Brewing room design

I have a small room (11.5 x 16.5 ft) that I've decided to turn into my brewing hq, but the vast amount of decisions to be made are already keeping me up...
This is my preliminary (and poorly drawn) placement ideas:


The Lab is where my microbiologist wife will provide me with fresh and wonderful yeast.
The lagering fridge is a modified vertical fridge that serve me as lagering cellar.
The brewing stand is fixed and made of wood and bricks.

What would you change? Will it work?

what is the "stand"

I've always heard to be wary of bottling near where you do your grain milling due to lacto on the dust that inevitably gets everywhere. Not sure if thats a boogeyman or not, just something that came to mind when I saw your layout

zepolmot said:

I've always heard to be wary of bottling near where you do your grain milling due to lacto on the dust that inevitably gets everywhere. Not sure if thats a boogeyman or not, just something that came to mind when I saw your layout

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Heck... since he is building a brew room from the ground-up, AND he has his own in-house bio-chemist, maybe he should just put a vent hood above his milling table to exhaust all the dust!:cross:

+1 Not milling where you play with yeast & bottling.

Things change a lot, so if it was my room I'd put everything on wheels so I could move as needed. Obviously sink probably stays as is.

Your room will be awesome, therefore I hate you...

Right, milling will stay outside on the wall with no windows then.
That "Stand" is primarily my bottling stand.

About going mobile, that would increase a lot the costs of the project...

rgcalsaverini said:

I have a small room (11.5 x 16.5 ft) that I've decided to turn into my brewing hq,...............The Lab is where my microbiologist wife will provide me with fresh and wonderful yeast.

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You have my envy on two fronts.

samc said:

+1 Not milling where you play with yeast & bottling.
Things change a lot, so if it was my room I'd put everything on wheels so I could move as needed. Obviously sink probably stays as is.

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Are you planing on using an electric set up to brew inside? If so I'm guessing that you will need to vent the steam anyway. Everything being on casters would be nice as you could move your mill under the same hood.

Your wife is a microbiologist AND supports your brewing to the point she is willing to let you build this room and work for you?!
There's no chance you guys are polygamists, are you?

Okay, then my mill table will be wheeled and I'll push it outside when its milling time, this way it wont be exposed to the weather and I wont fill the room with nasty infected dust.

bstux said:

Are you planing on using an electric set up to brew inside? If so I'm guessing that you will need to vent the steam anyway.

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I'm pending towards propane or natural gas, its cheaper and its what I've always used. I know very little about ventilation mechanics and equipment, and frankly I just realized how important that would be with that layout I'll inform myself.

Copperpots_Brewing said:

Your wife is a microbiologist AND supports your brewing to the point she is willing to let you build this room and work for you?!
There's no chance you guys are polygamists, are you?

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Sorry, that's illegal on my neighborhood. But to be honest she's not quite wife yet, so you might have a shot

i like the set up. I wish i had a space like this. I would move the bottling stand to that unlabeled section next to the brew stand. This frees up the middle room which will make it feel less cramped and easier to clean. Also if you are going to do Propane or NG i would make sure you have a good vent system that way you don't have CO issues. Also haveing a CO monitor would be a good idea. Good luck!

rgcalsaverini said:

I'm pending towards propane or natural gas, its cheaper and its what I've always used. I know very little about ventilation mechanics and equipment, and frankly I just realized how important that would be with that layout I'll inform myself.

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Yea, I was looking into electric because I have gotten tired of dragging around propane cylinders and given I'm going to move in another 6-12 months having natural gas hoked up is not really an option for me. From what I saw electric is comparable to natural gas in cost and both are less than propane. I can understand if you have already built a brew stand or something and there is additional cost to switching over. Oh and when(plan for the worst) I screw up I would rather deal with a mold issue rather than a fire ball issue. Just my $.02, would love to see some pictures of the space and what is in there so far.

+1 on the conversion to electric. sure beats having to run a gas line or having propane tanks inside.

You're definitely going to need an exhaust fan. You're going to produce at least a gallon of water vapor over the course of an hour. You need to get it out of that room.

Also think about moving the brew stand and the sink closer together. I'm assuming you're using some type of wort chiller that needs cold water. You don't want to have hoses running across the room.

Well, this I were I am so far...

I will definately get some good ventilation.
And about the sink being far from the brew stand, I will have a water line runing trough it, so not an issue...

So I actually did it!
Still a lot to go, but at least I already have four walls and a roof

Everything changed a LOT, and those drawings up there are outdated and mean nothing anymore, I'll post the new designs as soon as I can to know what you guys think.
But mostly:
- I decided to go 1bbl, hell, I have the space, why not?
- Ill go electric, bstux and brickout were quite right about costs and complexity, actually.
- Ill build a small cold chamber to hold the fermenters.
- Ill build a full lab with microscope, autoclave and batmobile
- The room is now with around 242 sq ft.
- Now everything will be on wheels (not the sink, obviously) as suggested by samc
- Ill get some mean vent system, as suggested by, well, everybody.

There's still a lot to do, but I believe I'm at least halfway there!


By rcalsaverini at 2012-08-31


By rcalsaverini at 2012-08-31

My soon-to-be amazing glass collection =)


By rcalsaverini at 2012-08-31

Now that is one awesome brew room from the outside it looks very cool!
But really hate you now after seeing the coconut trees!

Very nice, subscribed

I'm also very happy with the results! There is not much to show on the inside right now, but by the end of September I hope to have big surprises.
Yeah, living on a tropical country have it's benefits, like a lifelong provision of fresh coconuts

Awesome! I'm green with envy.

Subscribed so I can find out where you will park the Batmobile

I want one now

I have a similar space and was hoping to get some ideas.. but the images do not load for me.. anyone else have that problem? Anywhere else I can find them?