Davik Brewing

When summer comes around, many brewers take time off from brewing. Unless you have an outside brewing setup, you can really heat up the house when brew day comes around. I’ve actually used my BBQ to boil my wort when the summer day temperatures approach 100F. It’s not a very efficient way to brew, but it works in a pinch. If you have a fryer setup, the burner should work quite well depending on the BTU’s.

I typically like to brew in the morning, but since summer has come and I brew all-grain, a typical 5 gallon batch can take up to 6 hours, depending on the sparge. You can still conduct the mash and sparge inside the house, since you’re not boiling the wort -yet.

If you wait to brew at night, lately I’ve been doing the midnight brew session, you can let your mash/sparge water heat up in the summer sun all day, and have that much less to heat your water. Your water can easily heat up to atleast 100F, so now you only have 70-80F more to go to hit your mash temp.

You’ll be using the sun’s energy, and save on the fuel you would typically use to heat your water. It’s just one step to becoming a ‘greener’ homebrewer!

Click here to check out my ‘Greener Brewing’ article series

Filed under: Brewing 101 on August 1st, 2009