100% year round garage brewer. Love not really having to deal with weather issues (rain, snow, wind, etc) except for heat/humidity in the summer and frigid temps in winter (Western NY south of Buffalo, Lake Erie). I have not had any issues with mold or moisture problems in my garage but I only brew 5 gallon batches at a time. Just leave the garage door about 1/3 open to allow for some airflow and CO escape from propane burning.
Having floor drains also is a real plus!
:) Smells great in the house for a couple days, too!
I wish my wife thought the same way ;D
+1
It is cool that it works for you, I hate kitchen brewing, I like to keep the mess in another area and find making larger batches more efficent for my time. You could consider that what works great for you may not for everyone.
Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks! I get that. Of course my process is the best. For me. Not for anyone else. But it’s certainly an option that some people just never seem to consider. Everyone brews the same way as Denny Conn or John Palmer or Jamil Z or whoever else. It seems to me so often that everyone is set to auto-pilot. Does it work? Sure it works! But so does my way. And nobody else seems to do it my way! Well, a few. But not many. It’s an option worthy of consideration. That is all.
Big +1 on this. I’ve developed a system that works great for me, and allows me brew 3-galon all-grain batches in my kitchen. This enables me to brew the beer I want to brew, as often as I like to brew, and makes the amount of beer that I typically consume in a reasonable period of time. If I listened to common wisdom when I started brewing, I would have never gotten into all-grain brewing and might have quit the hobby once I started getting bored with partial-boil 5-gallon extract batches.
Completely agree on this as well. I started with 2-3 gallon BIAB batches in the kitchen, gained more knowledge on the hobby, got a setup for 5 gallon batches outdoors with a propane burner and now I do both depending on all sorts of variables: type of beer, experimentation, time constraints, weather constraints, etc. Hell, I’ll do the occasional 1 gallon batch here or there to experiment because it’s so damn easy to do on a weeknight while other chores are getting done in the process. 30 min mash, 30 min boil and no need to lug out an immersion cooler when I’m done. Having the flexibility of several setups keeps the hobby fresh for me and keeps me brewing often.
Could it be that people (like me) HAVE tried it your way and prefer the “other” way? That’s it not about popularity but practicality?
I couldn’t care less what size batches somebody else brews. When I started brewing, most of the recipes and kits were scaled for 5 gallons, but I never found it very hard to scale a recipe down. And I did for some big beers because I didn’t necessarily always want 5 gallons of those, where 3 gallons seemed about right. But I do like having lots of 5 gallon kegs because that size batch on an average strength beer is just the right size batch for me and my friends and family to enjoy several of, then it’s gone and remembered fondly. The idea of people brewing an amount just because other people do is silly. We all do it our way.
Do we?
I would hope. Maybe not, Dave. I think newer brewers brew in ‘standard’ volumes because there’s so much info to absorb. Didn’t take me many batches to decide how much of something I wanted, though.
Smaller batches are just not worth it to me until I have a stable of 2.5 gallon kegs. I love the idea of smaller batches and have done some small batches that I bottled, but bottling sucks. Bottling small batches sucks even more.
El Niño winter has Ohio solidly above average temps through February, with much above average temps for December!!!
whoohoo outdoor December brewing in shorts baby!
I’ve been hearing the same. A mild winter sounds pretty damn nice !
Watch out for this. We didn’t have our first significant snowstorm in New England last year until late January (I think we were at 6 inches for the season). Then it snowed every other day, including a blizzard which dropped about 30 inches on us. We ended up with a season total above 100 inches (otherwise know as a mild winter in Buffalo 
)
not this year…looking real good thata-way
edit: caution dec-feb…you’re on the cusp.
I guess I wait and give my prediction in March 
I brewed zero beer last winter after January…too busy digging out every other day. I could definitely use a mild winter.
Indy is just into the ‘above average’ temp band. I sure hope we stay that way. It’s been all about the ‘polar vortex’ for the last few winters.
Looks like I need to get out of Dallas fast