Brewhouse / Poolhouse Build

Hey everyone I'm in the planning stages of building a brewhouse / poolhouse in my back yard. I've gotten many ideas from all the people who have been posting in this thread over the years and have decided to make the plunge! The room I dedicated in my basement wasn't big enough anyway.

My friend is going to help me with his building expertise. Here are my preliminary ideas (i'll upload some pics of the site later). I have gas laid to the area already and my water well line is only around 10' away so we can splice into it. I will probably have the power company put in another drop to the building - my house service pole is probably 20-30' away.

Right now we are planning on a 24x32 building with a poured floor and floor drains that go to the creek beside the house. I think I'm going to put a restroom in the building since this could be a mother in law suite if I ever sell the place. This brings up a question - I would be around 150' give or take, from my septic with plenty of down hill grade. Would I be safe laying a 4" or whatever size sewer pipe and connecting into it or would over that distance have problems with solids falling out and causing clogs often?

There will be a bar in here somewhere with a TV and because it's going to be near my pool I want to make an outside kind of bar that you can be near the pool but belly up to something.

Well that's my preliminary ideas I have a crude blueprint that my buddy has given me. But I'm afraid I'm going to over look something. Your help and advice is much appreciated. We plan to break ground this Spring/Early summer.

Will local zoning or the Conservation Commission let you run a floor drain out into a creek? I know that's a big no-no around here. If it's just water and wort, no harm no foul. But when you start throwing cleaning chemicals around...

mi6op said:

This brings up a question - I would be around 150' give or take, from my septic with plenty of down hill grade. Would I be safe laying a 4" or whatever size sewer pipe and connecting into it or would over that distance have problems with solids falling out and causing clogs often?

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Generally 1/8" to 1/4" slope per foot for sewar drains. Less can cause problems, as can more. link below...

http://www.bougalisconstructioninc.com/a/j/tips-a-tricks/7-pipe-laying-101

I can't comment on the tech details of the project, but I assume you have seen this thread regarding the brewhouse/poolhouse concept? You can find the details on that most righteous project, literally from start to finish, at:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/backyard-brewpub-126041/

You might be able to get some ideas from this or at least get with the author with other details around the build that should help.

Of course, once you look at that thread you will be summarily obligated to document your build in similar fashion. i.e. lots o pix!

GLWIII said:

I can't comment on the tech details of the project, but I assume you have seen this thread regarding the brewhouse/poolhouse concept? You can find the details on that most righteous project, literally from start to finish, at:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/backyard-brewpub-126041/

You might be able to get some ideas from this or at least get with the author with other details around the build that should help.

Of course, once you look at that thread you will be summarily obligated to document your build in similar fashion. i.e. lots o pix!

Click to expand...

Thanks for that link. I had found it a couple months ago and then it got lost in the depths of the forum. That being said is there any better way to look for home brewery threads besides using the "google in site search" that gives pretty weak results for the good threads I know exist deep in the hundreds of pages.

Rest assured I will be photo documenting this when we kick it off. I just want to have all my bases covered before we start instead of sitting there all done thinking I wish I did this and I wish I did that...

wilserbrewer said:

Generally 1/8" to 1/4" slope per foot for sewar drains. Less can cause problems, as can more. link below...

http://www.bougalisconstructioninc.com/a/j/tips-a-tricks/7-pipe-laying-101

Click to expand...

Talked to a friend who has been installing residential septics for some time now and he said the 150' isn't a problem. Just be careful of not being too aggressive on the downslope.

wrench said:

Will local zoning or the Conservation Commission let you run a floor drain out into a creek? I know that's a big no-no around here. If it's just water and wort, no harm no foul. But when you start throwing cleaning chemicals around...

Click to expand...

I'm in the township and I'm of the mind that it's better to ask forgiveness than ask permission. That being said, if i"m going to run septic I'll just plum all this stuff into it. If it was not going to have that I'd run it in the creek. 99% (maybe more!) of any thing that will go down that drain will not be cleaning solvents etc.

Here is something I am getting hung up on, fermentation chambers. I'll describe what I want. Right now I ferment/lager in my old fridge it does great and can hold 5 corny's if I ever need it too. Infact I may get another one like it (it's the standard fridge we all grew up with before the fancy stuff out now.)

I want to be able to temperature control numerous ferments at once and I love dark lagers so I tend to have my handy fridge or small chest freezer tied up for 6 weeks fairly often. I want to up my fermentation space and am curious what are some good ideas you guys have come across. Here is one that seems pretty cool http://www.brewgeeks.com/build-a-ferm-chamber.html

Another important step is I want a cellar type room to archive beer in. Any ideas?

Ok so the pool shed idea was scrapped. Instead I gutted a detached 24x24 barn I have out back. It originally had the stairs to upstairs inside but that took up valuable real estate so a new staircase to the upstairs was built on the outside of the building and the inside one removed.

I have a storage room built as well as a small bathroom. The rest is an open concept with a curved bar wrapped around a cooler to store and cellar bottles and age kegs as well behind it. I will also have a keezer type of kegorator built somewhere behind the bar and get a flat screen back there so that this can be more of a man cave.

One of the garage doors was removed and a wall was built in it's place as you see above.

First pic is the beginning after all the old stuff was ripped out and the old stairs ripped out and capped off as well. Water was already to the barn via a frost free. We ripped it out and plumbed a direct line up that will feed the whole building now, including a hot water tank. The bar has been plumbed to have a small bar sink to wash glasses etc. I have a stainless steel sink that will be at the main water in. A couple refrigerators to ferment in. I don't have the patience/time/and skill to learn and build a brew stand so I'm in the process of figuring out if I will buy a B3 or Sabco. Against the wall where I have the stand I am thinking of tiling the wall for the heat reflection. I am searching for a hood to mount above it as well. So anyway the plan is to make this a man cave/brewery I suppose. Sounds good to me!

One question, if you are basically starting from scratch(according to pics), why not build a cold room? Would that be better than having multiple fridges?

Actually the storage room was going to be a cold room but I decided to put that off til the future and keep an eye open for an external unit when I'm ready for that.

sub:rockin:

Since I am not making a pool house I didn't want the title to be misleading I created a new thread for the build here => https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/brewshed-build-361160/#post4499731