Hi all, I have been homebrewing for almost a year now & have faced some limitations due to apartment living/smaller space. For my last batch, I would keep my fermenter in the bathroom (normally store in shower, but would move when showering). I always see these articles about how contaminated bathrooms can get, so it started worrying me. Ideally, I could put my fermenter in a storage closet somewhere else, but 1. Tight on space & 2. Roommate probably wouldn’t appreciate a mess if it were to explode! My current apartment has a closet to walk through to get to the bathroom (door on closet, not bathroom - so the two are connected in an open environment). While I am still concerned about an explosion causing a mess in my closet (using blow-off tube, so hopefully not), I’d rather have that as opposed to contaminated beer! I have tried to cover anything that may allow exposure to outside air with a towel. Is this a safe place to store my fermenter, or am I still at risk of contaminated beer? I appreciate any thoughts/comments, thank you!
I'd like to say that if it is safe to breathe, then it's safe to brew. BUT we all know that sometimes it's 'difficult' to breathe in a bathroom. So that's strike 1, 2 & 3. Are you brewing 5 gallon batches? if so, then it certainly is a pain in the ass to move that every day to take a shower. And if you are going to be using a blow-off tube on every batch to guard against an explosion, then I think you'd be safe to keep that in your closet. I'll bet it's a little cooler than the bathroom too, and that would be better for the fermentation anyway.
Hahahaha on the breathability! Yeah, it’s 5 gallon batches, so moving it was definitely a pain haha. We shall see how the closet goes. Thanks!
I would definitely just stick it in a closet with a blowoff tube and be careful not to overfill the fermenter. That's if I didn't care about temperature control, which I do.
One way to think about it is that the fermentation is creating gas that leaves the fermenter. There’s no way for bacteria to get in if CO2 is constantly going out. It’s going to be fine in the bathroom but still I don’t think I would want to drink a beer after pooping next to it for a week or two. Put it in a closet or a corner of your bedroom.
This is mostly true, while fermentation is vigorous. Once it settles down, gas exchange will be in both directions (with a traditional airlock). However, I would still trust an airlock filled with starsan solution or alcohol to keep the bugs out. Or better yet, a spunding valve to ensure gasses only flow outward.
