Brew UK Forum | Brewdays
Brewing Locations
I don't think there is a thread on this yet, if there is please delete.
Where do you do your brewing?
I only do kit brews (at the moment, who knows in the future but with a 6 week old baby there's not much time, space, money or time to do anything else.)
Location: Bathroom. The shower head makes cleaning stuff so much easier and I can fit the bucket under the taps to fill it up so making up a kit is quite quick (assuming I've remembered to bypass the water softener.)
It then goes in the spare bedroom with a heating belt on until ready to keg.
Kegging again in the bathroom, a handy cupboard to sit it on and siphon down into the keg in the bath.
I leave the keg in the bath for two days, I've suffered from dripping taps too many times to risk it anywhere carpeted, then lump it downstairs into the garage where it lives a short life until it's empty.
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
I brew outside as the steam and mess was getting too much in the kitchen and so long as the weather is good its fine. If not then I brew in the Garage with the door open.
I ferment under the stairs as its nice and dark plus the temp remains quite steady at around 20c. Keg/bottle in the kitchen.
The kegs then live in the garage which is quite cool even in the summer.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hmm bathroom... thats an interesting one. I used to use the shower for filling up my barrels/ferm bin when sterilising and rinsing off, followed by a visit into the kitchen to make my brew.
I stopped using the shower as i had a terrible thought... The cold water upstairs is stored in the loft space in a header tank and is not as fresh as water from the kitchen taps which run straight from the water mains. There is a risk (small) of bacteria build up in any stored water tank and i wondered if this could pass a risk onto your finished beer? I always remember being told never to drink tap water from upstairs but only from the kitchen taps. Maybe i'm paranoid or is there any justification in what i'm thinking? comments please! I'm no expert in plumbing... can anyone shed any light on this or am i way off the mark?
Conditioning - Theakston Old Peculier
Conditioning - Christmas 2010 (Strong Xmas ale)
Maturing - Peach wine kit
Drinking - Summer Lightning, Summer Wit
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Some systems do indeed have cold water in a header tank. Luckily ours doesn't. In fact, the mains use to go upstairs before it made it's way to the kitchen, a truely odd route. I've reversed this now but I have added a water softener (which makes such a difference in this hard water area) so I need to remember to bypass this when making the brew.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Ah nice one... our house is ancient... makes Stonehenge look like a modern holiday attraction!
Conditioning - Theakston Old Peculier
Conditioning - Christmas 2010 (Strong Xmas ale)
Maturing - Peach wine kit
Drinking - Summer Lightning, Summer Wit
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Im an outside brewer. Need a house with an outhouse for me to convert. I used to do it in the kitchen but with my uber-boiler it looked like gorrillas in the mist in the kitchen and then when it started to peel the paint from the ceiling and walls I thought it better to move outside!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Blimey Nath. I saw the pics of your boiler in action, followed by Gregs comments about being available for paint and wallpaper stripping in the Salisbury area :-0
I'm not surprised you use that beastie outside! I'm relegated to outside or garage for boil ups as the missus will not be happy with her kitchen walls fermenting!
Conditioning - Theakston Old Peculier
Conditioning - Christmas 2010 (Strong Xmas ale)
Maturing - Peach wine kit
Drinking - Summer Lightning, Summer Wit
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I do my AG in the kitchen. There are two main reasons I don't do it in the bathroom ... firstly, it's too close to the kids' bedroom and I begin my brews at 5.30am... secondly, the bathroom is upstairs and if anything went wrong I'd have /beer or water running through the ceiling. Missus would never forgive me. It's also too small. Oh, and a serious lack of surfaces. Ummm .. that's 4 reasons innit?
Been a long day!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I do mine in the kitchen too.. Far more space for all my bits and bobs.
Not long Tony 1 week then schools out for summer!
Neil
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I have just installed a stainless steel commercial sink in the garden (brought on ebay) and use 23 lt fermenter in the main room which has wet under floor heating and is very constant temp!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I'm trying to visualize both a stainless steel sink in a garden and wet underfloor heating but having problems. This is probably due to working every minute in the day (and being knackered) and/or visiting sainsburys on the way home (to continue working) and buying an industrial amount of Fuller's Bengal Lancer - and then drinking them - or starting to.
