Black Pug Brewing Progress Thread

My 1/2" cork sheets were dropped at the waterjet cutter today to make perfect 17 1/2" circles for the underside of the kegs. (That's just cardboard in the photo below).

This evening, I mocked up placement of the vent hood today. I suspended it with threaded rods, washers, and hung from metal brackets screwed into the trusses in the ceiling.



Currently the distance from the top of the kettles to the underside of the hood is 15"... I'm trying to figure out if I should raise it more.


Drywall is coming Monday to enclose the left and right sides of the garage to enclose the brewery. (I have a really huge garage and I'm enclosing the center part for the brewery).

I'm getting quotes for a ductless A/C unit for the wall above the vent


Diamond plate has been delivered to cover the walls. I'm going to make the entire backsplash area in diamond plate like someone suggested on one of my other threads....

Like this. (borrowed from another thread here)



My panel is pretty much done... I have about 10 more wires to hook up inside, then trace all of the connections to double check.

I spent about 6 hours polishing each of my keggles...




Pump board




Countersunk bolt heads and rubber feet




Shield detail




Pigtails for extending Chugger pumps (since the original wire in the pump motor is hard to access)

For now, I'm using s-hooks to hang until I get the right position nailed down






I have all of the fittings, washer, o-rings assembled finger tight and bagged by kettle.


Tomorrow or later one night will be hole drilling night. gulp!

Looking great, and man I am jealous. I cant wait to see how this turns out.

Chromados

Build looks great, especially the finish on the kegs. Where did the hood come from? Looks like a pretty nice commercial grade unit.

Definitely will stay tuned for updates.

The hood was custom fabricated by a fellow here in Central Florida.

I'm pretty much following Kal's plans of its not obvious.

Except for a stainless table and more space.

The beer porn just keeps getting crazier around here every day!...Jeesh Keep it up you people with dreams (and money).

nice!

What did you use to make the pump covers, those look right up my alley.

Aluminum sheets from Lowes (or Home Depot, don't remember). They had pre-cut 8x16 sheets. I just trimmed a couple of inches off. I drilled 4 holes on each short end, and then bent one end 90 degrees inward. Then just screwed to the board with stainless screws.

Very simple.

Well plaid sir, nice work

Got some more work done tonight.

Built the wort chiller board. I added a splash shield to the wooden board. I'll probably add one back on the pump board too.

I didn't pay attention, but the counter-flow wort chiller I ordered had the inlet/outlet on opposite ends, so I added some elbows and T-fittings to point the quick connects outward towards the workspace.




I added a little support bracket with felt lining and zipties to support the exit port




Cork mats are back from the waterjet cutter




Installed 4-gallon mini hot-water heater under garage sink (never had hot water here!). I just need to get some braided lines and connect the water valves to the heater and plug her in! Woohoo




Framed partition walls have been drywalled and textured. Paint is next.

I will install an 8'x8' roll-up garage door here to be able to partition the brewery off from the rest of the garage. (The entire garage is quite large at 2,200 sq. feet, but I will have the brewery partitioned off at around 450 sq. feet)




Other wide of the brewery workspace. (my shop cabinets). You can see the newly added partition wall on the far side. I will install a 4'x8' roll-up garage door over there!

Off the top. Beer Porn!

Nice looking setup.... do we get a full pic of the car?

TRG said:

Nice looking setup.... do we get a full pic of the car?

Click to expand...

yes plz, Lotus?

It's a Lotus Exige S

(heavily tweaked in the engine)

One more reason that I am jealous of this Guy...

McCuckerson said:

One more reason that I am jealous of this Guy...

Click to expand...

What he said...very nice setup, looking forward to seeing the end result.

Speachless. What did you use to polish the kegs? 6 hrs well spent!

crypt0 said:

Speachless. What did you use to polish the kegs? 6 hrs well spent!

Click to expand...

Here you go!

Stainless Polishing Tips

That car is a beauty! I can only imagine how fun it is to drive! Your brewery is coming along great, keep up the good work!

Beautiful car. What year?

I love the idea using the cork under the keggels. I was trying to come with an idea myself since I'm planning polished concrete countertops in my brewery. How much did they end up costing with the water jet cutting?

Panel is done and heat sink mounuted.

