Winter Brewing

[fergusyarrow]

I tried brewing outside last weekend. I'm in Montreal. It was quite cold and I learned a valuable lesson; building codes change for a reason. Ours is an older house and the tap outside is original. Back in the mid 80s when the house was built, you did not have to have a frost free tap and a shutoff valve inside. Now I know why you do need them. $500 emergency plumber call and $2k repairs for the basement, starting Dec 30th. Thankfully our insurance covers most of it. And, worst of all, I lost my brown porter. Can't say my wife is keen on the idea of me winter brewing again Time to start thinking about doing something electric inside I think.

Fergus

 

[TheBasics]

2 pots on the stove works for me. Both fit in the sink for chilling also.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I like the dual pot stovetop method, nice simple approach to get you out of the elements!

 

[Driftless_Area]

I live in MN and brew outside year round. I remember one brewday with my uncle that was -15°F. Never had any issues. I take it inside for the chilling though with an immersion chiller and a little snow in the sink.

 

[The_Traveling_Brewer]

I live in MN and brew outside year round. I remember one brewday with my uncle that was -15°F. Never had any issues. I take it inside for the chilling though with an immersion chiller and a little snow in the sink.

I assume you use propane. Do you ever have issues with it that cold? Like does it blow out easy or anything?

 

[theck]

2 pots on the stove works for me. Both fit in the sink for chilling also. View attachment 167275

What size are both pots? Make 5 gallons?

 

[JonM]

I assume you use propane. Do you ever have issues with it that cold? Like does it blow out easy or anything?

Keep two around. If one freezes shut, i just use the other one. (I'm next door in Wisconsin, so it's frickin cold here too.)

 

[TheBasics]

A 4 and a 3 so I can finish with 5 to 5.5 gallon batches.

 

[Driftless_Area]

I assume you use propane. Do you ever have issues with it that cold? Like does it blow out easy or anything?

Set up a wind screen and you are good. Maybe warm up your tank inside before you start as well.

 

[The_Traveling_Brewer]

Set up a wind screen and you are good. Maybe warm up your tank inside before you start as well.

Thanks! Good advise!

 

[mvcorliss]

Another thing to remember if you decide to move indoors for the winter is that there is no rule that says you have to brew 5 gallon batches. Winter is a great time to drop down to 2 - 3 gal batches and do some experimental brews. Play around with recipes and hop and yeast varieties without breaking the bank or having 5 gallons of something that didn't turn out great but you did learn from.

 

[msa8967]

Another thing to remember if you decide to move indoors for the winter is that there is no rule that says you have to brew 5 gallon batches. Winter is a great time to drop down to 2 - 3 gal batches and do some experimental brews. Play around with recipes and hop and yeast varieties without breaking the bank or having 5 gallons of something that didn't turn out great but you did learn from.

I use a 5 gallon brew kettle with a brew in a bag sack to do 2-3 gallon brews. I ferment in 3.5 gallon food grade plastic buckets that I buy from Walmart's bakery for $1-2. Add in a 50 cent grommet from the hardware store and you have a cheap fermentor. You can buy 5 gallon paint strainer bags for around 3 for $5 to use as a BIAB sack if you don't want to sew your own bag.

 

[herc1354]

Living in the Hot Humid south, I prefer brewing in the winter. In the summer depending on how hot its been for a period of time the house water is not cold enough to cool boiling Wort. Ive solved this buy using ice in my HLT and circulating Wort through the HERMS coil, I have used as much as 40lbs of ice to get the job done.

Oh and brewing beer in 95+ degree temps SUCKS! I brewed once at the end of the summer, since september I've brewed 60 gallons of beer.

 

[burdbrew]

I brewed today during the tail end of an ice storm here in Vermont, 28 degrees outside. There was 3/4 of an inch of ice on my car when I started heating water. I thoroughly enjoyed myself today. I brew under an exterior overhang. I work all week at a desk; it's nice to be outside, I don't care what time of year. RIMS worked fine (loving Bobby's new RIMS tube).

Make sure your hoses are empty. Easy enough. Other than that, I only see cold brewing as an advantage. I can chill so much faster with snow/ice.

I use a pond pump in a large plastic tub to chill my IC coil (I recirculate the wort too). I had plenty of ice to keep shoveling in. I was at 58 degrees and ready to pitch my blonde ale within a 1/2 hour (I like to pitch and ferment cold).

I have brewed at zero, but I'm not looking to, that's a little extreme.

