I would also add: You don't really need to mill your grain and carry bulk grains especially if you order from the same place. Ordering from the same trusty source can give you consistent milling which will allow you to dial in your process while not having to store all that extra stuff. Good vid!
Fellow apartment brewer here, I clean my equipment in the shower. Nothing like coming back from a run and jumping into the shower to find a forgotten fermenter from yesterday is in there waiting for it's scrub down. It's in the basement currently in the storage cage because it's the perfect temp to slow brew a kolsch. Gotta work with what you have!
I brew in my garage workshop but I use a 110 VAC circuit powering a portable induction burner. Having air conditioning out there really helps in Arizona. My Spike 10 gallon kettle is great on the induction since it has a tri-ply bottom. I mash in a converted cooler which works great but difficult to pull off a multi-step mash. Some day I will add a 30 amp circuit and a sink. At least I have access to a faucet in the garage. Everything is on shelves or stored in a closet. Kudos to you for making it work in an apartment!
I really enjoyed the video as I brew in a very tight space (in an extra bathroom). I don’t live in an apartment but can appreciate low footprint brewing to keep things well organized and out of the way from normal day to day living. I use an all in one Grainfather G30 with HLT and Anvil Foundry bucket fermenter. I can also do pressure fermentation in my Kegmenter (7.6 gal) or just use it as a keg for serving chilled beer from my InkBird temperature controlled chest freezer. For chilling wort, I have a bathroom sink adapter (like yours) which feeds my counterflow chiller. I collect all the hot water from the chiller in buckets that sit in the bathtub. All cleanup easily done in the bathtub. Small space but it works! And all my accessories needed for brew day hang from a shower curtain rod (with roller hooks) for great storage and easy access! It looks pretty cool. Maybe I will start a UA-cam channel “The Bathroom Brewer”? Lol Cheers🍻
Really great video! I've been watching your videos for a few months now. I'm good friends with your sister and she's the one that told me about your channel! I used to work in the homebrew industry and watching your videos has made me feel nostalgic. Keep up the wonderful content! :)
Awesome vid and great tips. As someone with a similar setup and space, I’ve adapted in similar ways. Instead of the collapsible shelf I use the Bror utility cart from Ikea and it’s able to fit most of my equipment in there by using dishwashing bins with masking tape labels for storage. It’s a great option especially if you need to wheel it out of the way to access something behind it, like in my case my utility closet.
Awesome video! I use a Brewzilla 35L and brew in my bathroom - there's a vent for the steam and I use the showerhead pipe as a water source. I use a garden hose adapter on my immersion chiller hose to connect to the showerhead pipe. I not only use it to chill, but also use it to fill the Brewzilla and to do all my cleaning. Seems weird, but works really well. Cheers!
I am also in an apartment and I am saving up for an Anvil, I am just hoping I don't trip my breaker everytime I brew haha Thanks for these videos very informative and enjoyable. I'm in Southern VT and there are no local homebrew shops so I hit UA-cam for all of my educational needs and all of you brewtubers have been a huge help in learning. I've been watching everything I can from everyone lol
I have lots of space,even my own dedicated brewing house yet I love learning something new from your vids. Please touch on economy for new brewers as a lot of renters aren't particularly wealthy. I got a few co workers onside and want to start them off right.
Lot of people down here in Australia are getting into all grain, it can be done on a small scale with minimum equipment, there's still people on UA-cam promoting those malt extract hopped kits though, each to their own but having Lager stamped on the tin then supplying a generic ale yeast which has probably been sitting on the shelf for months is just one problem, you need to add a lot of hops and or grains I find plus they are more expensive to brew so why bother, don't know why North America is on 110v though, I've never understood that
Really loved the info! Fun Fact in Los Angeles refrigerators are typically not included in apartments. However I still wouldn't drill holes into my primary fridge haha. I have a balcony and am debating on getting a little cooler and turning it into a jockey box for out there when I have guests.
Brewing in a non plumbed garage has its own, and dare I say it "more difficult" challenges. Us garage brewers have more space but have to tote everything back and forth for cleaning.
Unless I missed it, I think that it would be really cool if you had a section as part of your intro that talks a bit about the beer you have on-hand and what went into making it!