All wiring and connections checked with multimeter. Zip-tied and cleaned up the best I could.

I wish I had done a few things differently (i.e. mounted the mechanical relays further away from the receptacles, and I would have painted differently) but overall I'm pleased with the way it came out.

Here's the brewspace.

We got the roll-up garage doors installed yesterday evening. This now encloses the brewery from 2200 sq feet of garage space down to about 450... much easier to heat/cool.

The rolling tool car will be my supplemental workspace. I'll keep my laptop on here, testing supplies in the drawers (refractometer, hydrometer, etc.)... as well as glassware, spares, etc.

Next in the project is to get the diamond plate on the wall behind the kettles.

Awesome brew space! Love the glossy black cabinets. Good luck with the rest of your build, but judging from the pictures you won't need much more luck.

Home built stir plate works!

Got the vent placed through the wall. A masonry bit died after 2 holes. Couldn't find a service under $250 to bore a 6" hole. Said F-it and used the caveman method! Ended up just using a hammer and chisel.




Started prepping for mounting the Diamond Plate panels. First order of business. Remove the baseboards and install a shelf. The panels will rest on top of this during mounting to help provide support and assure they are level. It will be removed when finished. Tapcons hold it into the cinder block behind the drywall.




I applied rubberized spray coating where the seams will be after the panels are installed. This will provide some moisture resistance for the drywall should any moisture want to go between the panel seams.



Set up 3 folding work tables for the 4'x10' diamond plate panels so I can cut holes for outlets, A/C ducts, etc. Here is a blank panel (shiny side up!)





Enjoying a Terrapin Hopsecutioner whilst I work away




After measuring twice (3 times, actually), I double tape the outline of where I am going to cut and just a 24 teeth-per-inch jigsaw blade and cut the holes. Stop and vacuum shavings frequently to avoid scratching. Finish any rough edges with a hand file.

Sweet mother of god! If you ever need personal protection I'm surgical with an AR-15............let me know. lol

Backsplash panels are UP... I spent the better part of the weekend doing this as a one-man operation.

I'm pooped!



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sick.

my favorite part is that you obviously have the money, yet are doing everything yourself and still cringe at the idea of paying someone $250 to drill a hole.

Nice build.

For me, this about the journey. Figuring out how to do something, or fabricate an item, or make it work.

I've learned quite a few skills with this project, from soldering, to polishing metal, to a/c circuits and wiring.

It's been a blast!

OK... so we made some progress.

I test fired the control panel. Discovered an issue which will be remedied later (wrong power relays).




I re-hung the vent hood and installed the fan and ducting. The vent ducting is purposely tilted at an angle to facilitate any condensation draining.







I got the MLT and Boil kettles done

Very awesome. Is that an anode....oh no its your sight glass output. What's your wiring plan for your Estop button?

You also forget to include your pug(s) in the photos.

There is an anode in the boil kettle. You can see it in the birds-eye shot and you can see it externally to the right of the element box on the exterior shot.

For the E-stop and I am going to put in PJs circuit with the 2 resistors and fuses to trip the GFCI on the breaker. I haven't wired that yet... But this will be very easy to add.

kellzey said:

There is an anode in the boil kettle. You can see it in the birds-eye shot and you can see it externally to the right of the element box on the exterior shot.

For the E-stop and I am going to put in PJs circuit with the 2 resistors and fuses to trip the GFCI on the breaker. I haven't wired that yet... But this will be very easy to add.

Click to expand...

Ah ok, it was an anode. Have you had rust problems in the past or are you just preventing the possibility?

I installed the anode as a precaution. There are some reports of rust on the elements... the anode seams like cheap insurance.

I've got to wear sunglasses when looking at all the SS.

Pics from this weekend.


View of the "almost" finished brewery




Control panel works (and systems have all tested OK so far)




View of the panel mounted




Fan speed control




Close-up of fan speed control. I used the same little tie-downs and zip-ties as inside the panel for wire management




14-gallon Blichmann fermenter




Boil Keggle




MLT Keggle




The lid IS centered (it's just on crooked in the photo)

Wow, I am impressed, and jealous of your brew space! For a second I thought maybe it was WildWests, which is a huge compliment.

Looks like our inaugural brews may be on the same day! Any idea what your first batch will be?