Well, today I decided to document how I brew when it is brutally cold outside, so here is a summary of how I do it: First let’s check the weather. Cool, but not bitter, yay! I heat all my sparge water & boil in an outdoor kettle on a 32 jet NG burner. When it is around -10C I will mash outside, but when I did a batch recently in -30C with a wind the mash tun’s spigot froze right up. Now I mash inside and sparge on the back steps where it is a short run to the kettle, and easier to clean the mess. You can see though what my wife thinks of this though (courtesy of her Facebook feed )… < Once I got the sparge done, it is boil time. Hooking up the gas was a hassle though, as I had to dig it out. I can see the kettle from my kitchen window, so once I have a good boil going that doesn’t look like it will boilover I can go inside (though today I shovelled, fixed the gate, and disconnected the Christmas lights) I really like the beautiful melting pattern that I get around the kettle. Now it is chilling time. I need to set up the counterflow chiller. I bring the hoses inside hours earlier to ensure they are thawed, and I hook up the chiller inside. The snowbank to get to the tap was past knee deep. I set up the chiller, and keep water running through it constantly so it doesn’t freeze up. I break my back to get the kettle to height so gravity can do it’s work. I really do need to invest in a pump in the future to avoid that step. Let’s check the Thermapen that’s just been lying in the cold. Oh boy, it’s below 0F! Wort comes pouring out now, and let’s check the temperature of the wort… 52F? Perfect, it’s a lager! See, yet another benefit of brewing in the cold. Heck, it kept chilling after it came out and was 50F when I brought it inside. Dump the mash & kettle crap into the compost heap and now all the outdoor work is done. Cleanup can continue inside! Clean everything, pitch yeast and now they can work for the next while… You can do it if you put your mind to it! Heck today wasn’t bad at all. I did a bit of the work in a long sleeved cotton shirt as I was getting too warm with the physical labour. There are benefits to cold weather brewing. The boil off rate you get is higher, so you sparge more and do higher gravity beers. There is a cold place in your house where fermenting at ambient is just fine. Lagering is much easier. Boilovers end up in snow instead of making a mess on the ground. Neighbours wonder what the plume of steam coming from your house is and come over to say hi (and make sure your house isn’t burning down). As an aside, I woke up this morning contemplating another brew day, then I saw it was -20C with a blowing snow warning. I may be crazy, but I’m not insane… Time to cold smoke my bacon outdoors!
I imagine the bacteria don't like it at -18 either...wait a minute that says celsius! That's only 0*F...pussy!
I've brewed once so far in "cold" weather. Well, cold for tx, below 32F, and we were all hovered around the wood burning stove the whole time..
52F (groundwater is 51F). The issue is keeping the hose & chiller from freezing solid. Last brew day was -30C with a 20mph wind (gust of 50) and it froze my tun, so I split 10 gallons into two 5 gallon pots, left them outside and they got to 60F (actually less) in under 4 hours.
My personal outdoor brewing record is minus 6F, which will probably not be broken as I'm getting old and creaky. We are not quite as cold as Manitoba but usually have a lot more snow on the ground. It has gotten easier since I built a small porch outside our attached greenhouse; the burners reside outdoors while I can stay in the greenhouse 95% of the time, and there is a spigot in there, so no frozen hoses. Winter brewing can be a challenge but is probably better for the beer; drinking a lager you brewed in February on a hot June day is pretty sweet.
I brewed close to 0°F a couple of weeks ago, and you are right about how you can just sparge for as long as you please. Boil-off was tremendous and I still overshot my target gravity despite my attempt to plan for it.
How true. My folks live in Ottawa now and they are always shovelling. I am sick of it, but my snowbanks look nothing like theirs (and they are no Montréal or Québec City, which are more like you)
I lived in northern MN as a young kid, just a couple hours drive from Winnipeg. It was friggin' cold. Here in VT we move snow with a 6.5ft tractor mounted snowblower, for our 400 yards of private road so we can blow the snowbanks into the woods. The road is still a bit of a tunnel by early March. The people who bitch about the drive to Hill Farmstead have no idea... we live at a much higher elevation and the terrain really packs the snow in during coastal storms. BTW, our well water is 45F year-round and it takes my immersion chiller about 20 minutes to get from boiling to 60F in summer. I love to gloat about that
You do not need any chiller, what I did today to cool down my wort is just heap snow around the brew put. From boil to 70F in 20 minute. What did you brew ?
A light american lager (that ended up more of a standard lager). What size batch did you do? I find that if you are not throwing snow constantly onto the kettle it does not cool efficiently. I have had issues in a tub full of snow (over 2 hours for 5 gallons) and outside (don't even ask) as the kettle settles into the snow and the trapped air begins to act as an insulator (see: Igloo & Quinzee). IMHO better to leave it to the air at these cold temps
I brewed indoors today, it was about 17 deg F. outside. I used a steam coil that fit into the pot. I can't go back outside, this was too easy.
Wife Beater Steam Lager or dark Steam Lager. The Batch size is 5.5 Gallons but I do high gravity boil and need to cool 3.5 Gallons only in plastic wash tub and tons of snow.
The biggest problem I'm having brewing in the cold is maintaining fermentation temp. I've just started up after a 20 year hiatus and a move from Cali to Vermont. I don't have much equipment and no budget for buying more. Fermenting in the basement, its constantly cool. I've got a heating pad wrapped around the fermenter now and that seems to be helping to keep the temp in the 64-68 range.
That's what I do, except to make saisons in winter. With the wood boiler in the basement, it's actually warmer in winter than summer, so the heating pad can kick it up to about 80. If you plug it into a timer and play with the on/off settings you can regulate the temperature pretty well.
