Hoppo's E-Brewery Build

I have been searching high and low for an affordable pot filler faucet to hard plumb into the wall above my HLT. I finally found one on CL for a steal! It retails for $285 with tax and shipping. I found a contractor about 30 minutes from my house that installed this faucet for a client who hated the design and finish after he installed it. He removed the faucet and replaced it with a different model. He procrastinated and forgot to return this one and it has been in his garage for about a year. It is brand frickin' new and I talked him down to $85. It has a 14" reach, which will be plent for filling my HLT. My plan is to run a hard water line off of my existing plumbing prior to the water softening system. I will install a dual canister filtration system with a sediment filter and a carbon filter. This line will feed the pot filler. I also managed to get all of my rough electrical ran, so now it's onto plumbing, then drywall. Slowly making progress.

Nice work out of you hop, that'll look great!

Thanks Big Red....I'm trying to keep the progress rolling on the brewery, but there are only so many hours in the day. How are things from your end? Did you ever get that keezer built?

Hoppopotomus said:

Thanks Big Red....I'm trying to keep the progress rolling on the brewery, but there are only so many hours in the day. How are things from your end? Did you ever get that keezer built?

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I ended up building a kegorator instead for now. I'll build a keezer later on and sell the kegorator when I'm done with it. Refining my craft with this whole beer making thing and eventually I'll make the jump to all-grain.

Excellent....good luck and keep in touch! I can't wait to get my fully automated AG system going. For me, for now it's partial mashes on the patio, but I would hate to go though another winter brewing in the garage. I store all of my brewing equipment in the basement and it's a royal PITA carrying everything up on brew day.

Brewery side note: I just put the final coat of polyurethane on my fermentation chambers, so I'm going to install the cement board and tumbled travertine on the decorative tops when I get home from the holiday weekend. My plumber is coming out sometime soon to plumb in the copper H2O lines for the sink and the copper + filtration system for the pot filler faucet over my HLT. He was very much against busting up concrete and running a drain over to the existing drain in my mechanical room. Instead, he found a "grey" water commercial ejection sump pump that tucks underneath the SS sink and plumbs into the drain line. It does not require a crock and will be 1/2 of the cost of going the other route. He's going to plumb in the PVC with check valves into the wall behind the sink and run it up and over to an existing drain line from my kitchen sink from above. Hopefully I can get him out in the next couple of weeks, because I'm chomping at the bit to move onto drywall/tile/trim.

My plumber is coming out tomorrow to install the water filtration system dedicated for the pot filler faucet and to do all of the rough plumbing for the sink water supplies and drain system. I'll post a few pics this weekend. I am completely geeked! Can't wait to button up the walls and move forward with tiling/trim/etc.

On a side note.....I just talked to another homebrewer who has a Barley Crusher mill that is 1 yr. old and was used for five 10 gallon batches only. He doesn't have time to brew anymore and is off loading some of his equipment. I talked him down to $60 for the mill and it's like brand new. I have a patient who is bringing me either a 1/3 or 1/2 hp motor today with a selection of sheaves to get the rpms down to the ideal range for whatever motor I choose. I offered to pay him, but he has a garage full these types of items and will not accept any money for it. I'll be starting a thread for my motorized grain milling station sometime in the very near future. Of course, it will be built to match my bar, keezer, ferm chambers, etc.

My plumber made it out today to run the copper water supply lines and drain for my commercial ss sink and he installed the dual canister filter housings off of the hard water side of my plumbing with a supply to the pot filler faucet positioned over my HLT. I went with two canister filters, one for sediment and rust, the other is a carbon filter for clarity and odor. Our hard water has a lot of iron and sediment, so this was my only options. I wanted to avoid having to use sofetened water at all costs and am sick of paying for jugs of water when I brew. This should make life much easier. Materials and labor was $310, so well worth the expense! I'm going to have an analysis of my water done once the filters are inserted and the pot filler is plumbed in in the finish.

I also managed to cut the heavy duty ss table down to the finished height of 25 inches, which the 3 converted keggles will sit on for my all electric HERMS system. Last night after work, I sanded the sink base and painted it with stainless steel spray paint. It was pretty rusty and nasty (as you can see from earlier pics.), but now is cleaning up nicely. I also had a patient who made me the start of a mash paddle. He used hard maple and turned the handle on his lathe. I have to finish the paddle itself and add a knob to the end of the handle, but it sure was nice of him!

looking good!

