Hunter's Basement E-Brewery Build

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hunter306

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QUICK LINKS (IF YOU'RE NEW TO THREAD):
1) Start Building the Brewery Area (keep scrolling down!)
2) Brewery Area finished (Click Here!)
3) Cutting the Control Panel Enclosure (Click Here!)
4) Populating the Control Panel Door (Click Here!)
5) Starting wiring the Control Panel (Click Here!)
6) Labeling the Control Panel (Click Here!)
7) Control Panel completed! (Click Here!)
8) Plumbing the Clean-Up Area, Filter, Wort Chiller. (Click Here!)

So, we started building a Kal inspired 3-pot E-herms brewery in my basement-shop this weekend. My brother and I got started framing out the work area and the sink with the plans to have a place to start setting up the electric equipment in the coming weeks. :rockin:

I'm trying to document the build along the way, so this is what the space looked like when we started (the white is just insulation tacked to the basement wall by the builder when we bought the house). This served as my CNC Router area for a while, but is now going to be the brewery/kegerator area!

Brother and my dog taking down the insulation footer boards.
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Lowes run.
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Cutting and rolling the existing insulation for reuse:
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Bare Walls, with my 220v plug for the panel:
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Me, Putting up the new moisture barrier/hard foam insulation:
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Letting the adhesive set up:
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Installing the pressure treated base board for the wall. We used a Ballistic Nailer to attach it, and that was a blast... no pun intended. Found that the nails were a bit short, so we did end up using more than would normally be necessary to firmly secure it.

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More to come...
 
Framing the first wall... More obnoxious than expected due to the cheap 2x4's we picked up which were bowed and cupped like crazy.
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Short section in place:
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Longer section finished, and both walls shimmed to level and fastened to the wall with Tapcon screws. Because the wall didn't extend full height, we opted to fasten it directly to the cement to ensure a nice sturdy place to connect the upper portion which will be boxed in. Added the sink for reference:
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More to follow...
 
Connecting the water lines from the main run proved pretty easy with the pex pipes that we have. The source looks like this:

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I made a couple of staggered pigtails with shutoffs to tie in, so that we could turn the water back on to the house while we continued the build:

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Extending the connections to the wall:

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And then we got back to framing, finishing around the main drain pipe from the upper floors. To save space, we laid the 2x4's flat rather than edge wise. Also added outlet locations at either end of the brew station, as well as a switch box for the Hood Fan and a junction for the hood fan:
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Added 2x8's across the length of the wall at table height to allow firm mounting points for the work surface. Also added them in other areas to allow for Brewery Panel mounts, Water Filters, Wort Chiller Faucet, etc. We labeled vertical positions so they could be referred to later when the wall is closed up:

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More to come....
 
We ended up starting to throw the backer panels up (these will be covered with white waterproof pvc panels) before we realized that we had forgotten the old insulation we intended to reuse... That still needs to be rectified.

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So, this week I'm going to stuff the walls with the insulation and I expect we'll be picking the project up again next weekend and nearing some functional space. :D
 
How are you planning to vent everything? Our basement is 80% finished, but the unfinished area has all the water, drain, NG to hook into. Venting it outside it the biggest issue I foresee on top of space since the unfinished area is only 6' wide, overhead duct work, etc. so not a lot of room to work with but it would get all my brewing, fermenting and storage in the basement instead of part in the garage and part in the basement
 
The venting is already partially done for me, I have a 3.5" fresh air make-up vent already installed above the sink and piped outside. The hood fan will be piped up in between the rafters and similarly out the side of the house, as any point above the concrete wall you see in these pictures can be cut and vented as an exhaust. Because it's all electric, I'm not really worried about moving any potentially hazardous exhaust build up, I just want to remove the steam to prevent mildew/mold issues.
 
Tore the backer panels that we hastily applied off the wall this evening and stuffed the wall with insulation. Ready to move forward with the project tomorrow!

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Finished up with the backer panels this evening and spent a little bit of time re-engineering the drain cleanout access panel. Previously, we had a little step out where that was that just didn't sit right with me. I went back to the drawing board tonight and fixed that up. The whole lower portion lifts out to provide continued cleanout access.

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Here it is, ready for the Fiberglass paneling this weekend. Then comes the actual fun stuff... :rockin:

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Thanks for all the comments, with all the info here and on theelectricbrewery.com it's been a little more straightforward to try and build this out.

The pull down sprayer and the stainless sink came from Webstaurantstore.com, the sink was about 220, the faucet was about 180.
 
Looks good. Going through the same thing here right now. Finishing up plumbing tomorrow and need to run one more outlet for the vent fan. Drywall after that, vent hood install, some tiling and then kettles and panel will hopefully be in.

Do you have kettles and control panel already?
 
@Roadie: Yes, I do have the kettles and some of the electronics, but I haven't started working on that yet! I would like to get the supporting infrastructure done before I get the actual brewing stuff started, so I'm not tempted to do a batch amid the construction! :cross:

@swack: Not sure who Ryan is, we went through a local builder out here in South East Michigan.
 
First, I must have gotten something on the lens, so these came out a bit cloudy! I'll get that cleaned up....

A mid afternoon update while I stuff down a few slices of pizza for lunch. Unfortunately, my help was only able to stick around for about 4 hours today, so we tried to attack the stuff I knew I couldn't do myself just for shear physical size.

