Homebrewing demands space, and if you can’t dedicate enough room, you may find the limits.
However, the lack of room is usually only a problem when you brew a lot, so most people have enough room to enter homebrewing.
A room-size 12×12 is perfect for a real homebrewing setup, but people find a way to brew in way less than that. I started to brew with only the access to a small kitchen that could fit a single fridge, an oven, and a trash bin.
However, the most room is required for conditioning and storing, so if you don’t have a fridge you can dedicate to it, a 5-gallon batch may take too much space.
If you decide to take homebrewing seriously, experiment with different brews, and brew multiple batches simultaneously, this problem will need to be solved in advance.
In this article, I will talk about alternatives, how to save as much room as you can and what is the affordable way to create more room for your homebrew.
In short, how much room do you need to start to homebrew 5-gallon batches?
To start with homebrewing, on a brewing day you’ll need just as much space as you would need to cook chili. During fermentation, you’ll need no more than 5 square feet, and during conditioning and storing you’ll need enough room to fit around 40 one-pint bottles both at room temperature and around 50°F for a couple of weeks.
If you notice there’s a lack of room, you can simply brew less than 5 gallons.
Brewing for fun Vs making the hobby big
If you are a beginner homebrewer, you won’t need a dedicated room for your homebrewing because you’ll likely make no more than a 5-gallon batch from time to time. For this reason, if you have a cooking stove in the kitchen or an outside stove to brew outside, it’s enough to brew even with the all-grain method, but if you miss the kitchen or a terrasse you can still brew with extract kits and will only need a small 5 square feet room in a closet or a corner to fit your fermenter.
Next, you’ll need to fit the yeast requirements for temperature, so this depends on what temperature is available in the rooms you have. I use my bedroom which is set at room temperature and a fermenter fits in the closet.
Later, the only problem may occur during storage if you do not have a spare room in a fridge. However, in this instance, simply brew less than 2 gallons or as much as your fridge storage allows you. Another possibility is to store bottles in a cold room during winter, but it will limit you to brew only for a couple of months during a year unless you live in Antarctica, Siberia, or Canada.
The space is almost never a problem unless you want to brew often and brew using sophisticated methods and recipes.
If you want to build a dedicated homebrewing room and take the hobby to the next level, you’ll be able to fit everything in a 12x12ft room.
12×12 room will fit multiple fermenters, buckets, and the rest of the gear and you’ll still have plenty of room to move. This size of a room is a comfortable space for a small homebrewing setup if you want to take this hobby to the next level.
However, once again bear in mind that the more bottles you have, the more room you’ll need to store them.
How much room do you need during conditioning and storage
Conditioning is first done at room temperature because you want to carbonate the bottles with priming sugar. This is best done by leaving the primed bottles somewhere in the dark corner in your living room, bedroom, or any place with normal room temperature for 7-10 days.
At this stage, it shouldn’t be a problem to find a room because you can literally put them anywhere as long as the temperature is fine. If the sun is a problem you can simply cover the bottles with a blanket and use brown beer bottles (common and recommended bottles for beer because they protect beer from light the best).
The next stage is to transfer the bottles to a colder place and let them condition. This is also where you should store your bottles before consuming them, so consider this a permanent place.
You can deal with this in two ways, the first being a fridge and the second one a cool room like a garage or a cellar.
As long as the temperature is around 50°F with consistency your bottles will be stored well.
During winters and cold autumns, this temperature can easily be achieved almost everywhere, unless you also reside in the same room. For this reason, these seasons are great for natural storage, but during warmer seasons you’ll need a better solution.
Interesting fact: Lagers were invented for long chilly winters because they need time to ferment and condition in cold environments. They could easily be stored without technology and enjoyed during entire seasons. Naturally, as the warmer seasons would come, ales would become a priority in brewing.
When I started to brew, it was autumn and things were easy, but soon after I bought an old fridge and I dedicated it to my homebrew.
I can fit almost 80 1-pint bottles in it, and it’s more than enough for my needs. If I ever brew more for friends and family I give them the bottles and they finish the conditioning in their fridges.
Tips on how to save room when homebrewing
Use beer crates
Creates are absolutely mandatory for transporting the beer, but are also great for organizing beers in one place.
I like to fit 3 crates one on another in the fridge, and put the rest of the bottles between and on the side shelves.
You can buy crates, but you can also find crates at any local pub, restaurant, or coffee bar. Sometimes they want to get rid of them or you might find a way to obtain them from them for cheap. This is how I got mine alongside some used bottles I later cleaned and reused for my homebrew.
Use closets and shelves
Closets are a great place to fit a fermenter because they are dark and usually contain some unused space. Following the same logic, you could DIY a shelf for fermenters or bottles.
You can also place a fermenter or a carboy over one another and use the vertical room if you want to build homebrewing setups in a limited room.
Make a deal with friends and family
A fridge is a homebrewer’s best friend because once you start to homebrew different types of beers, ciders, and meads, you’ll easily run out of space.
For this reason, you can make a pact with friends and family and promise them some brews in exchange for their fridge room.
My grandma is not particularly happy when I show up with a crate of beer, but nevertheless, she always gets back in the mood once we crack her favorite craft lager.
Furthermore, I like to occasionally brew a crate and just gift it for the sake of it. I always receive something from them in the return due to good karma I guess.
Ferment longer
If your new batch is complete fermenting, but you still haven’t cracked all the bottles from the last time, let the beer wait.
You don’t have to hurry because nothing will happen to the beer in a primary fermenter if it waits another couple of weeks in there as I explained here in the dedicated article.
Secondary fermentation is another great option because you need to clear the beer anyways, so if you are only fermenting in the primary, try secondary fermentation.
Brew IPAs
IPAs can generally sustain heat better than other beers due to the high amount of hops. It’s not unusual to see IPAs at room temperature on the shelf in stores. So, if you brew IPA you’ll be able to hold it outside the fridge for another week or two, but do not go beyond this point because eventually, chemical reactions caused by heat will start to diminish its hoppy characteristics.
And yeah, you’ll have to cool it down a bit before you serve it.
Find old fridges at auction or garage sales
There are old fridges you can bid for and win for super cheap if you know where you are looking for.
You should be looking for old fridges from bars and restaurants because they always have more room than household models.
These fridges can be found at places you wouldn’t even think of, so check the garage sales and other unconventional places if you don’t want to cash out for a new fridge.
Fridges are amazing because they can also be used for fermentation when you can’t find right temperature for the beer style you are brewing.