A few more pics with what I have done so far. If you haven't seen my fermentation chamber thread, I finished the woodwork and added the cement board and tumbled travertine to the tops. Still need to grout. These pics. show how the layout will be. The space to the left of the actual brewing system will have my motorized grain milling station, grain weighing station, and a humidity controlled grain storage bin. These final components will be built to match the fermentation chambers with cedar logs, knotty pine, and tumbled travertine. The entire wall behind the 3 vessel will be done in tumbled travertine and I'll use green board drywall for the rest, painted to a color of my wifes choosing. I'm looking around to a faux slate porceline tile to tile the floor with. I prefer the density of porceline on the floor in this room as opposed to the natural slate used in my bar, simply because of the potential of dropping items and spillage.

I am picking up a Barley Crusher grain mill tomorrow and will have a 1/3 hp electric motor on Monday, so my next projects are the grain mill and storage cabinets, drywall, tile, etc. I also plan on purchasing the remaining fittings for my HERMS system keggle conversions from Bobby at Brew Hardware this week, so that I can start tackling that project as well. Slowly, but surely it's getting there.

Here are a few better pics of the fermentation chambers in their almost done state. I have a seperate thread for that build if anyone's interested.

Thanks BeerGuy!

My wife and I are leaving in 2 weeks for a week in the Carribean for our 15 year anniversary, so I'm going to try to get the cabinets built for the grain mill and storage bin before we go.

Looking good neighbor!

Thanks Jason.....it's coming together slowly, but surely. Have you started kegging yet?

Hoppo, if you don't mind me asking, where did you buy the table that the kegs are on?
I have been looking into building one similar to Kal's but if a metal table is cheaper than time/supplies for a wooden one (and can hold as much weight) I'd much prefer a setup similar to yours.

Thanks!

I purchased the stainless steel table from a local deli that went out of business. I actually purchased two tables from the deli for around $200 for both, but she included a box full of ss utensils, a couple of pendant lights, and a stainless bar storage bin used in bars for storing lemon wedges, lime wedges, cherries, etc. The table you are referring to is a heavy duty table that has built in trusses on the undersurface of top itself and can hold a ton of weight. The second table is a cheaper model that does not have a truss system in place and I would not trust holding the weight of the brewing system while in use. The second table will be used as an island work station in the brewery. I also purchased the stainless steel sink/drip pan from another failing restaurant for I think $125. Keep an eye out of craigs list for restaurant liquidation equipment, because with the economy there is a lot of this stuff out there. There is another website called www.repocast.net that is an on-line auction site that reposses equipment from bankrupt businesses and auctions it on line. It's a Michigan based business, but I think they can ship anywhere. Look around and you should be able to find something, but make sure that the table is heavy duty with the built in trusses.

Hoppopotomus said:

Thanks Jason.....it's coming together slowly, but surely. Have you started kegging yet?

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Yup, I have a porter and a pumpkin ale kegged and delicious! Now I just need time to fill my other 4 kegs!

Nice! Let's get together sometime soon and have a few beers.

I just finished framing the cabinet for my motorized grain mill. I'll be starting a thread in the DIY section for that build as well. Check out my latest creation when you get a chance.

Great as usual. Happy 15th and enjoy the Caribbean

Thanks man....I appreciate it. My wife and I are long overdue for a vacation for just the two of us. We used to travel all of the time, but the damn kids put an end to that. :cross:

I made a little more progress in the brewery last night by building the cabinet for my grain mill. Tomorrow after work, I'm going to build the cabinet for the grain storage bin and start trimming them out. This weekend I am finally going to place my order with Bobby at brewhardware for all of the fittings required for my keggle conversions. I'll probably tackle that project as soon as I get back from vacation. Have a good day.

