Brewery Layout

I found this link in the latest BYO, its a powerpoint presentation from Blichmann at the 2010 AHA conference. Some good stuff.

Especially since im gonna start working on getting this room cleaned out and use it as my brewery. Its a room that is currently just being used for storage. At one point it was a make shift dairy for this barn, i dont know exactly what they used the trough in the floor for though. Its a really big room, prolly gonna partition it off and only use some of it. What do ya think? ideas/planning/ design ideas for this space? any other resources that would help me design and make the best use of this area?

ok. havnt quite figured out how to post pictures yet. heres a link to the photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69078493@N04/

Without seeing it, my guess is the trough in the floor was just behind the back feet of the cows, and was where the, uh, manure, landed when nature called to the cow.

ya the whole floor slopes into the trough, and there is a drain at the farthest end. It'll work great for spraying everything off with a hose when its time to clean. forgot about how much junk was in there till i posted the photos

I see it now...that's what it was for sure.
That will make a great brewery!

there's some serious potential here!

Hopefully i can start cleaning it out tomorrow. Ill power wash it down and then epoxy the floor. then ill start deciding how ill divide up the rooms.

Save the fridge and the propane tank - they should come in handy!

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20174654,00.html
Might be cool to put down a epoxy coating.

A bit of advice; get some old school graph paper and make it to scale for your brew space. Then to scale highlight where the trough is located in the room. Also be sure to locate windows and doors on your graph paper.

Then cut out other pieces of graph paper to scale of the equipment you want in the room (ferm chambers, brew sculpture, sink, kegerator, shelving, etc) and label them.

Lastly, place all of your "equipment" onto the graph paper to see where everything will fit, what your clearances will be, etc. Play with it for a while. Once you have a layout you think you like, leave it for a few days and then come back to it.

Good luck. That is an amazing space to have to work with for a brewery!

I'm very excited to see this project progress! Keep the updates coming.

is that floor trough just dirt? it might not make such a great floor drain if it's just dirt. Other than that I see a lot of cleaning in your future. then after that I see a sweet brewery.

You're a lucky man to have that building for your brewery.

cyberbackpacker said:

A bit of advice; get some old school graph paper and make it to scale for your brew space.

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Graph paper! Psht... model that stuff in a CAD application! Seriously though, plan it right and you won't be disappointed.

Also, I'm jealous. That's a dream project you've got right there.

Looks like a great building with much potential. After the cleanup and build Im sure you will have a sweet brewery working. Keep us updated, I cant wait to see the finished product.

You could easily put a thin layer of concrete throughout the trough then cover it with tile, brick, or some other type of masonry, THEN that trough will be subperb for a hose down in a brew shed!!

Finally got a chance to clean the room out. Floor is in good shape. The trough is conncrete on the bottom. The only drain that works (there are 4) is the drain in the bottom of the trough. It shouldnt be a problem to fix the others though.
From the front door

from the back


Dimensions


Had one small setback though. The roof is leaking a little and rotted a few boards out of the ceiling. Which, btw is 4" tongue in grove. i think you can see some of it in the picture The stuff has probably been there 50 years and was in great shape except for those few pieces. So, i had one of my guys go in to remove the rotten boards to fix the leak. Well evidently he misunderstood and removed and burned the ENTIRE ceiling. that stuff is crazy expensive. So now i may be down to a cheap plywood.

So tommorow ill start back on getting the water ran in the room and start planning where im gonna put everything. I need to get the design layout so i can decide where to run the water lines and electric. Ill probably put a grate over the trough so it still drains but i can walk over it

Ya know, I was a bit envious before you cleaned it...now I'm flat-ass jealous! What a cool brewery that's going to be!

That will be a sweet set up. I agree, keep the fridge and tank. I'd love to have a tank for brewing like that. Save you a bunch of trips, should be about $100 to fill it up. Put you a wood burning stove in there to stay warm in the winter months. This has a lot of potential.

I have a big tank outside for the gas. I love wood burning stoves, but for simplicity ill prolly put a few gas stoves or somethin in there on a thermostat. Ill run the gas lines straight to the heaters and the boil kettle. im sitting here studying the layout trying to decide on how i want this thing layed out. Im considering spliting it up. Maybe even a bar. I know ill need to build some kind of walk in cooler. Ive been searching craigslist for a large sink. everytime i find one it wells before i can get to it.

the fridge has been out for prolly 15 yrs. it was a makeshift tool chest.

Beautiful potential! Very jealous. Before you even mentioned the ceilings, I noticed them. Very cool...at least they used to be. Sorry to hear about the communication difficulties.

Good luck, and please keep us posted on the progress.

Looks like a great start! Very interested in how you lay it out!

Made some progress on the room... Have the roof done, new doors, electrical started and the water ran in. Craigslist has definitely been my friend lately. Found a BUNCh of stainless sinks table cabinets and drawers for a great price and this 6x6 wood walk in that was built sometime in the 50's. Newer compressor came with it.

Now i need to decide on some material for the ceiling. I would like to do some stained car siding, but thats gonna get pretty expensive for such a big room. Maybe corrugated tin? Any other ideas?

To me the ceiling looks kind of low, how does it look open?, like a vaulted ceiling, it would improve airflow. I am looking at plastic shower board for right over my brew system, to keep the steam off the rafters. A couple of ideas. And I am also jealous....some day

Here is some of the stainless i picked up... got the whole lot for 900. I would really like to do a vaulted ceiling, but I'm afraid that would require completely removing the rook and starting over. the ceiling is really low though. I think I'm just gonna go for car siding.

parkerhd36 said:

got the whole lot for 900.

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First of all, this is freaking sweet. But are you missing a zero? Did you really get all of that for $900? If so you practically stole it!

yup. 900. Some of it is rusted pretty bad underneath. Ill have to weld a few legs back together, and there 2 more tables that aren't in the pic. I was pretty excited about that find

amazing thread!

love it! wish it was mine! maybe later... keep us in the loop

THings are starting to come together. I pretty well have the cabinets and sinks where i want them, gonna start running the water lines to them tomorrow. I decided to just put the big 3 bay over the trough. That way i also don't have to do as much running in between. I still can't really decide how i want to set up there brewing system. The way i have it in this pic the boil kettle and burner is in a sink that i may not use. Or i could move everything towards that corner.... maybe build a burner stand on the floor in between the cabinets on that back wall for the boil. I can't decide where would be the best place. I also have to consider the location of the chilling station and a range hood...



Here is one shot of the other side of the room with the walk in. Man that thing was a b***h to put together. I still have to strip and stain it.


and still have a LOT of cleaning to do

All the SS gives me a chub.....too cool!:rockin: any updates?

Wow!!!!!! Super jealous...

Yeah this is kick butt looking good can't wait to see further progress keep us posted thanks.

Ive been out of town the last few weeks - hunting trip in Illinois and then a business trip to vegas. Havnt had a chance to get much more done. Hope to hit it hard again tomorrow.

Subscribed. :rockin:

Awesome project. Enjoy it.

subbed

bluenose said:

subbed

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me too!

Jaysus said:

me too!

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I am going to sub into this one as well. One of the best threads I have seen so far

Wow. Outstanding space you have there.