: Ben,

: We're in the same setup (lots of drafts in the basement), so epoxying hasn't
: been an issue (MAS). But the beer brewing was enough of an issue that I
: came home with the ingredients for a batch and my lovely wife met me at
: the door with a spanking new propane burner and told me to boil outside. I
: was secretly thrilled.

: I suppose I deserved grief about brewing. When I was still fermenting in the
: coat closet, I decided to try to dry hop a batch. So I threw in some leaf
: hops, put in the stopper and the 3/8" blowoff tube, and let it go. I
: got a great karusen, huge cap, and those hop leaf floated up to the top.
: Hop flower leafs are somewhat wider than 3/8" (at least the variety I
: was using), and plugged up the blowoff tube. The yeast kept going, the
: pressure built up until BANG! the stopper blew up and foam spewed 6 feet
: up the wall and all over our coats. That batch finished the secondary
: fermentation in the basement.

Hey, this sounds familiar!
I'm now brewing out in the shop, separate from the house using the propane burner and a 3 tier stainless system I built for all grain. I still ferment in the house though to keep the temp constant. I had to skip brewing for a while because I was worried about the humidity from boiling screwing up the boat but happy to say I'm back on top of the supply demand curve and have plenty-o-beer in the fridge .
I have never dry-hopped in the primary though, I let it go for a week then rack to a secondary for another week and dryhop after transfering to the keg (5 gal soda) I drilled a hole in the out tube and hang a large tea ball from it for about a week before carbonating.

The only batch I've had do the big spew was a blackberry wine that I racked into the carboy too soon, it sprayed all up the wall and was dripping off the celing when I found it. What a sad way to go out.

Happy Brewing!!