These Fiberglass panels are way heavier than they look, and once you mud them up with the FRP Adhesive, they're like wet noodles.

Me applying the FRP Adhesive. MESSY STUFF.
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Measuring outlet holes:
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The divider pieces are super handy, they cover rough edges and make it very easy to square up the big 4x7 sheets.

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Finished up with the big panels:

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@Roadie: Yes, I do have the kettles and some of the electronics, but I haven't started working on that yet! I would like to get the supporting infrastructure done before I get the actual brewing stuff started, so I'm not tempted to do a batch amid the construction! :cross:

@swack: Not sure who Ryan is, we went through a local builder out here in South East Michigan.

hmmmm southeast mi...i may have to come borrow your brew system :) :mug:

looks great though, subscribed, cant wait to see what it looks like.
 
I wondered as in my instance it's a hurry up and wait scenario as the room will be ready but nothing to brew on. Looking forward to more pics/progress from you.
 
This is very relevant to what I will be starting first of the year.

Hunter - What is the size of that sink?
 
@ttownberwer: The sink basin is 17"x23", 12" deep. Overall dimensions are a bit larger, 22"x28.5", 44.75" high.
 
Working alone this afternoon, so progress was a little slow. Additionally, a lot of the work involved trimming and edging the FRP, so it was just time consuming. Here are a few shots of the progress!

Cutting the upper and lower panels for the box-out at the top of the wall:

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First half done. Found that tacking the nose moulding up helped to hold the panels while I glued them:

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Second half of the upper portion done:

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Caulking the inset moulding, the anal-retentive way... ;)

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And perhaps the most exciting part of this weekend, the stainless brew-table is here! Put that together and found that it will fit Ball Lock corny kegs on the lower shelf (adjustable height).

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hunter306 said:
Working alone this afternoon, so progress was a little slow.
Welcome to my world. I don't know what it's like to get help, though SWMBO did assist in painting the floor joists black as I'm not putting a ceiling in the space.

Looks good.
 
Cheers! I was disappointed not to have been able to finish up the wall today, but I'll get it wrapped up tomorrow. I'm not planning on finishing the ceiling in the brewery either, so the painted floor-joists are an interesting idea. I might have to look into that.

Do you just roll it on, or did you use a spray gun system?
 
Just used a regular roller and a brush for some areas. In flat black it really makes the ceiling vanish and I think it came out great.
 
A little different kind of productivity this evening. Took a break from building after my Wheat Pale keg finished out, pulled the last 2 beers off of the kegerator and it was done. Had a 'hybrid' Mexican Lager that I was experimenting with that had hit FG a while back @ 1.009 and it looked like it had cleared pretty well, so I racked it to the keg. Should be carbonated by Christmas.

The fermenter, nice and clean finish. Looks deceptively dark in this picture, in reality it pours a nice straw-color. I drank the sample I took for FG (uncarbed) and it's got a nice dry finish, that should be balanced out nicely once the carbonation adds a touch of acidity. Estimated the [email protected]% roughly. Was shooting for 4.5-4.6%, but came in a touch under on the OG during brew day, whoops.
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Working alone this afternoon, so progress was a little slow. Additionally, a lot of the work involved trimming and edging the FRP, so it was just time consuming. Here are a few shots of the progress!

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the purpose of the fiberglass panels? For moisture resistance?

Amazing build, btw -- thanks for documenting it. I really like the stainless sink and work table!
 
I originally chose them for moisture resistance and ease of clean-up. They can be basically wiped down with a wet rag after brew day and resist mold much more effectively than drywall would. If it wasn't these, I probably would have done some sort of tile but that was a bit outside my budget. Thanks for the compliments!
 
Small Update: Finishing up the column this evening, which continues to be a slow go. On the plus side, this is the final wall portion to need the FRP. Next, I need to cut out the drain tube access and then finish up the paneling on the access door over the drain cleanout.

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A quick update on the project, albeit, without pictures this morning. The paneling is finally done and I'm waiting for the adhesive to set up (about 12 hours) so I can continue working on the plumbing.

Yesterday evening I cut the access for the brewery's sink drain and paneled the drain-clean out door. I welded in a length of PVC pipe for the drain, so this evening I should be able to begin to do the final plumbing.

On a different note, I have now received ALL the required parts to build my electrical control panel and finish up the kettle modifications. Some good pictures of the brewing goodies to come in the next couple of updates, as I have a week or so off for the holiday and I'll have some extra time to devote to the project.

Thanks for looking!
 
I've been pushing hard to get the actual work area finished up, so this evening I spent time doing a few clean-up tasks.

Finished the Cleanout Access Panel and trimmed for the drain pipe (still not hooked up).

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Also caulked the rest of the inner corner moulding that needed to be sealed up from the upcoming boil kettle steam:

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Finished installing the outlets, fan control switch, and wall plates:

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I still have a few things to really wrap up this part of the build, one is to install the GFCI Breaker for the 120v utility plugs and fan. The second is to finish plumbing in the sink and the hookups for the hose, the water filter, and the shelving on the far end for equipment.

Stay tuned!
 
Well, since most of the construction work is done, I'm getting excited to start working on THIS beast of a project. I believe I have everything necessary to get going on the panel starting tomorrow!

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