 

[herc1354]

I brewed today during the tail end of an ice storm here in Vermont, 28 degrees outside. There was 3/4 of an inch of ice on my car when I started heating water. I thoroughly enjoyed myself today. I brew under an exterior overhang. I work all week at a desk; it's nice to be outside, I don't care what time of year. RIMS worked fine (loving Bobby's new RIMS tube).



Make sure your hoses are empty. Easy enough. Other than that, I only see cold brewing as an advantage. I can chill so much faster with snow/ice.



I use a pond pump in a large plastic tub to chill my IC coil (I recirculate the wort too). I had plenty of ice to keep shoveling in. I was at 58 degrees and ready to pitch my blonde ale within a 1/2 hour (I like to pitch and ferment cold).



I have brewed at zero, but I'm not looking to, that's a little extreme.

Now that's cold, it was near 80 where i live in NC, freakishly warm even for north east NC.

 

[The_Traveling_Brewer]

Hearing from all of you has inspired me to rough it out and stick with outdoor brewing. I'm planning to brew the day after Christmas. I like how this thread has gone. Keep the winter tips and stories coming! Thanks a lot guys!

 

[JonM]

Remember: there is no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothes.

 

[burdbrew]

Hearing from all of you has inspired me to rough it out and stick with outdoor brewing. I'm planning to brew the day after Christmas. I like how this thread has gone. Keep the winter tips and stories coming! Thanks a lot guys!

Make a plan and execute it. If you have an IC, the pond pump trick is excellent. Can't recommend it enough.

I move around enough that I was brewing in a hoodie a 28 degrees. And I'm in and outside quite a bit through the different cycles.

 

[The_Traveling_Brewer]

What about electric burners? I've been checking out a few. I see induction can boil a good amount. Do they use more then a normal plug?

 

[Cider123]

I set up the kettle in the garage with the garage door open. Cuts down the wind and takes a little bite out of the cold. I BIAB and when I start mashing I close the garage door. I don't open it again until I need to start boiling.

I had a ton of ice on my driveway when I brewed last Friday. When I started the immersion chiller the exit water was so warm I used it to melt the ice around the garage doors. Unfortunately that water flowed downhill and made a skating rink out of my turnaround. I forgot it was there when I went to blow snow this morning and nearly busted my @ss.

 

[RonPopeil]

what is all this tomfoolery? i brew in the winter. boil and mash outside. wrap the cooler with a blanket. stick to lower mash temps so mashing is less headache. 17 degree window is hard to hit consistently. as for chilling, i walk the kettle in the house and use my immersion chiller. small garden hose connects to the sink with a faucet adapter from lowes. my ground water is ice cold this time of year

 

[Clonefan94]

I love brewing outside in the winter. All that free ice in the form of snow for recirculating the cooling water. I'm lucky though that I have a wash tub inside that has a faucet I can hook my hose to. So, I do all my filling of water from there. I mash in my cooler in the kitchen and it's a short few steps to the garage from there. I'll take brewing on a 20 degree day over a 90 degree day any time. Plus, not having to worry about bees, wasps, falling leaves and flies is awesome.

Usually if it's above 20, I just go ahead and hook up my hoses outside. Just make sure you don't leave them connected when not running water through them. The key is to get yourself a spare hose you keep inside during the winter. So You don't have to deal with frozen rubber as well.

 

[RM-MN]

Remember: there is no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothes.

Tell me more about that. The temperature is -25 now and the wind chill exceeds -40. I need a space suit.

 

[JonM]

Correction: There's SOME bad weather. That's pretty friggin' cold.

 

[RM-MN]

Correction: There's SOME bad weather. That's pretty friggin' cold.

That's a normal temp here. I expect it to get worse with the temperature getting down to the -35 to -45 range most winters. Brewing weather. I brew indoors but take the wort outside to chill. Who needs a wort chiller?

 

[Wild1z]

That's a normal temp here. I expect it to get worse with the temperature getting down to the -35 to -45 range most winters. Brewing weather. I brew indoors but take the wort outside to chill. Who needs a wort chiller?

That is skiing weather!

I have a wort chiller and I run the discharge line outside under the garage door. I left it outside for minute, turned on the water and the hose exploded (frozen line) within a minute or two. Luckily no one got hurt. It's too cold. I'll just stick to chilling the brew into the laundry room sink. Being a bayou boy in MN, I'd rather keep the garage door shut and stay warm but there are many other advantages to winter, No Mosquitoes, the snow makes a great floor sweep for the garage floor, chills a bottle of beer quick and that's all I have. It's just damn cold.