.5lb crystal 10

1.25oz saaz 60min
0.75oz saaz 15min
1 oz saaz 5min

wyeast 3463 forbidden fruit

My assistant brewer (dog) is even out here with me braving the cold.

Well, it is 61 and mostly cloudy here, so it I guess some of you might have a few more elements to deal with.

 

[givemaboot]

25 deg. and snowing here in N E Ohio. Getting ready to go to my kid's b-ball game, then I am going to brew a tried and true porter recipe. I am at the end of my kegged ten gallons, and need something for the new years party.

 

[Revvy]

I'm back...brrr...

My camera batteries died just before the actual plunge. I used a friends camera to shoot the rest, but she's got to email me the pics. The weather is nasty up here now. These pics will give you the idea.

He's just before my camera bit the dust, it's the coast guard divers who stand at the the end of the "safe zone" for the plungers.

There were about 150-200 plungers, including some hotties in Bikinis...Well maybe not hotties at that point, maybe coldies.

 

[jcarson83]

I'm fighting the elements, not the cold but the wind. Its a 20 to 30 mph gust but in the warm 40s.

 

[TimothyTaylorslLandlady]

The ambient temp is confusing as it has a much lesser effect than I thought it would. I made a number of small beers in the summer in southern England (25-30C). Thinking winter would be different I made a multitude of insulation jackets from old duvets.

Now its (3C) but I'm brewing bigger and my brews are surprisingly easy to keep warm. Big is really helpful when it comes to losing heat. Does anyone have any idea how much energy comes from the fermentation itself? I have one baby immersion heater in 150L and its in a very cold and draft shed yet its at 28C. Amazing!

 

[Jared311]

Its only low 30's here and I am just about done with my mash.

Cheers!

 

[Shonuff]

Damn Revvy those people are F'n crazy. I'm almost done with my boil and I'm freezing!

 

[jcarson83]

It's so windy I keep getting sticks and leaves in my brew. I guess it will make for an interesting scottish ale. A little maple and sycamore.

 

[Coastarine]

I had a bizarre thing happen to me today. Gravity into the boiler was about 2 points low. I used 4oz of table sugar to compensate (5.5 gal batch), and my OG was about 10 points high! I wasn't low on volume either, the fermenter overflowed and I had to sacrifice some wort to the beer gods. Miracles ARE real! My belgian pale is going to be about 5.7% instead of 4.7%

 

[GrantLee63]

I'm glad I brewed last night. Woke up to frozen hoses this morning. That would have been a PITA.

I keep a pair of 15' hoses in my house and don't take them out until I'm ready to chill the wort. My outside faucets get shut off from inside my house and I need to turn them back on (obviously) again, when I'm ready to chill the wort. No frozen hose issues here!

- GL63

 

[King of Cascade]

I'm back...brrr...

My camera batteries died just before the actual plunge. I used a friends camera to shoot the rest, but she's got to email me the pics. The weather is nasty up here now. These pics will give you the idea.

He's just before my camera bit the dust, it's the coast guard divers who stand at the the end of the "safe zone" for the plungers.

There were about 150-200 plungers, including some hotties in Bikinis...Well maybe not hotties at that point, maybe coldies.

Why not post the pictures of the hotties in bikinis

 

[edgewoodbrewery]

Just started my brew of a Weizen Doppelbock. Mashing inside as usual, but the boil will be outside... its below freezing but I'm not sure how far below. Enough below. At least the snow is shining today!

 

[Revvy]

Why not post the pictures of the hotties in bikinis

Did you not notice the part where I said my camera batteries died? And that these were they few pics I got before hand? I may have some shots on my friends camera, but I haven't had those emailed to me yet....

 

[Surly]

It's 22 degrees and snowing. What a perfect day to brew outside! Well in the garage but I couldn't think of a better way to spend my Saturday.

Maybe I'll mash inside.

Gonna try a Southern English Brown.

Anyone else fighting the elements?

"Anyone else fighting the elements?", you ask.

Well, I started out this morning at 5F. It will begin snowing within an hour. This is good as it means it is warming up.

 

[Shonuff]

We are going to hold you to your pics Revvy.