Oh the days when I first started with an electric stove, extract brewing. My aluminum pot straddled between the small and large coil burner with both cranked up to cherry red. 😆 yes I had to replace the burnt drip trays before I moved.
one thing that I'm gonna try that will help is large plastic storage containers that fit under the bed; I saw them at Walmart for $25 and it will be able to store and organize most of my brew day items as well as hopefully grains in sealed bags
Yeah I started off with a couple brew kits, two five gallon buckets and all that. Let me tell you a standard stove top will NOT boil 5 gallons of liquid at once, especially when you're extracting from grain. Just to get a slow rolling boil I turned it all the way up and ended up scorching the bottom of the brew. It all finished nicely but had an overwhelmingly burnt taste. I should have known just boil less water and add in more later
Former full grain brewer who moved back to extract after years. I think there is an unfortunate misconception that extract brewing is inferior (head retention nonsense, etc). You can design amazing beers using extract in an apartment setup, and it allows you to focus on the fermentation process more than the mash. That improves your outcome dramatically! We push new brewers into all grain before they master the basics imo.
I don't believe I said anything negative about extract brewing in this video. Extract is a great space saver and I agree you can make some great extract beers. I disagree about pushing people into all grain quickly though. Not only does it save you money but allows you to tailor your grist and color so much more than extract and I really think that valuable.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Didn't mean to insinuate that you said anything negative about extract. Sorry if it came across that way. I'll counter on the color issue though, steeping with one or more side pots can give you a wide range of color variations and complexity.
I'm in Australia, I use a Brewzilla 240V 2400 Watt system, which is similar to yours, our electricity power points down here are all 240V 10 Amp all through the house, so we can run a 240 Volt 2400 watt easy, from the reading I have done a lot of people have had problems with the 110V system and have to get a 240V plug put in, I don't know how you cope with the 110V system in North America.
Nice video. Some pretty sold tips there. But can I ask how you came up with three hours to bottle? It take me about an hour and that with waiting 15 min for the priming sugar to dissolve.
I'm guessing you really have your process down though. When I bottled the entire process would take me several hours. I would need to remove labels and the one by one I would clean the bottles, then rinse, then sanitize. The actual filling and capping was the quickest part ironically. I don't miss bottling
@@TheApartmentBrewer Oh okay yeah I can see why that takes a bit. I clean as I go (drink and peel and etc) store them clean. Ill do priming sugar and while that cools Ill start sanitizing bottles. Ill stop about half way or so tranfer brew to filling bucket. Finish sanitizing. I might wait a few mins, but the start cranking them out.
I have been following your videos since quit long now. I appreciate your effort in making them and the love for Beer in particular. I am a newbie and would like to know more about CO2 dosing. Like how much C02 is required to dose a 5 gallon Keg and for how long do you dose Ales and Lagers? Is dosing different for these types of beer or same for all? I would love to watch a video on this sir. Thanks for reading.
How do you deal with the steam that is produced from boiling? Trying to figure out my best option to brew in my basement without destroying the ceiling with condensation over time
Back when I lived in this apartment I just kept the windows open and ran a fan, but when I moved into my basement setup I used a hood to ventilate and haven't looked back.
Do you have any thoughts or experience using an instant pot as an electric vessel, whether using the pressure cooking feature or just as a cooker without the pressure lid? Have you ever found that smells are a problem for apartment living?
Hey, I'm in the research phase at the moment, planning to start with small batches. My question is when I am ready to move to kegging is there a recommended resource for how to get started kegging? Book, video(s), etc.? Thank you.
I always point people towards two resources - both northern brewer and the craft beer and brewing magazine youtube channels. They both have excellent videos that go over kegging in detail as well as kegerator builds. I've also got a few kegging videos on my channel but I think they do a better job.
@@TheApartmentBrewer thank you so very much. I will check them all out. So far I think I have watched more of your videos than any others, you do a fine job of explaining information in your videos. Thank you for sharing you experience and knowledge.
