Where in the house do you brew?

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narmour

Landlord.
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Hi

Apologies if this question has been addressed before, but I wanted to get a few opinions on something.

I'm moving into a new house soon and it's smaller than our current rented place. I am concerned that I am losing my trusty brewing cupboard by the kitchen and am at a loss as to where I will run my brews from now on. The thought has occurred to me that the loft is completely unused, I am planning to put a floor in it (for storage ;) ), it is out of the way of the kids :party: and with a little work I could turn it into my man cave :whistle:

Does anyone else use the loft for brewing? how about a water supply? I suppose the cold water tank is up there but I wouldn't be too sure about sterilising up there and pouring the spent steriliser into the tank again. Also what about temperature variations? it gets mighty hot up there in summer and freezing cold in winter. Insulation would help against the cold but it would still get too warm in summer.

Any comments gratefully received!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
 
I think a loft would be doable but tricky...

As you say you have the cold tank so taking a branch off the feed for fresh water is perfectly doable. You don't want to use tank water at all.
Heating water if you need to will be a pain - You'll have electricy to tap into but you are restricted to kettles pretty much.
Waste water - depending on where your waste stack is (many go through the loft!) you might be able to rig up a sink quite easily.

All that and a nice pully system for getting ingredients up and produce down and you're sorted.

Temperature control will be a bigger problem though. Lofts get very hot in summer and very cold in winter...
 
graysalchemy said:
I brew at work (my own business). I have 3500sq ft of man cave :whistle: :whistle:

I thought it was a secret :hmm: :lol: :lol:

I brew in my spare room wardrobe but it is reaching capacity so may need to find another cupboard the my OH doesnt use. For maturing I store them in the loft. I does get very hot but I suppose if you were DIY minded then you could knock up a brewing cupboard?

I am rubbish at DIY so dont ask me how :lol: :lol:
 
As you said, loft space can get bloody hot in Summer and feckin' freezin' in Winter, but it can also fluctuate widely between day and night.

You may get away with fermenting up there, particularly in Spring and Autumn, if you've got insulation and some form of temperature control.

It is the worst place imaginable for maturing wines, they should be kept cool wherever possible but most importantly the temperature should be stable.
 
Moley said:
As you said, loft space can get bloody hot in Summer and feckin' freezin' in Winter, but it can also fluctuate widely between day and night.

You may get away with fermenting up there, particularly in Spring and Autumn, if you've got insulation and some form of temperature control.

It is the worst place imaginable for maturing wines, they should be kept cool wherever possible but most importantly the temperature should be stable.

:oops: I guess I will need to find somewhere new to store them!
 
As I thought. I am planning on insulating the roof as well as the floor of the loft which should prevent the temperature in winter falling too much. Don't know how effective it will be at keeping cool in summer though. Still, the prospect of a penthouse man cave is very appealing, kind of like a boys only tree house!! oh how I wanted one when was a kid.
 
Brew - dining room under a table in the corner. Warm but not too warm.

Mature - dining room, under the floorboards under a large rug via a hatch cut and hinged that looks like somewhere to hide when the secret police come looking for me. Lovely, lovely steady temperature.
 
My OH allows me to use the spare room in the loft conversion in our cottage , there's a bathroom next door so no water problems.

It did reach 26C during the hot weather even with the windows open.
 
I did brew in the kitchen like a lot of guys, but now I've got an old outhouse that's my playroom. If you think about it would be ok to brew in the loft, could you fix up a brew fridge somewhere?. Waters no problem, nor the waste, you could pipe into the bathroom.
 
Mine gets done in the back porch, once all the main bits of the brew have been put together in the kitchen :) starting to run out of room tho, have askes other half for a shed, but he's not too keen, he reckons I'll use it as an excuse to avoid him if I'm p**sed off with him lol!! :)
 
Well... i brew anywhere - used to do the 1 gall jobs in the kitchen on the sides - then it grew!
Now the big batches i do on my flat roof 70m2 of it, wouldnt store anything in my 'attic' as its too warm in summer and too cold in winter but - prior planning anpreparation prevents **** poor performance - so the electrics are in as it the water as the solar panels are on the flat roof too. so basically i brew upstairs and ferment anywhere i want as its big enough to do so. :thumb:
 
Since me and swimbo have moved into our first house together we have 3 spare bedrooms as there is only us 2. One she uses for a dressing room, one is our new cats room and the other is my Homebrew room, not a huge room but it does the job.
 
b0f94cc5-82d1-7f0e.jpg


Here is the little man chilling on the back of the sofa

Makes a change from him pawing at my chilli plants
 
I brew in my loft. The only thing I need to be careful of is when the temps get too hot. I had to put my bud lime on hold as I needed the temps to drop a little. I use an immersion heater so as long as the temp stays below what I need it to ferment at I'm good to go :D

I've got a couple of DJs going at it in the kitchen but my 25l brews always head to the loft.
 
ScottM said:
I brew in my loft. The only thing I need to be careful of is when the temps get too hot. I had to put my bud lime on hold as I needed the temps to drop a little. I use an immersion heater so as long as the temp stays below what I need it to ferment at I'm good to go :D

I've got a couple of DJs going at it in the kitchen but my 25l brews always head to the loft.

Do you fill downstairs and lug it up the ladder? sounds like a health and safety nightmare :wha:
 
narmour said:
ScottM said:
I brew in my loft. The only thing I need to be careful of is when the temps get too hot. I had to put my bud lime on hold as I needed the temps to drop a little. I use an immersion heater so as long as the temp stays below what I need it to ferment at I'm good to go :D

I've got a couple of DJs going at it in the kitchen but my 25l brews always head to the loft.

Do you fill downstairs and lug it up the ladder? sounds like a health and safety nightmare :wha:

Yup, it can be a little tricky but I'm a big strapping boy :D
 
We've got a double length garage, the bottom 12 foot is shared between brewing and SWMBO's laundry area I have to be VERY CAREFUL :lol: I'm currently fitting out like a Kitchen against the back wall and up one corner which will eventually house my bar area :party:
 
Moley said:
it is the worst place imaginable for maturing wines, they should be kept cool wherever possible but most importantly the temperature should be stable.

Oops Ive had a full wine rack up there since the end of last summer.... Good excuse to brew a new supply though if all the others turn out bad :shock:
 
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