Hello everyone, My name is James, I live in London UK and I am brewing for the last 5 or 6 years now. Because I live in central London, space is very limited and really expensive. As I' expanding my home brewing operations, I started to look around searching for a small dark kitchen I can rent and where to move all my equipment. Prices are obviously insane.. Do you all brew at you homes or is there anyone who has a dedicated space? I'm curious to know. james
Hi James, welcome to BF. I brew at home and my space is very limited as well, albeit maybe not as tight as yours. My equipment is squirreled away in various areas of my home and on different floors. It’s not ideal, but I love the hobby so I make it work.
Welcome to the insane asylum. Unlike London, space is not a premium where I live. I have 3-400 sqft area for my workshop/brewery in the basement. Kitchen would not go over with my wife lol
Hello! I brew in a small one bedroom apartment, and I live with another person lol. Space is limited but we make it work.
I use my garage. Power and water plumbed in. I did get my car in the garage once many years ago - but I couldn't get out of my car - I reversed out and never tried again. It is now totally dedicated to brewing - apart from my golf clubs and fishing rods.
I also use my garage, pull the car out to the drive and set up a folding table. Equipment is electric, stored on shelves in the garage.
Welcome to the forum James! What method and batch size to you brew? I mostly brew 7.5 gallon all-grain batches. All my equipment is stored in the basement on a shelving unit with four 2' x 4' (0.6m x 1.2m) shelves. On brew days I really get my exercise by hauling everything up the stairs to the kitchen, where I mash, and then outside, where I brew. Then of course everything goes back downstairs at the end of the day. Well worth the effort. But spending money to rent a dedicated brew space, is on a whole different level of dedication. Good luck with your brewing logistics!
Welcome James. I brew all-grain 2.5 gallon batches in my kitchen, using a 5.5 gallon kettle for single vessel BIAB process. Fermentation is done in an adjacent interior closet with 2 different fermenters. My beer is bottle conditioned in the garage, adjacent to the kitchen. My home is not big, so I keep my brewing simple.
I have an E Brew area in the man cave. I keep the kettles and MT on shelves. Pull it all out when it’s time to brew. Climate controlled!
Yup I'd probably go down Herms route and do stove top Biab if space was tight around home. I brew on our patio here outside plenty of room. But wife keeps getting pissed at how much I've taken over the patio . Surely one of them all in one's could sort you out brew wise as for fermentation and serving well that's where space is needed.
Welcome! Space is not at a premium for me, and I live alone. I build/designed my house around my kitchen en brewing corner But, I am off grid with only limited solar power, so I use a pot on gas stove, biab and small batches (6 to 10 litre)
Hey James, welcome to the site. I'm a closet brewer too that is fortunate to have a garage to do my brewing in so like a lot of the Brewer's on here, I get a workout on brew day from the basement to the kitchen to the garage and back again! Nevertheless, my recommendation is to take a tip from @Herm_brews and @Josh Hughes with the 2.5g BIAB route but if you were looking for a "dark kitchen" with your 5 to 6 years of already invested time and the nearly unavoidable habit brewers have of amassing brewing hardware, I suspect you might be past that point and scaling down may be in your future just from a practicable aspect. Welcome again and I look forward to hearing how this plays out!
Wow, thank you so much for the warm welcome guys, I really appreciate that. It's interesting to hear that each of us has a different setup. I have a garage which is very unpractical. it is a separate unit from the house and there is no plumbing nor electricity. @Ward Chillington, I'm actually looking forward to expand and upgrade my production. I am one of those perfectionist freaks, I'm really far from amassing equipment and tools. I also love to make fruit wine so I would like to get a couple of stain and steel fermenters for it.
