Hoppo's E-Brewery Build

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Hoppopotomus said:
......oops, the first pic was supposed to be this one. I plan on building a hinged panel door on the base of the sink to hide the lower plumbing components, but still allow me to open it up to utilize the drain stopper handle.
Click to expand...

How much did that thing cost? I need a setup exactly like that, as I have no drain accessible. My brewery is going in my partially below grade garage.
 
TrainSafe said:
This is going to be one of the best looking builds ever.

Does that pump kick on automatically?
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Thanks, I'm pretty please with how it is turning out. Yes, it's simply a sump pump with a float (Zoeller M53) sitting inside of an above grade 5 gallon crock. It's made specifically for laundry basins, bar sinks, etc. where gravity drainage is not possible. It has a check valve to prevent backflow and ejects the contents up an 1 1/2" pvc pipe to the drain system above. I used a mechanical vent (air admittance valve) at the advisement of a plumber, but it doesn't work for this system. I wasn't getting good drainage, so I unscrewed the valve and it started draining immediately. I went back into the instructions for the pump and it states in small print that air admittance valves do not work effectively with this set up. Too bad I already installed it on the vent pipe, so it looks like I'm out $25 and have to vent out the back of my house. :mad:
 
Hoppopotomus said:
Thanks, I'm pretty please with how it is turning out. Yes, it's simply a sump pump with a float (Zoeller M53) sitting inside of an above grade 5 gallon crock. It's made specifically for laundry basins, bar sinks, etc. where gravity drainage is not possible. It has a check valve to prevent backflow and ejects the contents up an 1 1/2" pvc pipe to the drain system above. I used a mechanical vent (air admittance valve) at the advisement of a plumber, but it doesn't work for this system. I wasn't getting good drainage, so I unscrewed the valve and it started draining immediately. I went back into the instructions for the pump and it states in small print that air admittance valves do not work effectively with this set up. Too bad I already installed it on the vent pipe, so it looks like I'm out $25 and have to vent out the back of my house. :mad:
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So given the kind of waste you're going to have in this pipe... Do you really need a vent to the outdoors? The purpose of those things is pressure equalization right? Is there a secondary trap downstream before you connect to the drain line? I don't know code on this at all, just ruminating.

Other idea: could go run it parallel to your exhaust vent and maybe out that side of the house?
 
Great points. I spoke with a couple of patients of mine today that are in construction biz....one is a builder and one is an HVAC guy. They both brought up the same points as you. Since it's not a sewage pump or going to contain any other noxious waste, it really doesn't need to vented outside. The HVAC guy explained that the vent is for pressure equalization and although it calls for exterior venting, it's really not necessary. I think that the plumber was just trying to offset any potential for foul odors escaping from the vent by telling me to add the mechanical vent. From what I'm reading, there isn't really a vacuum effect created withing the crock to draw the necessary air in using a mechanical valve. Yeah, I may have to run it parallel with the hood exhaust vent pipe or just let it vent in the drop ceiling void above the brewery and monitor for any foul odor in my kitchen above. Thoughs?
 
I'd start easy and vent into your drop ceiling area like you suggested. If you're really worried don't go all the way up for a few months. If it is a problem then go to all the trouble to punch through the wall or run it across the house.
 
One other thought: the drain where you ran this too - how did you connect into it? Hard plumbed in or an open drop like at a commercial floor sink?

If you connected in a wall...there could be the vent for that drain nearby too right?
 
Carlscan26 said:
One other thought: the drain where you ran this too - how did you connect into it? Hard plumbed in or an open drop like at a commercial floor sink?

If you connected in a wall...there could be the vent for that drain nearby too right?
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I suppose you're right. My drain goes up the back wall to the floor joists of my main level and ties into the existing drain system above with hard plumbing (pvc Y coupler). I didn't think about looking around for a vent for my existing drain system, but I will now. Thanks for all of the great ideas! :mug: I would much rather tie into the existing vent (if there is one in the vicinity) as opposed to venting outside. The back of my house is starting to look like swiss cheese, as I have my furnace vent/intake, my high eff. hot water heater vent, my high eff. boiler system vent/intake, my direct vent gas fireplace in my FR, my ventilation hood vent, and now possibly this pump vent all going out of the back of my house. :drunk:
 
Would it be possible, feasible, and even mildly worthwhile to try and install a 3/4hp garbage disposal before the pump? Then you could dump all your spent grains into the sink, flip the switch, and everything would go away clean and simple...
 
