Basement Brewing Proper Venting

[bobonthenet]

I have a space set aside in my basement for doing my home brewing. It has ready access to water as it is adjacent to the laundry area. A large temperature controlled closet which I've already started using for fermentation. I will also eventually pipe in some natural gas but to start with I'll be using propane. The space is small but fits all my equipment, ingredients and 2 or 3 people to brew with. The space is also adjacent to the play room where I can stick my child and friends children and safely watch them while we imbibe and brew. This space is AWESOME!!!

I haven't actually brewed down there though because I am extremely paranoid about killing myself and my friends along with our children with carbon monoxide from the burner. I plan on getting a detector and I'd like to buy a hood that will vent outside. Is that enough? Are there differences that I need to consider when I switch from propane to natural gas? The hood I'm planning on getting is a pretty cheap $100 unit that vents outside, is that enough? Do I need to construct something to channel the air or does that thing pull enough to get all the bad air out? How do I not kill everyone in the basement while brewing?

 

[bman1056]

I brew in my basement. There is an exhaust fan in there (wall mounted), and I open a window or door a crack to let fresh air in as well. Haven't had any issues there or upstairs. I was afraid of steam getting to the drywall on the ceiling, so I covered the area above my boil kettle with plastic sheeting. Hasn't been an issue at all. I say common sense rules- go for it.

Blanchard

 

[LandoLincoln]

I'd highly recommend doing the natural gas switchover before cooking with propane in your basement.

I doubt that a $100 kitchen vent is going to be sufficient for the steam that you're going to produce.

 

[bobonthenet]

I'd highly recommend doing the natural gas switchover before cooking with propane in your basement.

I doubt that a $100 kitchen vent is going to be sufficient for the steam that you're going to produce.

I hadn't even considered steam. I'll do a little more shopping around for the hood. I want to make sure it'll suck up everything I don't want in the basement. The dehumidifier isn't too far away so hopefully that wouldn't be a huge issue. As for hooking up the natural gas it is something that I want to do soon. However, I need to do a lot more research to make sure I do it right. I want to get a few brews in, in the meantime. Other than cost, what makes natural gas better?

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

As I understand it to do it by the book you'd take your burners btu rating per hour and divide it by 30 to calculate the total cfm size of your exhaust fan.

 

[Minbari]

I hadn't even considered steam. I'll do a little more shopping around for the hood. I want to make sure it'll suck up everything I don't want in the basement. The dehumidifier isn't too far away so hopefully that wouldn't be a huge issue. As for hooking up the natural gas it is something that I want to do soon. However, I need to do a lot more research to make sure I do it right. I want to get a few brews in, in the meantime. Other than cost, what makes natural gas better?

a dehumidfier will eventually get the water out of the air, but will take hours. meanwhile you will have water dripping from everywhere! I did a test boil in my basement a few weeks ago and the floor joyces, A/C ducting, walls. everything was covered in water.

Going to get a 2-300 CFM inline fan to duct the steam out the window for my next test.

 

[day_trippr]

I have a 1500cfm 8" ducted blower in my shop with a drop over my BK but I still run a CO detector right in the midst of everything. Definitely would be leery of anything less air-mover wise, and I wouldn't even spark up without the CO detector.

Running propane because out here in the boonies there ain't no gas...

Cheers!

 

[bobonthenet]

Is natural gas safer than propane?

 

[Hamaki]

Whether gas or propane the steam generated will be the least of your concerns. Check out the Electric Brewery's ventilation page, http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ventilation. You might rethink your plans a bit.

A quote from that site:
Because of the enormous ventilation requirements of a gas based brewery (12.5 times higher than an equivalent electric setup), an indoor gas brewery is not easily achievable. It requires a massive amount of air evacuation as well as an equally substantial make-up air system. Large fans with ducting larger than 16" in diameter may be required, making safe indoor gas brewing very expensive. It is not uncommon for the ventilation and make-up air system of a gas based indoor brewery to cost more than the brewing setup itself.

 

[bobonthenet]

The thing is I already have gas piped right up to where I wish to brew. I also have gas outside the house and I am trying to design my system so that it can easily be moved to and from each location.

I've been doing a lot of research/shopping since my original post and I think I may want to construct my own hood. I live pretty close to the local hacker space and have access to all sorts of equipment for welding, cutting, shaping or whatever I need to manufacture the hood. They also have a sweet vinyl cutter so I can put my logo on the outside of the hood. There is a window directly above the brew space, it'll be like 3 or 4 feet directly above the top of the kettle. Venting should not be a huge problem. I'm thinking of just making the thing HUGE so that all the steam and harmful gasses have no where else to go but out.

 

[LandoLincoln]

The thing is I already have gas piped right up to where I wish to brew. I also have gas outside the house and I am trying to design my system so that it can easily be moved to and from each location.

I've been doing a lot of research/shopping since my original post and I think I may want to construct my own hood. I live pretty close to the local hacker space and have access to all sorts of equipment for welding, cutting, shaping or whatever I need to manufacture the hood. They also have a sweet vinyl cutter so I can put my logo on the outside of the hood. There is a window directly above the brew space, it'll be like 3 or 4 feet directly above the top of the kettle. Venting should not be a huge problem. I'm thinking of just making the thing HUGE so that all the steam and harmful gasses have no where else to go but out.

It sounds like you really want to build a nice metal hood, and that's fine, but for our application it's not really necessary. You're just venting steam and gases. There's no fear of a grease flareup, so metal is not needed.

I built a hood out of wood and lined it with some thin plastic sheets (the kind that you use over fluorescent lighting in ceilings in an office environment). I have an 8" inline fan connected to it, and the fan is so good at evacuating the steam that I get zero water condensation inside the hood itself.

I've read that indoor cooking with natural gas is safer than indoor cooking with propane, and the switchover is not very expensive at all, so if I were you I'd just start out with natural gas.