Hoppopotomus said:

I purchased the stainless steel table from a local deli that went out of business. I actually purchased two tables from the deli for around $200 for both, but she included a box full of ss utensils, a couple of pendant lights, and a stainless bar storage bin used in bars for storing lemon wedges, lime wedges, cherries, etc. The table you are referring to is a heavy duty table that has built in trusses on the undersurface of top itself and can hold a ton of weight. The second table is a cheaper model that does not have a truss system in place and I would not trust holding the weight of the brewing system while in use. The second table will be used as an island work station in the brewery. I also purchased the stainless steel sink/drip pan from another failing restaurant for I think $125. Keep an eye out of craigs list for restaurant liquidation equipment, because with the economy there is a lot of this stuff out there. There is another website called www.repocast.net that is an on-line auction site that reposses equipment from bankrupt businesses and auctions it on line. It's a Michigan based business, but I think they can ship anywhere. Look around and you should be able to find something, but make sure that the table is heavy duty with the built in trusses.

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I work a few miles from the Grand Rapids offices for Repocast. If anyone ever wants me to check something out for them or get some better pictures of an item just send me a PM.

Nice! Thanks man! The other branch of repocast used to be 3 miles from my house here in Ortonville, but they moved that site up to Flint.

It's been a while since I last posted any updates on this thread. I have been bogged down with several other brewing projects, so I'll bring you up to speed. I finished my motorized grain mill and grain storage bin (first pic), so now all of the "furniture" components of the brewery are complete. The second pic. is with all components in their final resting place (bin, mill, brewing table, sink, ferm chambers, exhaust hood, etc.). All rough plumbing and rough electrical are complete. Now I am moving onto drywall, cement board, and tile. When we built the house, I installed a 200 amp / 40 breaker electrical panel, but now that the rest of my basement is complete, I used up every last circuit in the panel. Thankfully, my father in law is an electrician and Menards was running a special on 100 amp. / 20 breaker panels and 100 amp. breakers, so we are installing the subpanel this weekend. I am also ordering the rest of my fittings from Bobby at brewhardware, so that I can finishe the keggle conversions right after drywall is complete. I'll try to be better about keeping the thread updated.

You are going to love that pre-rinse nozzle on your sink. I just added one to my sink and it might be my favorite part of my setup. I find myself using it for other tasks, like this week my kid needed to take an empty peanut butter jar to school. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the PB out in the kitchen sink. I took it down to the brewery and had it clean in about 20 seconds. It makes everything go so easy, even cleaning corneys. Best investment ever.

Yeah, I'm excited to have found it. It was another one of my many CL finds. It was brand new, still in it's original packaging. The guy had it posted for $125 and I think I offered $80 and got it for $90ish. When I got home I did a web search on the exact make and model and it retails for over $500. Similar with my pot filling faucet over my HLT.

As soon as I get the drywall and cement board up, my plumber is coming back out to install an ejector pump for the drain system of the sink. The supply lines are in and just need to install the supply valves, again once drywall is done. It will be nice to have a fully operations sink down there!

I stalled out on the brewery build for a while, but should start making progress this week! The subpanel and all of the rough electrical is installed and ready for drywall, as is the rough plumbing. I'm having a high efficiency boiler system installed next Tuesday for the radiant hydronics floor heating in my basement. Since this unit and all of it's components (pumps, manifold, etc.) hang on the wall opposite to the brewing station, I need to get the drywall up asap. I'm picking up all of the drywall for the entire room and cement board for behind the brewing table tomorrow at Menards. My primary goal is to get the drywall hung, taped, and finished on the wall where the boiler is going to be installed by the end of the weekend. I will then finish off the drywall on the brewery side of the room throughout next week. I'll post pics. along the way.

Have fun with that! Let me know if you need a hand!

Thanks Jason. I should be good though. I'm renting the flat bed truck at Menards to haul it home. I made my last patient for 10 a.m. tomorrow, so I can run home, change clothes, and get up to Davison. Once I have the truck loaded I have 75 min. to get it back to them without an upcharge on the rental. Since it's a 25 min. drive each way, I only have 25 minutes to get the sh*t unloaded at my house. I'm hoping the ground freezes a little more, so I can drive around to the back of the house and back right up to the walkout. I then have to return their truck and get home in time to pick the kids up from school. I appreciate the offer, but you'll still be working when I'm scrambling. Let's get together for a beer sometime anyways......4 fresh kegs just made their way into my keezer!

That Menards is 5 min from my house. Too bad you weren't doing it in the evening, I coulda/woulda helped too.