On a side note - My brew day yesterday (reason thread was started) went great. I did some tweaking to my system because I was getting in the low 70's with my efficiency. Yesterday I hit 80% efficiency. I don't really care what my efficiency is as long as I hit my OG but 80% is encouraging. The downside was that my OG was a little high.

 

[stevea1210]

I brewed yesterday in 29f weather. I did mash inside though. Only heating strike / sparge water and the boil and chill were outside. It was cold though. I have no wind protection on my back porch.

I DID have the frozen hose problem. I brought them inside, and hooked it up to my sink, running hot water through it. It took 10 minutes for all the ice to melt / shoot out of the hose. Wasn't that bad, but the hoses go in the basement now

 

[sdhucks7]

Brewing right now. 10gal of blonde goodness. Actually doing the sparge right now. About 50deg outside right now. Great brewing weather!!



SD

 

[Newlander]

Low 30s and snowing in Waltham MA. Brewing up an Imperial Stout to break in an oak barrel.

 

[Shonuff]

I'm probably going to be moving to Arizona in about a year and a half. Brewing during the winter in Arizona is probably going to be a tad bit different than Michigan

 

[King of Cascade]

Did you not notice the part where I said my camera batteries died? And that these were they few pics I got before hand? I may have some shots on my friends camera, but I haven't had those emailed to me yet....

I did notice the part where you said your batteries died, just questioning your priorities. If my batteries were low in my camera I would first take the pictures of the hotties then second take pictures of the ugly dudes.

 

[sigmund]

I brewed a Belgian Wit yesterday in the garage, outside it was about 18°. I had one short section of hose for my wort chiller that was frozen, threw it in the kitchen sink for about 2 minutes under hot water and was good to go. Other than rinsing out my keggle at the outside spigot and losing sensation in my fingers, the day was great. I love brewing in coverall weather, nobody comes out to the garage to bother me.

 

[balto charlie]

I'm glad I brewed last night. Woke up to frozen hoses this morning. That would have been a PITA.

I hear ya on the hoses. Here's my brewing from last night
Brutal cold weather settled in on the mid-Atlantic region this wknd, (25F w/ 20 MPH winds). I decided to brew anyway. It took a little longer than normal to bring the wort to a boil but eventually all was roaring. I was making an altbier which required a 90 minute boil. Tank 1 ran out of gas. Not to worry, a 2nd one was ready on standby. All went well until it was time to chill the wort. My ‘line out’ of the IC was frozen. I was trying to shake the ice clog free but the hose snapped off at the IC. Hot (and I mean hot) water came shooting out all over the friggin’ place. I grabbed the end (hot!) of the IC and aimed it into the bushes. I had to hold the IC for 10 minutes while the beer cooled. It cooled quickly. I was lucky the ‘line in’ did not freeze. The bucket of Star-san started to freeze as well. Another lesson learned. I guess those of you who brew outside in the winter do not hook up you IC hoses until you are close to chilling the wort. I must go back to the drawing board to re-config my winter brewing setup. All ‘n all I think it went well. My anticipated 70% efficiency was higher than expected (still have to figure it out); my 5 gallon cooler was MAXED out w/ 11.5 lbs of grains with OG 1.060.

 

[balto charlie]

I'm probably going to be moving to Arizona in about a year and a half. Brewing during the winter in Arizona is probably going to be a tad bit different than Michigan

You're right there, but chilling the wort in August will be a bit difficult.

 

[Revvy]

I did notice the part where you said your batteries died, just questioning your priorities. If my batteries were low in my camera I would first take the pictures of the hotties then second take pictures of the ugly dudes.

One thing to realize when you are dealing with a Polar Bear Plunge when the Pre-Windchill temp is 19 deg. Fahrenheit, they aren't walking around in their bikinis...They usually drop whatever long coat or clothes they are wearing while we are all counting down from 10....You tend not to notice the bikinis until they are running back up from the water.

And someone says "Oh my god, that fool's wearing a bathing suit!"

Believe you me, If I coulda got pics with Hot Chicks with hard nippleage in bikinis I would have and would have posted them instead of the pics I did.