Have you thought of donating the spent grains to a local farm? Or you have any friends with livestock of any kind? Rather than toss out your grains, you could put them to good use.

Just a thought. Wouldn't need any doodads for draining away your grains, and you'd be helping a farmer (and possibly get meat in return for your donations)
 
I don't live anywhere near a farm or farmland... and I doubt a farmer would want to drive any reasonable distance to my house to pick up 14lbs of spent grains on an irregular basis. I'd love to recycle them in that way, but I don't see it happening.
 
Boo.

Alternatively, spent grains can be used as bird-feed, or tossed into a composter ;) This is my inner-hippie coming out. I don't like tossing out anything that can be used for something else.
 
While I appreciate the sentiment, I can assure you that I'd recycle them if the opportunity presented itself. Maybe I'll see if the birds want them, once the weather is warm enough for there to actually be birds around. Until such time, I'm curious if Hoppo thinks a 3/4hp disposal married up to his extractor pump would make for an all-in-one brewery disposal system.
 
Hoppopotomus said:
I suppose you're right. My drain goes up the back wall to the floor joists of my main level and ties into the existing drain system above with hard plumbing (pvc Y coupler). I didn't think about looking around for a vent for my existing drain system, but I will now. Thanks for all of the great ideas! :mug: I would much rather tie into the existing vent (if there is one in the vicinity) as opposed to venting outside. The back of my house is starting to look like swiss cheese, as I have my furnace vent/intake, my high eff. hot water heater vent, my high eff. boiler system vent/intake, my direct vent gas fireplace in my FR, my ventilation hood vent, and now possibly this pump vent all going out of the back of my house. :drunk:
Click to expand...

Yeah that does sound like a small factory's worth of vents...snap a pic of them all on :drunk:
 
BadNewsBrewery said:
While I appreciate the sentiment, I can assure you that I'd recycle them if the opportunity presented itself. Maybe I'll see if the birds want them, once the weather is warm enough for there to actually be birds around. Until such time, I'm curious if Hoppo thinks a 3/4hp disposal married up to his extractor pump would make for an all-in-one brewery disposal system.
Click to expand...

Easy there fellas! :D I'm not sure if I like the idea of 20 lbs. of spent grains ending up in my septic tank everytime I brew. I just don't know what, if anything, it would do to my septic system. My plan is to simply toss the spent grains into a composter, along with my hop vines at the end of the season to serve as plant food for my hops garden. I have to take extra good care of my septic system, because if anything were to ever happen to my existing field I would be screwed. Although I have 2 1/2 acres, my lot is sand in the front where the septic field is located and solid clay in the back. I would have to install an engineered septic system if anything were to happen to my current one, so I'm paranoid as hell about everything that goes into my septic. Maybe justified, maybe not, but regardless.....I'm probably not going to take a chance. :mug:
 
Carlscan26 said:
Yeah that does sound like a small factory's worth of vents...snap a pic of them all on :drunk:
Click to expand...

Here ya go. Doesn't include the vent for my brewery ventilation hood or the vent for the sink pump that still need to get punched through the bond. Fireplace vent is just around the corner.

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I've had a long log sitting in my garage for a while now to rip down for the log trims on the ventilation hood. I got out my trusty table saw and went to work ripping it down. It did not go well at all. :smack: The log was slightly warped and as I was ripping it though it kept pinching the blade....even tripped the breaker 3 or 4 times. I had to keep progressively placing shims in the cut to keep the blade from pinching. Not to mention that the blade needs replacing and the log was too large in diameter for the table saw to get through on one end. It took me a good 1/2 hr. to rip one frickin log and I spent another hour knifing the log and rough sanding it. Made a hell of a mess in the lawn next to my walkout patio. It's supposed to snow tonight, so I guess I'll just wait and clean it up in the spring. :D I'll try to get the log attached tonight and start working on the side log trims.

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Hoppopotomus said:
Here ya go. Doesn't include the vent for my brewery ventilation hood or the vent for the sink pump that still need to get punched through the bond. Fireplace vent is just around the corner.
Click to expand...

You get all those going at once and you'll have a steamed up set of windows!

So are you for sure punching the sink pump vent through? Another thought there: how big will the vent hood tube be and how big does the sink vent need to be? Can you put the sink vent inside the hood vent and only need to punch one hole? I had some thing like this for my high efficiency furnace and I've seen them for fireplaces too.
 
