[kgs]

Is it ok if a little rain/drizzle gets into my wort in the last few minutes of the boil? It's drizzly today, but nothing that would keep me from being on the deck (or at least right inside, with a direct view of the kettle 10 feet away). This is in a city, so it's probably not the cleanest rain possible.

Note, at 15 minutes, the boil-off should be great enough that loosely covering the pot won't risk a boil-over (3-gallon batch, 8-gallon pot). But I just wondered what other brewers do.

[ryang]

I've brewed in darn close to blizzard conditions.  Same principle... no big deal.

[majorvices]

I highly doubt there is any sort of beer spoiling bacteria or yeast in rain. Regardless, I'v e brewed in downpours and never had an issue. I've simply rigged up a tarp on those times when the rain was pouring hard. Never worried about light rain.

[tubercle]

I have got caught many, many times. Those afternoon thunderstorms in the south come up quick.

[jaybeerman]

Rain and snow are ingredients in every brew (you would think) I make but it's the wind that I hate. My solution, since I brew outside with no garage, was to make a mini shelter.  I cut two 4x8 sheets of treated ply in half (4-4x4 sheets) and used short sections of 2x to make a quick box (three sides one top).  Can be assembled in a few minutes and just as easily disassembled.  Cheers, j

[ryang]

Rain and snow are ingredients in every brew (you would think) I make but it's the wind that I hate. My solution, since I brew outside with no garage, was to make a mini shelter.  I cut two 4x8 sheets of treated ply in half (4-4x4 sheets) and used short sections of 2x to make a quick box (three sides one top).  Can be assembled in a few minutes and just as easily disassembled.  Cheers, j

For the wind, I use a big cardboard box and just set the whole thing over the brew kettle.  The lid is open to the top, but sits probably 8-10" above the top of the kettle.  Works great and assembly and break down take about 10 seconds.  No fires yet...

[tschmidlin]

I usually just don't worry about it.  It might rain here a lot (frequency), but it doesn't rain a lot (volume) usually.  If it gets really bad I'll set up a baking sheet over the top of the keggle with enough room for the steam to get out but very little rain to get in.

[kgs]

Rain and snow are ingredients in every brew (you would think) I make but it's the wind that I hate. My solution, since I brew outside with no garage, was to make a mini shelter.  I cut two 4x8 sheets of treated ply in half (4-4x4 sheets) and used short sections of 2x to make a quick box (three sides one top).  Can be assembled in a few minutes and just as easily disassembled.  Cheers, j

This proved prophetic. :-) The rain was tolerable, but the wind kept blowing out the flame. I gave up and did this on the stove (small batch, so this actually was feasible). I'll make a mini shelter myself, possibly out of hinged auto drip pans--something cheap, lightweight, and flameproof.