
Make sure that your propane stand is firmly mounted to the ground or a platform to avoid falling over. Move any combustibles, such as gasoline, outside the garage. Make sure there is a wide-open space around your propane burner to minimize the risk of accidental fire. Place a thermometer on the ceiling just above the burner while brewing to see how hot the temperatures get. Check to make sure your burner is away from anything on the ceiling such as a garage door opener, storage, or wiring. Ensure that your ceilings are at least 8 feet high and that your burner isn’t positioned high off of the ground. If you are deadset on brewing inside your garage anyway, here are some important safety tips to consider: It would just take one lapse in attention for something to catch on fire and if you couldn’t put the fire out quickly enough the whole house could go up in smoke! Combustible materials that are normally stored in a garage (such as gasoline or oil) are too close to the flame.Īll of these situations are very easy to imagine and likely impossible to prevent completely. Clothing or brewing packing make contact with the flame and catch on fire. The propane burner is knocked over and lands against the structure of the house. If it’s drywall, that’s at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. The ceiling inside the garage gets too hot and eventually catches on fire. If you are brewing beer inside your garage, then there are any number of ways that a fire could start: A propane burner could cause a fire inside the garageĪnytime there is an open flame you will have to worry about the possibility of something catching fire. There are two major issues with using a propane burner inside a garage: the flame could cause a fire and the carbon monoxide produced could be poisonous.
Plus, butane is a lot more expensive than propane and you will be using a fair amount on brew day. While you could use something like an electric hotplate or even a butane burner, these options are way less practical from a brewing standpoint than using a traditional propane burner. Dangers of brewing in the garage with propaneĪs I said before, you will need a heat source during your brewing process and if you are out in the garage there are only a few options. Let’s see why propane would be dangerous to burn inside the garage. With that being said, tons of brewers report using a propane burner in their garage for years without any issues. If you choose to brew your beer in the garage with a propane burner then you are putting yourself in your home at risk.
While they do a great job outdoors, these burners are not designed to be used inside a house or even an enclosed area with a ceiling, such as a garage. Unfortunately, the most common heat source that homebrewers use outside of the kitchen is a propane burner. In fact, it’s very common for brewers to set up a little ‘brewery’ inside their garage so that they can keep all of their equipment together and not have to cart everything back and forth on brew day. To brew beer you just need the proper equipment and ingredients along with a heat source that can bring your water up to the correct temps for mashing, sparging, and boiling the wort. There is no beer-related reason why you couldn’t brew beer in your garage. A propane burner could cause carbon monoxide poisoning.A propane burner could cause a fire inside the garage.
Dangers of brewing in the garage with propane.