Hoppopotomus said:
I've had a long log sitting in my garage for a while now to rip down for the log trims on the ventilation hood. I got out my trusty table saw and went to work ripping it down. It did not go well at all. :smack: The log was slightly warped and as I was ripping it though it kept pinching the blade....even tripped the breaker 3 or 4 times. I had to keep progressively placing shims in the cut to keep the blade from pinching. Not to mention that the blade needs replacing and the log was too large in diameter for the table saw to get through on one end. It took me a good 1/2 hr. to rip one frickin log and I spent another hour knifing the log and rough sanding it. Made a hell of a mess in the lawn next to my walkout patio. It's supposed to snow tonight, so I guess I'll just wait and clean it up in the spring. :D I'll try to get the log attached tonight and start working on the side log trims.
Click to expand...

Looks like a crime scene a la Fargo...
 
I think I am going to just keep the vent where it is and see if there are any off odors over time. If so, I'll just vent it out the back of the house. Most people that I have talked to feel that there will be very little odor in this application.....so we'll see.

I got the main horizontal log trim fastened across the front of the vent hood......what a b*tch that was. :drunk: After I ripped down the log, it had a hell of a warp to it. I used clamps to draw it down flush to the front of the hood and then used 3" course thread deck screws to fasten it. I think I am going to attach the side log trim pieces next and then either keep the front log overhanging beyond the side pieces or try to do an outside miter with my circular saw like I did with my lager chamber. It's next to impossible to a traditional mitered corner with the inconsistencies in the log surfaces.

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Finished up the side log trims for the ventilation hood today. I decided to just slightly overhang the front log beyond the side trims and forget about trying to miter the corners. Although it's not perfect, I can live with how it looks. Now I just need to finish sand the entire hood, purchase the vortex exhaust fan, and run the vent out of the back of the house. Electrical is already complete with an outlet up high wired to a switch over the ale chamber. The switch will turn on the vent. fan and the LED lights that I installed. Next projects.......prime the walls, finish trim, paint, and keg polishing. Almost there. :mug:

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Thanks. Still haven't decided on the wall color. At first I was thinking a deep red wine color to match the knots in the red cedar logs. Then I was thinking about an earthy clay color to coordinate with the brown tones in the stone tile. Others have suggested neutral and light, as to not take the attention away from the components I built. At this point I'm still undecided. I have a neighbor that is an interior designer, so I will try to get her opinion as well. I'm open to further suggestions. :mug:
 
I live in a pretty cool neighborhood with a great mix of professions. We are a pretty tight knit bunch and have a lot of fun. When someone in the hood needs help with something, for the most part, we have it covered. With my immediate neighbors at my end of the street there's a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, an IT specialist, a Nurse Practioner, a self employed commericial electrician, a self employed commercial plumbing contractor, an interior designer, a physical therapist (me), etc., etc. I couldn't live in a neighborhood full of anti-social pricks. :D
 
Thanks man.....my 10 y/o son is a Harry Potter freak, so I'll let him know that his old man has finally acheived "wizardry" status. :D

Not a ton of progress on the brewing room itself, but I finally finished most of the plumbing for eHERMs system. You can click on the eHERMs to check out that build if interested. I plan on priming the walls tomorrow and painting over the weekend. Next week I would love to have all of the finish trim done, so I can move onto flooring as my final project. :mug:
 
You're far too kind Jeebas....., but you have some pretty awesome builds going on yourself. :mug:

Finally settled on a couple of colors for the basement. For the main brewing room, we decided to go with a darker color to pull the red, earthy tones out of the red cedar knots and darker tones in the knotty pine. The color is called "fresh baked pumpernickel. In the pics. it looks a little darker than it is, but looks really nice with all of the knotty pine components moved back into place. For the rest of my mechanical room, we decided on a contrasting color called warm butterscotch that also goes really well with the decor in the brewery. Here are a few pics of the main brewery room with the darker color. I am trimming the walls out with knotty pine boards both horizontally and vertically to cover the drywall seams and to create a picture frame look on the walls and to also break up the dark color as well. What can I say, I HATE mudding and taping, so this was my next best option. :D I haven't started painting the rest of the mechanical room in the lighter color, but plan on being done with all painting and trim work by the end of the weekend.

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I'm a little worried that there is too much building and not enough brewing happening. I see that coke zero can! Blasphemy, unless of course you are saving the calories for your beer.
 
