My brew Space.

**Orfy** · 01-23-2007, 07:58 AM

I live in a small 1930 semi. Only me and the two dogs but It's difficult to fit our life's acquisitions in. We have multiple interest and hobbies. No Garage our Shed is 3'x6' and need to hold home and vehicle maintenance items, garden equipment, camping equipment and other miscellaneous stuff into it.
Our spare bed room has 2 desks in and the 2 dog beds.
The kitchen only just fits what we need in for cooking and utensil storage.
The "Dining room" has to fit a dinning table a washer and freezer in.

The question is....where the hell do I keep my brew gear. I'm seriously limited in kit and capacity by storage. Maybe that's a good thing.

Apart from $$$ and maybe time, do you have any constraints on your brewing?

Here's my brew world.
Here's the kettle Storage/Possible Future Brewery set up.
I have 2 storage bins near the shed, one for pails and kit not in use and one for bottles.

My Outside Boil area

My Storage Cupboard. 50lb grain bag lives in a closet under the stairs with the dog food.

My work, fermenting and beer Storage area.(I use the table for measuring ingredients)

I just Have to figure out where to fit a kegerator!

disaffected · 01-23-2007, 08:07 AM

I'm constrained. I brew outdoors on a small patio area surrounded by BBQ pits and no cover overhead. I'm forced to be a fair-weather brewer. My small house is overflowing with junk, so I ferment my beers in a carboy that sits in an ice chest next to the dog's bed in the den with a towel draped over the top to keep the light out. I have to condition my beers in my darkroom. I stack my cases of conditioning bottled beer in one of the bathrooms.

I've got my eye on a 38 acre ranch about an hour from here. That would solve everything for me, but I can't quite swing the $650k asking price.

You wouldn't happen to have a clone recipe for that Old Speckled Hen, would you?

**Orfy** · 01-23-2007, 08:09 AM

I might just have.

I'll post it in recipes.

Brewiz · 01-23-2007, 09:41 AM

Man do I feel lucky, I have a 16x16 shed that I do my brewing in and store household JUNK in. I plan on adding on to it to make more room for the brewery.
As you can see there is quite a lot of room:

Hops-4-Life always as to kiss the MLT.....

Orfy, I tip my hat to you. To go thru that much to brew show how great your passion is!!

abracadabra · 01-23-2007, 11:35 AM

the UK and USA 2 people seperated by a common language. What is a "semi"
over here it's a tractor-trailer rig.

dcbrewmeister · 01-23-2007, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nkonkle

the UK and USA 2 people seperated by a common language. What is a "semi"
over here it's a tractor-trailer rig.

Hummmm... I'm in the US and was curious what he meant - I think he just means it's small.

When I was living in town, my kitchen was a 6 x 6 room. You could stand in the middle hold your arms out and touch both walls, turn 90° and touch both walls - and picture this - IT HAD 2 WAYS TO GET INTO IT!!!! A 6' lenth of counter top with a double sink, a narrow stove and a full sized fridge. That was my brew area, everything was just an arms length away.

My landlord (even though he was a drunk) caught me brewing outside one day and told me if I ever did it again, he would give me 30 days notice and throw me out - funny thing, all he legally would have to do is give me 30 days notice and it would be legal - no reason, just a notice. He didn't care if it was legal or not (brewing) just stated he didn't want to ever see it going on, didn't care if I did it inside - people are crazy. I think he thought people would think I making "meth".

trinitone · 01-23-2007, 01:08 PM

I'm guessing Orfy means semi-detached. Mine is fully attached and I also have a bit of a space constraint. I currently brew in my kitchen which is pretty damn small. I do have a small basement that is home to all of our extra stuff, w/d, dishwasher, water heater, furnace, etc. As you can guess, it doesn't leave much room for brewing stuff. I currently have a primary next to my bed and cases of bottles stacked on the washer and dryer. I'll have to get a pic and post it but it Orfy's pics give a good idea of what it's like.

**Yooper** · 01-23-2007, 01:44 PM

I've got a pretty big old house- I store all my stuff with hundreds of bottles in the basement and brew in my kitchen. I'm brewing on my stove, but my stove is too far from the sink to use the wort chiller. I'd have to get a 15 foot hose connected to it. So, I'm planning on doing two 1/2 boils so I can carry the hot wort to the sink. My basment is too cold for fermenting ales, so I am doing a lager in a cooler in the basement (nice 40 degrees, and the frozen water bottles take it to a steady 34 degrees), ales in the office or kitchen, and I have 5 cases of beer here in the office because that's the warmest room in the house at 65 degrees. I store my conditioned beer in my laundry room because that's about 57 degrees by the door. Of course, in the summer, this is all reversed. The fermenting ales go in the laundry room or basement, etc. But it works for me right now.

Lorena

**olllllo** · 01-23-2007, 03:14 PM

Most of us in the southwest are basement challenged, so most of the storage has to be in the garage. I brew outside. Even when its 118°.

I'm looking to create some sort of teirs with an outdoor fireplace and grilling area that we are planning in the back yard.

Ryan_PA · 01-23-2007, 03:33 PM

I have a basement. 3/4 of the room is finished nicely as a living room. There is a door on the back wall that leads into the other 1/4 of the room. That is the workshop/storage/brew shack. I am slowly downgrading the amount of storage and upgrading the amount of brewing space. it works for me for the day to day brewing activities, but the actual mashing and boiling occur outside on the deck.