Brew Hut Raising Weekend - 4/25

zoebisch01 said:

Detail work is probably 40% of the total time value of a project.

Click to expand...

Yep. I'll have it completely caulked by the weekend. I'm getting in two tubes in the morning before getting ready for work. This morning was not too bad, but the forecast is 98 degrees for the rest of the week. The heat has made a difference.

Now it's time for the big ladder to the the front and back overhangs. I'm glad I went with white paintable caulk as I can see what been done so far.

Nice work Ed, great pix.

Caulking is finished. Tomorrow, my neighbor and I will trench 110' for Electricity and 30' for a water line.

Hope it's not to hot for you.

Looking great Ed!
Hey, is there any chance of you guys getting hit with the remnants of this latest hurricane? It looks like it is headed for Texas.

RichBrewer said:

Looking great Ed!
Hey, is there any chance of you guys getting hit with the remnants of this latest hurricane? It looks like it is headed for Texas.

Click to expand...

I don't know. Gutav was supposed to come up here, but made a U-Turn and headed east after making land fall. We could use some rain.

What a day. My neighbor showed up to dig a trench with his backhoe. Life was great till we hit the last 8 feet to the BrewHaus.





The brewhaus is sitting on a massive slab.



Luckily, the Equipment Rental place is only 3 minutes from my house.

Yeah, that HAD to be a really bad feeling when you discovered that... whew!

How deep is that trench?

John Beere said:

Yeah, that HAD to be a really bad feeling when you discovered that... whew!

Click to expand...

I said a few words. It's going to cost me another day. On a good note, the connections on both ends are ready for me to pull three #3 cables through the conduit once the trench is complete.

I had an electrician hook up my 100 AMP service breaker. It's hot and he installed the service panel in the brewhaus today along with a main breaker inside as well.

wihophead said:

How deep is that trench?

Click to expand...

18" is code. It might be a bit shallower in places, but we will have to go through and even things out.

EdWort said:

18" is code. It might be a bit shallower in places, but we will have to go through and even things out.

Click to expand...

That is why I asked... You need the conduit covered by 18" of soil

Don't you have to pull a ground or do they still allow a detached structure without a grounding conductor in your area?

wihophead said:

That is why I asked... You need the conduit covered by 18" of soil

Don't you have to pull a ground or do they still allow a detached structure without a grounding conductor in your area?

Click to expand...

Yep, we have more digging to do. But we have a very good start. I just wish we did not run into that rock ledge.

The BrewHaus will have it's own ground, so we won't be pulling one.

EdWort said:

Yep, we have more digging to do. But we have a very good start. I just wish we did not run into that rock ledge.

The BrewHaus will have it's own ground, so we won't be pulling one.

Click to expand...

There really should be a grounding conductor that goes back to the main panel in addition to a ground rod...at least here in Wisconsin that is what is required.

A ground rod is for lightning protection while a grounding conductor is for personal/ground fault protection, two very different things.
But if the AHJ says it is OK with it then it must be OK......just a heads up.

wihophead said:

There really should be a grounding conductor that goes back to the main panel in addition to a ground rod...at least here in Wisconsin that is what is required.

A ground rod is for lightning protection while a grounding conductor is for personal/ground fault protection, two very different things.
But if the AHJ says it is OK with it then it must be OK......just a heads up.

Click to expand...

I'll check with the electrician before we pull. (that's why I hired one). He'll do the final look see.

Thanks for the heads up.

The BrewHaus has power!!!

247 Volts or 124 volts according to my VOM. Looks like there is no drop in voltage what so ever from the main feed. We ended up using about 125 feet of #3 wire.

Life is back to being good.

Cold room will be framed out and the current 10K BTU AC unit installed and a new 12K BTU heat/cool unit put in the old place. We need to wide the hole a bit, but that will not be a problem.

Looks good, Ed. I wish I could have made it out there to lend a hand. I'm jealous!

EdWort said:

247 Volts or 124 volts according to my VOM. Looks like there is no drop in voltage what so ever from the main feed. We ended up using about 125 feet of #3 wire.

Click to expand...

You need a load to determine if you have a voltage drop....you can have a mile of wire and you will not see a voltage drop if there is no load because if you take a reading at the panel in the brew shed you are technically reading the voltage drop of an open circuit which will be the entire applied voltage.

I calculated a drop of 6 volts at 100 amps so you will be fine....

Did you require a grounding conductor or are you allowed to bond your ground to your neutral bus in your brew house panel???


Voltage drop formula

Vd=KIL/CSA

12.9*100*250/52620 = 322500/52620 = 6.128 Volts dropped

wihophead said:

Did you require a grounding conductor or are you allowed to bond your ground to your neutral bus in your brew house panel???

Click to expand...

We needed a grounded conductor. The brew haus panel is not bonded with the neutral bus. Thanks for the formulas!

EdWort said:

We needed a grounded conductor. The brew haus panel is not bonded with the neutral bus. Thanks for the formulas!

Click to expand...

Glad you got her taken care of...I am extremely jealous...

wihophead said:

Glad you got her taken care of...I am extremely jealous...

Click to expand...

Thanks. SWMBO is very pissed at the sight of her yard today. Rocks everywhere, grass destroyed, uneven ground. It's not good.