Sorry Lol .. can you expand? :o)
Hey Neil .. yup one week and counting. The school likes to get it's pound of flesh before they release the catch on our cage though!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I'm a kitchen brewer, but looking to clean out and equip the utility room this summer. I'm a teacher too, so got a few projects on for the summer holidays!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hey BHB ... what do you teach?
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
To Tony & Blackhatchetboy...
You both deserve a pat on the back. Teaching is one of the hardest jobs going around. My wife trained as one but never took up the profession. But the amount of things you have to do to please the powers that be.
Nope i will stick to IT and home brewing in my kitchen.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Lol Neil - any jobs going at your house ? - sounds like my ideal workplace
Conditioning - Theakston Old Peculier
Conditioning - Christmas 2010 (Strong Xmas ale)
Maturing - Peach wine kit
Drinking - Summer Lightning, Summer Wit
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I officially hate IT.
Used to love tinkering with my old BBC micro when I was a lad, but now that I do it professionally it's a real pain in the a*se. Too many self important wee men with no subject knowledge measuring your work and asking idiotic questions like 'so how long do you think it'll take to guess how long it might take to fix this problem - I just need a number, hours, 'ballpark figure', something I can put into my nice colour-coded spreadsheet to strangle you with later when it all goes t*ts up?'
Which is why, when I'm doing my favourite hobby and thinking to myself 'If I could do something like THIS for a living all would be well', I have to remind myself of the long evenings tinkering with me old computer thinnking 'I could do this all the time'.
Think I've just come out there - as a bona fide ex-nerd.
Any professional brewers on this forum?
-Barry
Conditioning (Bottles): Sam Adams Boston Lager Clone
Drinking (Bottles): Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone
Drinking (King Keg): McMullen's Country Best Bitter
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
I've been doing pretty much everthing in my kitchen up until now. However, now that my Electrim boiler's been behaving inexplicably brilliantly since I replaced the element and now remove the element to thoroughly clean after every brew, I'm going to have to move the boil outside or into the garage. I'm now releasing about 3.5-4L of steam into the air in a 1-hour boil which means that, given we've a small kitchen, it actually rains in the kitchen for about an hour after the boil. I really don't want to give my wife any excuses to have me re-decorate the kicthen so I'm moving all but the bottling into the garage.
I do my fermenting in our bedroom wardrobe. I only do 2-gallon brews, so carrying this up and down the stairs isn't too much of a hassle. I've forgone having any variety of clothing for a decent place with a steady 20 degree temperature. So what If I wear the same 2 shirts, 2 trousers and 2 t-shirts all the time? I'm a bloke.
Speaking of clothing - does anyone have a special brewday attire? My wife knows I'm on a brew when the old brown cords and white t-shirt are put on. I've destroyed decent clothes in the past with sterilizer splashing on them. Now, it's just the old faithful brewing trousers.
It's a full life we live up here in North West Europe.
-Barry
Conditioning (Bottles): Sam Adams Boston Lager Clone
Drinking (Bottles): Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone
Drinking (King Keg): McMullen's Country Best Bitter
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
I have a man mooob top. Its a green, orange paint splattered xxxl kangaroo-poo top. I only brew in that bad boy. Moobs out, beers in.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
BBQ has side burner so I can heat large ammounts of water
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hey Lol.. that's a facebook link and I don't have a facebook account
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Try this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16568396@N08/
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Outside sink? What a brilliant idea. Can you just attach that to your outside tap, then?
Hah! What will they think of next? (he says while hacking off some very uneven slices of bread from a loaf with a blunt knife)
Conditioning (Bottles): Sam Adams Boston Lager Clone
Drinking (Bottles): Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone
Drinking (King Keg): McMullen's Country Best Bitter
Posted 1 year ago by Member
The sink is plumbed in straight through wall off of kitchen sink feed.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Brilliant! I love that!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
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