I use a free editing software called hitfilm express. I probably should switch to something like DaVinci resolve but I don't really feel like relearning an editing software
I've been brewing for the last 6 years in a rented apartment. - With BIAB it is much easier to do step mashes and you have a lot more control than using other methods like the esky / cooler "mash tun" or even a robot, it just takes a little more attention and something to prevent scorching the bag (I use a steamer basket upside down on the bottom of the kettle and pegs to keep the bag on the rim of the kettle) - Sparging: with the "immersion sparging method" I've achieved 87% brewhouse efficiency, which is substantially better than any commercial brew-in-a-bucket system. You just need a second (smaller) pot and an electric kettle. I prepare the sparge water while doing the mash out on the big kettle and I keep the bag submerged in the sparge pot while the big kettle is heating up for the boil. No pumps, no clogging... too easy. Although the point of efficiency is repeatability for the small scale homebrewer. You can skip sparging altogether and just spend $2 extra of grain per batch... - Chilling: the cheaper and easier way to go is no-chill, just fill a jerry can with the hot wort, press the air out and wait until it cools down overnight before pitching the yeast. If you want to chill actively anyway, in an apartment, the best way to go is with a big bucket / laundry-tub full of water and an aquarium pump. Put the whole kettle inside, circulate the water from it with the pump through the immersion chiller. Keep the first two buckets of water for flushing, cleaning, watering the plants or whatever, then add some ice blocks and recirculate until desired temp. No hoses needed, no water wasted. - Bottling: Kegging is easier, faster and more convenient but you need two fridges, one for fermenting and one for the keg/s... I bottle and label all my brews or at least partially when I use the mini keg, which is much more convenient for an apartment brewer. It doesn't take 3 hours, you are slower than my granma. It takes me one hour and a half tops including labelling and cleanup. I do a pipeline: · sanitize/rinse bottles: a bottle tree is mandatory · prime: I use a truncated syringe , measure once on the scale, adjust the plunger to the desired volume and measure the rest by volume, pretty accurate. bulk priming is messy, slower and you introduce more oxygen · fill: using a bottling wand from the fermenter's tap and put sanitized crowns/seals on top of the filled bottles (prevent from bugs getting into the beer before sealing the bottles) · press the crowns/seals with a superautomatica bench capper · label: I print my labels in the office's printer, then cut them apart using a paper guillotine and stick them using milk. just dip your finger in a bawl with a bit of milk and spread it on the label's borders, put it on the bottle and wipe the excess, at first they wrinkle a bit but when they dry out they look perfect - Dealing with the bottles: when I open a bottle I give it a quick rinse, remove the label with my fingers (with the milk-gluing-method it takes no effort at all if you only put it on the perimeter) and put it in the dishwasher. After the dishwasher they go back into the bottles box ready to be sanitised and used again. I've never had a single contaminated bottle.
That tubing trick for kitchen faucets is genius! Never thought about that but that would be a great thing to have, thank you!
It's really saved me a lot of headache! Thanks for watching Trent!
I would also add: You don't really need to mill your grain and carry bulk grains especially if you order from the same place. Ordering from the same trusty source can give you consistent milling which will allow you to dial in your process while not having to store all that extra stuff. Good vid!
This is true! I'll admit I only just got my own mill, so this is actually the way I've been doing it for years
Fellow apartment brewer here, I clean my equipment in the shower. Nothing like coming back from a run and jumping into the shower to find a forgotten fermenter from yesterday is in there waiting for it's scrub down. It's in the basement currently in the storage cage because it's the perfect temp to slow brew a kolsch. Gotta work with what you have!
Gotta do what you gotta do! I can definitely relate, cheers!
Excellent video. Some solid tips on limited space brewing. I will say 2 cases of bottles doesn’t take up a lot of space and can be stored in a closet.
I brew in my garage workshop but I use a 110 VAC circuit powering a portable induction burner. Having air conditioning out there really helps in Arizona. My Spike 10 gallon kettle is great on the induction since it has a tri-ply bottom. I mash in a converted cooler which works great but difficult to pull off a multi-step mash. Some day I will add a 30 amp circuit and a sink. At least I have access to a faucet in the garage. Everything is on shelves or stored in a closet. Kudos to you for making it work in an apartment!
Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing!! The induction burner is a great way to go
I really enjoyed the video as I brew in a very tight space (in an extra bathroom). I don’t live in an apartment but can appreciate low footprint brewing to keep things well organized and out of the way from normal day to day living. I use an all in one Grainfather G30 with HLT and Anvil Foundry bucket fermenter. I can also do pressure fermentation in my Kegmenter (7.6 gal) or just use it as a keg for serving chilled beer from my InkBird temperature controlled chest freezer. For chilling wort, I have a bathroom sink adapter (like yours) which feeds my counterflow chiller. I collect all the hot water from the chiller in buckets that sit in the bathtub. All cleanup easily done in the bathtub. Small space but it works! And all my accessories needed for brew day hang from a shower curtain rod (with roller hooks) for great storage and easy access! It looks pretty cool. Maybe I will start a UA-cam channel “The Bathroom Brewer”? Lol Cheers🍻
Wow! That's an interesting way to do it but it's a great way to minimize your footprint. Thanks for sharing!
Really great video! I've been watching your videos for a few months now. I'm good friends with your sister and she's the one that told me about your channel! I used to work in the homebrew industry and watching your videos has made me feel nostalgic. Keep up the wonderful content! :)
Oh that's awesome! Thanks for stopping by and checking out the channel, tell Karen I said hi!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Absolutely!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Wow, that was a pick-up!!!)))
@@stenlee556 😂😂😂 Most definitely not. I'm happily married ✌🏻
Haven't even thought about induction! wow. nice.
Awesome vid and great tips. As someone with a similar setup and space, I’ve adapted in similar ways. Instead of the collapsible shelf I use the Bror utility cart from Ikea and it’s able to fit most of my equipment in there by using dishwashing bins with masking tape labels for storage. It’s a great option especially if you need to wheel it out of the way to access something behind it, like in my case my utility closet.
That's a great idea, thanks for sharing!
Awesome video! I use a Brewzilla 35L and brew in my bathroom - there's a vent for the steam and I use the showerhead pipe as a water source. I use a garden hose adapter on my immersion chiller hose to connect to the showerhead pipe. I not only use it to chill, but also use it to fill the Brewzilla and to do all my cleaning. Seems weird, but works really well. Cheers!
Another bathroom brewer! That's honestly a great way to go about it
@@TheApartmentBrewer You should also wash your vegetables while showering like Cramer.
I am also in an apartment and I am saving up for an Anvil, I am just hoping I don't trip my breaker everytime I brew haha Thanks for these videos very informative and enjoyable. I'm in Southern VT and there are no local homebrew shops so I hit UA-cam for all of my educational needs and all of you brewtubers have been a huge help in learning. I've been watching everything I can from everyone lol
Definitely unlikely to trip your breaker unless you're sharing the circuit. Glad you are learning!
@@TheApartmentBrewer it may. I have found our apartment wiring to be subpar as we've tripped it a few times running the washer, dryer and vacuum lol
I have lots of space,even my own dedicated brewing house yet I love learning something new from your vids. Please touch on economy for new brewers as a lot of renters aren't particularly wealthy. I got a few co workers onside and want to start them off right.
Lot of people down here in Australia are getting into all grain, it can be done on a small scale with minimum equipment, there's still people on UA-cam promoting those malt extract hopped kits though, each to their own but having Lager stamped on the tin then supplying a generic ale yeast which has probably been sitting on the shelf for months is just one problem, you need to add a lot of hops and or grains I find plus they are more expensive to brew so why bother, don't know why North America is on 110v though, I've never understood that
love the ideas braj!
Thanks CH!
Really loved the info! Fun Fact in Los Angeles refrigerators are typically not included in apartments. However I still wouldn't drill holes into my primary fridge haha. I have a balcony and am debating on getting a little cooler and turning it into a jockey box for out there when I have guests.
Brewing in a non plumbed garage has its own, and dare I say it "more difficult" challenges. Us garage brewers have more space but have to tote everything back and forth for cleaning.
Definitely something else to work around. Thanks for watching!
Unless I missed it, I think that it would be really cool if you had a section as part of your intro that talks a bit about the beer you have on-hand and what went into making it!
Oh the days when I first started with an electric stove, extract brewing. My aluminum pot straddled between the small and large coil burner with both cranked up to cherry red. 😆 yes I had to replace the burnt drip trays before I moved.