Thanks man.... I appreciate the offer, but I'm leaving work right now and heading in that direction. I only have a small window of opportunity to get this done, so I'm flying solo. I'm not exactly thrilled about unloading and carrying 18 sheets of drywall and 4 sheets of Durarock by myself, but I'll survive. Hell, the rest of my basement took 90+ sheets of drywall to finish and I carried and hung 90% of it on my own, so I'm sure I can handle it.

Alright guys.....boiler is being installed tomorrow for the radiant floor heating throughout the finished side of the basement. I got all of the interior partitioning walls insulated between the finished and unfinished sides of the basement. I also got all of the cement board hung behind the brewing station as well as 90% of the drywall hung in the mechanical and brewing rooms. I was on my next to the last piece of drywall yesterday and was running out of steam. Basically, I got careless and cut the inner tip of my left finger off....along with a portion of the nail with a utility knife.
Needless to say, it stopped me in my tracks and I didn't finish the last 2 pieces. Since it severed the inner tip clean off, stitches were not an option, so I just have to wait for it to heal. What a PITA! What really sucks is that I'm a manual physical therapist, so I use my hands all day long for massage, spinal adjustments, joint mobilization, etc., etc., so work is going to be brutal for a few days. It's tender as hell! Unfortunately, I can't take time off because I own my own PT practices and am short staffed at one of my offices with a schedule full of patients. The joys of being self employed.

I'll post some pics of my progress later tonight......ignore the blood stains on the walls.

Oh I feel your pain. I've been there done that. I had my finger hanging over the side of a T-square while cutting a piece of drywall and WHACK!!! Tip came right off. Just like you said, nail and all. It's amazing how sharp those little blades are!

That's exactly what happened to me. My fingertip was hanging over the edge of the t-square. Normally I lay the drwall flat or work off of saw horses, but I was scoring them with drywall leaning up against the wall vertically due to tight space down there. I was scoring from the bottom upward and took the tip clean off. Oh well.....it builds character.....right?

They should put a warning on those things. My "accident" happened in 2001 and my finger is still lop sided (the drywall was straight as an arrow though). Your right, it builds character and I bet you never have it happen again. Every time I touch that square I move my fingers to the middle.

You're right.....I'm sure I'll be extra cautious in the future. I think I'm going to go home tonight and hang the last 2 sheets of drywall. Hopefully I don't lose another fingertip. I want to get moving on the taping and trim work, so I can get my tile set behind the brewing station. Today has been brutal at work. :smack:

A couple of updated pics.....subpanel installed to accommodate the brewery, high efficiency boiler system installed to heat the basement floors, and cement board and most of the drywall up. I'm going to hang the last 2 pieces of drywall today and move onto the finish. Hopefully I can keep my remaining digits intact.

Hoppopotomus said:

A couple of updated pics.....subpanel installed to accommodate the brewery, high efficiency boiler system installed to heat the basement floors, and cement board and most of the drywall up. I'm going to hang the last 2 pieces of drywall today and move onto the finish. Hopefully I can keep my remaining digits intact.

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Amazing simply amazing!

Thanks. I did manage to hang the last 2 sheets of drywall to the right of the brewing station without any further injuries. This weekend I want to rip the log trim pieces to trim out the front and sides of the ventilation hood, then get them knifed. If time permits, I may start priming the drywall.

I'm taking a poll......with all things considered such as red cedar logs, knotty pine paneling, polished travertine stone tile, tumbled travertine stone tile, and a sh*t load of stainless steel in the brewery what color I should paint the room. I'm open to any and all suggestions......help me out!

Hey Hoppo,
what did you use for the board behind your keggles? Doesn't look regular sheet rock there - keep up the good work and detailed posts.

It's 1/2" thick 3' x 5' Durarock cement board. This stuff:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...arock+1/2"&storeId=10051&superSkuId=202938933

I always use cement board as my foundation to tile on. I just don't trust the structural integrity of tiling directly over drywall, especially in an area that will be prone to moisture. I did use moisture and mold resistant sheet rock on either side of the cement board though.

As far as paint, I would say something neutral that will not draw the eyes away from the brewery. You've made it too nice to have the wall color overshadow it.