Don't worry, my pipeline is full! I'm still brewing the old fashion way in my garage for now with a cooler MT and the 32 quart BK on a propane burner. I store all of my brewing equipment in the basement, so it's a royal pain in the ass to get everything out and carried up to the garage to brew every other weekend. I have resorted to brewing 2-3 batches at a time about every other month now.....about once a month in the summer. I'm the only person in my household that drinks beer and with it being winter, I don't host nearly as many parties as in the summer, so a full pipeline of 20 gallons and a 5 gallon reserve in cold storage goes a long way for me. :mug:

As for the Coke Zero.....let me explain! :eek: I only worked yesterday in the a.m. and was painting by late morning, so the pics were taken around noonish.....too early for me to start drinkin'. And yes, I do save my calories for beer. I come from a family where the genetics aren't exactly stacked in my favor. Every male across the board is obese....we are talking 3 bills plus. In order for me to maintain my fighting weight, I have to watch what I eat and drink. With the exception of beer, I consume very little other sugar or startches otherwise. I couldn't tell you the last time I had a regular pop, a piece of candy, or any other sugar laced product (cookies/cake/pie/ice cream/etc.). With the exception of beer and wine, I eat and drink like someone would with chronic diabetes......lean proteins and only healthy carbs from grains/nuts/veges, etc. Hell, I rarely eat potatos and I couldn't tell you the last time I had a piece of white bread or anything else with white processed flour for that matter. It's the sacrifice that I have made to continue to enjoy beer and stay somewhat healthy in the process. :D
 
Yeah, I hear ya. It's a b*tch and it gets harder the older I get. I'm a physical therapist, so I have to keep my weight somewhat under control. How much trust would my patients have in me if I was morbidly obese and didn't practice what I preach. Despite my efforts, I am still not exactly the picture of superb health, but it could and would be much, much worse if I didn't keep a handle on it.
 
Finished most of the trim on the brewing wall in my brewery, but still have the rest of the room to do. The unpainted small triangular surfaces on either side of the ventilation hood will be done in the same T&G knotty pine as I used for all of the components, just didn't have time to finish it today. My next project is to knock out the rest of the trim in the rest of the room, utilizing the same picture frame effect, as to avoid any mudding and taping. I will then clear coat all of the trim and then move onto grouting the backsplash and component tops. Then I can install my HLT filling faucet and finish the flooring. I was going to tile the entire room, but am now considering some kind of epoxy finish on the floor or just staining the concrete. I'll keep plugging away! :mug:

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Hoppopotomus said:
Don't worry, my pipeline is full! I'm still brewing the old fashion way in my garage for now with a cooler MT and the 32 quart BK on a propane burner. I store all of my brewing equipment in the basement, so it's a royal pain in the ass to get everything out and carried up to the garage to brew every other weekend. I have resorted to brewing 2-3 batches at a time about every other month now.....about once a month in the summer. I'm the only person in my household that drinks beer and with it being winter, I don't host nearly as many parties as in the summer, so a full pipeline of 20 gallons and a 5 gallon reserve in cold storage goes a long way for me. :mug:

As for the Coke Zero.....let me explain! :eek: I only worked yesterday in the a.m. and was painting by late morning, so the pics were taken around noonish.....too early for me to start drinkin'. And yes, I do save my calories for beer. I come from a family where the genetics aren't exactly stacked in my favor. Every male across the board is obese....we are talking 3 bills plus. In order for me to maintain my fighting weight, I have to watch what I eat and drink. With the exception of beer, I consume very little other sugar or startches otherwise. I couldn't tell you the last time I had a regular pop, a piece of candy, or any other sugar laced product (cookies/cake/pie/ice cream/etc.). With the exception of beer and wine, I eat and drink like someone would with chronic diabetes......lean proteins and only healthy carbs from grains/nuts/veges, etc. Hell, I rarely eat potatos and I couldn't tell you the last time I had a piece of white bread or anything else with white processed flour for that matter. It's the sacrifice that I have made to continue to enjoy beer and stay somewhat healthy in the process. :D
Click to expand...

I can relate to the trying to eat healthy and still enjoy good beer - and also the pipeline staying full until I have parties - Though I am currently down to three kegs of hard cider and thats it, and they'll prob kick after Sunday. I normally refrain from the brew Monday - Thursday at the very least. Fighting against genetics also and the lethargic occupation of being a software engineer. Protein bars, greek yogurt, wheat bagel thins, tuna wraps, carrots and fresh fruit for me most days!
 
Agreed! I have lost 22 pounds and am hoping to drop another 26. But...I will not and have not given up beer!!!! Working with a nutritionist and eating right. You do not have to give up the beer, instead, give up the sodas, fast food, and just eat right.
 

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