I've lived that life!!
one thing that I'm gonna try that will help is large plastic storage containers that fit under the bed; I saw them at Walmart for $25 and it will be able to store and organize most of my brew day items as well as hopefully grains in sealed bags
Great idea!
Yeah I started off with a couple brew kits, two five gallon buckets and all that. Let me tell you a standard stove top will NOT boil 5 gallons of liquid at once, especially when you're extracting from grain. Just to get a slow rolling boil I turned it all the way up and ended up scorching the bottom of the brew. It all finished nicely but had an overwhelmingly burnt taste. I should have known just boil less water and add in more later
I would just add that you can always get a smaller 3 gallon keg if you have cramped living arrangements and/ or not a lot of fridge room.
Great point!
They make a double faucet adapter so you can thread your aerator and hose onto the faucet without having to remove the adapter every time
Awesome, that's good to know!
Nice video mate enjoyed it. Just found your channel. I’ve started making home brew videos my self. Cheers 👍🏻🍺
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for watching!
Former full grain brewer who moved back to extract after years. I think there is an unfortunate misconception that extract brewing is inferior (head retention nonsense, etc). You can design amazing beers using extract in an apartment setup, and it allows you to focus on the fermentation process more than the mash. That improves your outcome dramatically! We push new brewers into all grain before they master the basics imo.
I don't believe I said anything negative about extract brewing in this video. Extract is a great space saver and I agree you can make some great extract beers. I disagree about pushing people into all grain quickly though. Not only does it save you money but allows you to tailor your grist and color so much more than extract and I really think that valuable.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Didn't mean to insinuate that you said anything negative about extract. Sorry if it came across that way. I'll counter on the color issue though, steeping with one or more side pots can give you a wide range of color variations and complexity.
I'm in Australia, I use a Brewzilla 240V 2400 Watt system, which is similar to yours, our electricity power points down here are all 240V 10 Amp all through the house, so we can run a 240 Volt 2400 watt easy, from the reading I have done a lot of people have had problems with the 110V system and have to get a 240V plug put in, I don't know how you cope with the 110V system in North America.
Consider me jealous! Seems a lot of the world has a lot higher voltage readily available!
Can you do a basic northern brewing home brew kit at home on your induction burners?
Nice video. Some pretty sold tips there. But can I ask how you came up with three hours to bottle? It take me about an hour and that with waiting 15 min for the priming sugar to dissolve.
I'm guessing you really have your process down though. When I bottled the entire process would take me several hours. I would need to remove labels and the one by one I would clean the bottles, then rinse, then sanitize. The actual filling and capping was the quickest part ironically. I don't miss bottling
@@TheApartmentBrewer Oh okay yeah I can see why that takes a bit. I clean as I go (drink and peel and etc) store them clean. Ill do priming sugar and while that cools Ill start sanitizing bottles. Ill stop about half way or so tranfer brew to filling bucket. Finish sanitizing. I might wait a few mins, but the start cranking them out.
@@TheApartmentBrewer I do need to finish finding all the leaks for the Kegging system and get back into that.
Very detailed awesome video.
Thanks!
I have been following your videos since quit long now. I appreciate your effort in making them and the love for Beer in particular. I am a newbie and would like to know more about CO2 dosing. Like how much C02 is required to dose a 5 gallon Keg and for how long do you dose Ales and Lagers? Is dosing different for these types of beer or same for all? I would love to watch a video on this sir. Thanks for reading.
I'll keep that in mind, I do get a lot of questions about carbonation and how I do it so it would be a good topic. Thanks for the suggestion!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks. Looking forward to it.
thanks for the tips
Anytime! Thanks for watching!
Do you have to worry about steam buildup?
Tad easier for us in the UK as all our outlets are 240v and support 3600w per socket
Consider me jealous!
How do you deal with the steam that is produced from boiling? Trying to figure out my best option to brew in my basement without destroying the ceiling with condensation over time
Back when I lived in this apartment I just kept the windows open and ran a fan, but when I moved into my basement setup I used a hood to ventilate and haven't looked back.
Do you have any thoughts or experience using an instant pot as an electric vessel, whether using the pressure cooking feature or just as a cooker without the pressure lid?
Have you ever found that smells are a problem for apartment living?