Before.


After


I have lots of landscaping to due. Perhaps some heavy rains from hurricane Ike will wash much of the dirt down so I can go around and start collecting rocks.

At least now, the inside can begin construction in earnest!

Early this spring, we had to have our sewer line replaced. Due to the slope of our yard, it was over six feet deep at the street. I can't even begin to describe the mess. In fact, our front yard still hasn't recovered - bald spots everywhere.... Better invest in some good fertilizer to get that sod growing!

John Beere said:

.... Better invest in some good fertilizer to get that sod growing!

Click to expand...

Yep, I'll be bringing up my Newer Spreader as the horses provide plenty of fertilizer. The grass is Augustine, so it will eventually grow back as it crawls around.

We have St Augustine too... just waiting it out until it fills back in, but I did hit it with some good fertilizer around Easter.

I was allways amazed how much pride and thought Americans put into their grass. But then over here we just put down some seed and spend the rest of the time keeping it in check...

I've got the Brewhaus all battened down in preparation for whatever remnants of Hurricane Ike that make it our way tomorrow. One neat thing is I have shut off power from the house to it in case it takes off like in the Wizard of Oz.

I've strapped the BrewHaus Tree away so winds won't cause it to move into the brewhaus and damage it as well.

Good luck to all in the path of Ike this weekend. Be safe!

EdWort said:

I've got the Brewhaus all battened down in preparation for whatever remnants of Hurricane Ike that make it our way tomorrow. One neat thing is I have shut off power from the house to it in case it takes off like in the Wizard of Oz.

I've strapped the BrewHaus Tree away so winds won't cause it to move into the brewhaus and damage it as well.

Good luck to all in the path of Ike this weekend. Be safe!

Click to expand...

What, no pics? You have a birthday, and you forget pics!!!

Let us know if you made it through Ike, OK?

Ike? Ike who?

Lotta work done in preparation, but he turned East and never showed his face here West of Austin. The Brewhaus is A OK. Got some more wiring done today. It's nice to have juice, though it cost an Arm, a Leg, and a left Cajone to get it there.

I spent the day cleaning up and moving non essential stuff out while working on moving dirt to fill the trench where there used to be solid rock.

After this work and investment, I'm definitely going with an electric HLT.

Looks great Ed, glad to hear all is well.

EdWort said:

I'll check with the electrician before we pull. (that's why I hired one). He'll do the final look see.

Click to expand...

If you have a grounding rod at the brew-house I hope the electrician made sure to tie it in directly to the grounding rod at the house-- even more now that the trench is filled in.

This can cause all sorts of problems with electrical equipment, the most noticeable being audio and video stuff anywhere in the house, or houses in this case.


/tg

Yep, we pulled a separate ground after it was brought up. Thanks. It's great to have pros in various fields of work here at HBT!

when the world ends, we will create our own state, and rule the lands for decades to come

TimGrz said:

If you have a grounding rod at the brew-house

Click to expand...

There better be one since 250.32(a) requires it....

TimGrz said:

I hope the electrician made sure to tie it in directly to the grounding rod at the house-- even more now that the trench is filled in.

This can cause all sorts of problems with electrical equipment, the most noticeable being audio and video stuff anywhere in the house, or houses in this case.
/tg

Click to expand...

I have never see this, I know it isn't a code requirement....they are normally connected through the Equipment grounding conductor. Sounds like a waste of copper to me.....

wihophead said:

I have never see this, I know it isn't a code requirement....they are normally connected through the Equipment grounding conductor. Sounds like a waste of copper to me.....

Click to expand...

PM sent. Don't want to fudge up this thread.

/tg

This weekend was very busy. I got to brew 15 gallons of Haus Ale and then took the family to Austin's Pecan Street Festival. Then Sunday got hopping on the brewhaus again.

After discussing flooring options, we nixed the tile idea due to the pier & beam construction and possible settling popping tiles etc. I could not believe the price of backer board too. Wow!

We decided to put down a heavy duty vinyl floor.

Before that, I caulked the entire first layer and then we put down a layer of 1/2" R-Max foil backed insulation (I picked up about 75 sheets of this stuff off of Craigslist for $100) . This stuff can be walked on and it does not compress. On top of that we put 3/4" OSB subflooring from Lowe's. It's tongue and groove, so it went together well. This was fastened with deck screws.








The floor is rock solid now. The difference is amazing. After that was finished, we began the job of moving the 10K BTU AC unit to where the cold room will be. I took back the smaller units that won't fit due to 6" walls. Here we framed it out and I drilled holes in the corners so we knew where to cut.

We cut the hole, then framed it out with smooth cedar 1x6.



It's now installed and now only need to bypass the local thermostat with a Ranco controller.




Now the 220v, 12K BTU Cool, 11K BTU Heat unit is installed and man, does it kick out some chilling power. 220 volt is the way to go. I should be able to ferment in the 60s without any fermentation fridges if I want to.

looking great

Ed, this is badass!

I wish I had a brew house .

Thought a basement is just as good here in the UP of Michigan! Pretty stable lagering temps durring winter , ofcourse, I could bury my fermenter outside in snow!