The biggest problem you will have is water freezing up on you. Last year I was so busy with other things that I had to put off brewing a beer to go into a barrel with some other brewer’s beers until this time of the year. The day I brewed, the high temp for the day was 11oF. I ran water from my utility room out to the garage where I brew. My hose kept freezing and I had to keep switching back & forth b/w hot and cold water. I was slipping & sliding where water had gotten on the sidewalk b/w the garage and the house. It was sunny out, yet miserable. I was exhausted by the end of the session. I swore to never brew in temps that cold again.
I love to brew in the winter. If I didn’t I would probably have to move or brew less :o Neither is an option 
I bring my propane tank inside in the winter. Definitely helps. There have been discussions on here about the importance of chilling times. I find the huge snow banks in my yard make great natural chillers. Not as fast as other chillers, but free is good too. I have run my immersion chiller in the utility sink, but I also fill up the sink with snow so I am chilling the inside and outside. Works great.
I always thought this is why all the REALLY good seasonals/hard to find stuff comes out in the winter…
Personally… I hang up my paddle until it gets above freezing and head to my local craft beer purveyor for INSPIRATION 
We just finished brewing in 55F and we were b****ing about the cold 
I do almost all my brewing in this kind of weather. I have a great setup since we put on an addition a few years back. I have a workshop in the new basement with a walkout to a patio. I mash and sparge in the shop and only cook outside. For Christmas 2010 my wife gave me a Green Egg Remote Thermometer so I don’t even go outside to check water temps. ;D
I bring the kettle into the basement and hook my IC to the old laundry cold water spigot.
The biggest problem I’ve had was last Monday (MLK Jr. Day) when it started raining. Luckily I have a portable awning that my son and I setup over the kettle.
I made wind shields out of 8" flashing and pop rivets that sit on the ground around the cooker stand to stop my flame from going out.
Paul
I’m brewing in Fairbanks, AK. I heat my water outside but bring the mash inside. Haven’t had any problems with boiling. I’m sure if I timed it I would see that it takes a little bit longer to come to temp but doesn’t seem like a noticeable difference to me. I set up the burner near a window where I can keep an eye on it and periodically go out and check on it. I do haul the hot kettle inside to run my immersion chiller which is a pain but I don’t have a way to run water outside where I live. For me living here winter is a good time to brew despite the cold. The summers are so short and there is so much stuff to do it is hard to find brew time.
Anyone try FyreWrap? http://www.fyrewrap.com/files/Fyrewrap-Grease-Duct-Insulation-EZ-15.pdf
It looks like the ceramic insulation covered with aluminum.
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With the number of rainy days we get per year, not brewing in the rain eliminates a lot of weekends! I brew when I can, weather be damned. Snow, rain, sunny, windy, even when the power was out. ;D
It’s only what -21 F in minnesota!? I’m with everybody man up! But that’s coming from me in Colorado where it’s 40+ ;D
I would just insulate the kettle and maybe even the cooler, brew in the garage with a carbon monoxide monitor and the door cracked.
On the up side you don’t have to worry too much about a wort chiller! Mother nature is taking care of that for you.
You must be in the part of Colorado that’s basically Kansas.
Maybe 40+ degrees is a nice trade off for being “basically Kansas”.
Sorry, I couldn’t stop myself.
Paul
I have brewed in the elements a lot - snow, wind, cold. But I took the easy route yesterday when was doing an all grain black IPA. I brewed inside and not in the 18f, albeit sunny weather.
My rationale: besides wimping out a bit, I thought it was silly not to capture heat and humidity output inside house instead of both just going into cold air outside. I’m running a humidifier inside along with normal house heating, why not recapure brew outputs like a brewery would do? With wind, even with a wind screen around pot, more propane would be needed then normal. Why battle elements when not necessary.
My 10gal brew pot fits on the electric stove and heats up fine. I’m not convinced heating the 7 gal took any longer inside then my gas set up outside fighting wind and teen temps. I may have lost some time chilling, but only took 25 minutes inside with IC and 48f tap water. Bonus was easier recovery of waste hot H2O for cleanup and excess to washing machine.
Of course, this works out given I have room on my stove.
Yes, I’m a frugal bastard
That’s gotta be one heck of an electric stove. Do all the neighbors lights dim when you fire that thing up?
So after seeing a weather report on Friday night saying the wind chill was going to be -13 F on Sunday, I bagged it this weekend. So Sunday comes and it is a calm, not so frigid ( about 20 F ) day.
#&$%^#@# weatherman!!!
It did get down to -10F last night. This morning I did the trick where you throw hot water in the air and it turns to snow instantly…pretty cool ( no pun intended ).
Oh well…maybe next weekend.
I can brew inside my garage, with the door open a bit, HLT and RIMS mash are electric, but I have to clean up outside although I have warm water from the utility sink. Anyone know where to get insulated waterproof brewing gloves?
:-) Just a standard Kenmore glass topped one. In good weather, the gas burner is faster. I’m only heating 7 gallons .
I have just enough clearance for the brew pot below the microwave.
+1 Try and find bacteria and other critters floating around in sub 0 temps! A longer than usuall chill probably has minimal effect.
[quote]Anyone know where to get insulated waterproof brewing gloves?
[/quote]
Home Depot has orange waterproof gloves with a fuzzy inside, you can wear the thin fabric ones inside them…
Hey you moved to the windward side of the range, we chose the leeward side. Yeah it’s prone
to drought, mostly tan all year. But I makes for a fantastic ski day when you can come down
the hill and golf or bar-b-que in shorts. Been there done that…
I’m in central IL and brew outdoors too. Usually, I get my last brew in around Turkey day and then shut down until April or so. The winter months seem to bee too danged busy anyway. This year though, I had one batch I had been trying to squeeze into the end of '10 that I didn’t get done. Family activities, work, and mostly weather kept pushing me around. IL’s winter got off to an early start this year :P Finally, Saturday, I had room in the schedule and the weather wasn’t too bad - high in the low 30’s. Like several others have said, I move into the garage when the weather isn’t the best. The only real side affect I notice is a little more boil off than usual due to the dry air. I take the extra step to wrap my MLT in a blanket when it’s colder. The upside, I don’t need ice for my chiller - I just shoveled snow in the bucket! 8) I was thinking during my brew this weekend that I must have hit some sort of brewing-induced psychosis - standing there in a parka and snow boots brewing in January in IL ::) Good thing I got it in, though - 12 in. :o forecast for Tuesday - yipee !