Unfortunately thats not something I've ever tried. As long as you have a window or or door open, the brewing aromas won't stick around
Share with us how you prepare the water for mashing and do you use Brutan B ? Only honestly)))
You can check out my water chemistry video for that if you want to. I'm not sure what brutan B is to be honest
@@TheApartmentBrewer Thank you, obviously I missed the video about water.
Thanks,
Anytime, thanks for watching!
Hey, I'm in the research phase at the moment, planning to start with small batches. My question is when I am ready to move to kegging is there a recommended resource for how to get started kegging? Book, video(s), etc.? Thank you.
I always point people towards two resources - both northern brewer and the craft beer and brewing magazine youtube channels. They both have excellent videos that go over kegging in detail as well as kegerator builds. I've also got a few kegging videos on my channel but I think they do a better job.
@@TheApartmentBrewer thank you so very much. I will check them all out. So far I think I have watched more of your videos than any others, you do a fine job of explaining information in your videos. Thank you for sharing you experience and knowledge.
@@jeremywilliams9039 glad I can help!!
Hey boss, what do u use for editing your videos? An app or some type of software?
I use a free editing software called hitfilm express. I probably should switch to something like DaVinci resolve but I don't really feel like relearning an editing software
@@TheApartmentBrewer appreciate it man! Thanks
👍🏻👍🏻
Cheers Tom!
Bottling is a bitch!
I've been brewing for the last 6 years in a rented apartment.
- With BIAB it is much easier to do step mashes and you have a lot more control than using other methods like the esky / cooler "mash tun" or even a robot, it just takes a little more attention and something to prevent scorching the bag (I use a steamer basket upside down on the bottom of the kettle and pegs to keep the bag on the rim of the kettle)
- Sparging: with the "immersion sparging method" I've achieved 87% brewhouse efficiency, which is substantially better than any commercial brew-in-a-bucket system. You just need a second (smaller) pot and an electric kettle. I prepare the sparge water while doing the mash out on the big kettle and I keep the bag submerged in the sparge pot while the big kettle is heating up for the boil. No pumps, no clogging... too easy. Although the point of efficiency is repeatability for the small scale homebrewer. You can skip sparging altogether and just spend $2 extra of grain per batch...
- Chilling: the cheaper and easier way to go is no-chill, just fill a jerry can with the hot wort, press the air out and wait until it cools down overnight before pitching the yeast. If you want to chill actively anyway, in an apartment, the best way to go is with a big bucket / laundry-tub full of water and an aquarium pump. Put the whole kettle inside, circulate the water from it with the pump through the immersion chiller. Keep the first two buckets of water for flushing, cleaning, watering the plants or whatever, then add some ice blocks and recirculate until desired temp. No hoses needed, no water wasted.
- Bottling: Kegging is easier, faster and more convenient but you need two fridges, one for fermenting and one for the keg/s... I bottle and label all my brews or at least partially when I use the mini keg, which is much more convenient for an apartment brewer.
It doesn't take 3 hours, you are slower than my granma. It takes me one hour and a half tops including labelling and cleanup.
I do a pipeline:
· sanitize/rinse bottles: a bottle tree is mandatory
· prime: I use a truncated syringe , measure once on the scale, adjust the plunger to the desired volume and measure the rest by volume, pretty accurate. bulk priming is messy, slower and you introduce more oxygen
· fill: using a bottling wand from the fermenter's tap and put sanitized crowns/seals on top of the filled bottles (prevent from bugs getting into the beer before sealing the bottles)
· press the crowns/seals with a superautomatica bench capper
· label: I print my labels in the office's printer, then cut them apart using a paper guillotine and stick them using milk. just dip your finger in a bawl with a bit of milk and spread it on the label's borders, put it on the bottle and wipe the excess, at first they wrinkle a bit but when they dry out they look perfect
- Dealing with the bottles: when I open a bottle I give it a quick rinse, remove the label with my fingers (with the milk-gluing-method it takes no effort at all if you only put it on the perimeter) and put it in the dishwasher. After the dishwasher they go back into the bottles box ready to be sanitised and used again. I've never had a single contaminated bottle.
The ingenuity of fellow apartment brewers will always amaze me. Thanks for sharing!!!