Equipment storage

What do you you guys do in regards to neatly storing your equipment? I'm beginning to get a lot of buckets, pots, carboys, turkey fryer, wire brush's, etc. What do you guys do to neatly keep your brewing equipment organized? I was thinking of getting a wardrobe storage type cabinet for the garage, but wanted to "poll the audience" for ideas before I do...

I've tried a search, but all I kept turning up was repeated threads on grain storage.

Steve

I have several of these in my garage:

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/na...81&pid=_Froogle&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=176011



You can set it up like shown above or you can set it up as a side-by-side unit (half as high, twice as long). The shelves can be moved up and down where you want.

I have one set up side-by-side to serve as a workbench, and all of my brewing gear goes under that.

Edit: the shelves are deep enough for me to put a row of corny kegs across the back and my keggle, mlt, turkey fryer, etc in front of the cornies.

Edit2: small things like hoses, spoons, etc are all hanging on my pegboard above the workbench so I can easily get to them.

I'm still assembling my equipment, but my only storage and conditioning space is under my stairs. So it's got to be compact.

My MLT is a round 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler. My Little Giant pump is mounted to the bottom of a Lowed 5 gallon bucket, which neatly fits INSIDE the MLT. I will eventually have a CFC mounted to the inside of the bucket as well (when I build one) much like jkarp's Countertop Brutus. My kettle sits on top of the MLT with my hoses coiled up inside. The only thing that doesn't fit for now is the immersion chiller (too tall) but that will be eliminated eventually in favor of the CFC.

I have a second bucket (three or four gallon, I think. It's from the bakery). I don't have any bottling equipment yet because my friend brings his over.

This all uses a very small footprint, which leaves space for my 6 gallon glass carboy and a seven gallon aquatainer (cubic water jug I intent on primary fermenting in). The aquatainers can stack about three high in my space, which means I can primary three beers in the floor space of about one brew bucket or carboy. misc stuff goes in and around the other bits. Four cases of bottles can fit inside an old fridge I don't use. It's a 1951 Coldspot that needs to be rewired. But I have a line on another old fridge that will become a kegerator/fermentation space.

Eventually, once I get a slab poured off my walk-out basement (under the deck), I'm going to get a small wooden tool shed and keep stuff in there. Also thinking about insulating it as an outdoor fermentation space,if I can get a small AC unit to keep it cool in the summer.

all of my grains go into vacuum bags, those go into rubbermaid storage bins, bulk base grains go into spacebags and stacked in my hall closet, I also keep growlers, and carboys in there, the small bits like hose, thermometers, hydrometers, sanitizer ect all goes into another storage bin, the bins get stacked next to the base grains, growlers on the shelf and carboys next to grains, it all fits neatly into that hallway closet, my turkey fryer pot is used as my HLT, the chiller just fits in that, the pot just fits into my keggle, the hopcatcher also fits into the pot, the whole mess sits on the burner, the MLT cooler sits on top of another cooler I use for chiller water/ice. on top of that is my barley crusher and bucket. that all sits in a corner of my garage it is all quite compact storage-wise and overall has a footprint of about 5 or 6 square feet. I got lucky that everything pretty much fits inside each other to save space.

I have a walk up attic on my 3rd floor. I store my empty bottles in plastic totes in the unconditioned space of the attic and have a spare closet with shelves in the finished space. I also have all of my miscellaneous gear in plastic storage units. I stack my buckets and put the chiller in my kettle.

Here you are looking at shelving and cabinetry while I have a whole storage room off my brew kitchen and part of the garage... :rockin:

The best advice here would be to not stack your buckets inside each other because the outside of one will scratch the inside of another.

I just place my lid on top and stack them that way.

Lets see here right now i have my brew stand in a nook on the porch with the keggle burner and tank underneath the HLT and cooler sitting on top. 3 cornies in the keezer with 2 sitting on the side ready to go in. in the coat closet 3 more cornies 4 glass carboys 2 better bottles a 15 gal jerry can 1 each 1/4 barrel and 1/2 barrel sanke fermenters a 10 gallon cornie fermenter, 100 lbs of grain. 8 rossi jugs for test batches grain mill. and all my small items in rubbermaid containers stacked. in the out side closet i have 10 cases of bottles stacked and other stuff that doesnt get used much....Its a giant game of tetris!

edit: there are also bottles of beer in wooden boxes scattered thru out the 800sq ft apt!

store it where you can and get good at stacking

I got crap all over the place!

Grains in the kegerator,
grains in the closet
Scale, capper, bottles, starsan, foodsaver in closet
Buckets and tote of various in garage
Carboys in closet
Grain upstairs garage
bottles upstairs garage
kegs in "my room"
MLT and Chiller in garage
Burner on back patio (need to move that into garage...)

I'd like to have a shelf system with doors that I can close to keep my stuff from gettign dusty with wood and metal grindings in the garage. It's the season to start working on the mustang again.

I have two mainframe server cabinets that I keep all of my brewing equipment in.

Take over a spare bedroom.

^----- That's what my wife is most afraid of.

I have a three tiered set up that comes apart. The three stands go in the corner of the garage. The keggles go under the camper in the back yard and all of the small stuff goes in a big plastic storage container then in the work bench. All the buckets and kegs just get shuffled around the garage until they are needed.

I just ordered a Bucket Boss think it will work well for holding my equipment.

I'm building a room in my basement under the front porch that will be my electric brewery and house most of my equipment. I am also working on a storage room in the same vicinity and next to my bar that will have shelving and Rubbermaid tubs. I would love to have some nice heavy duty racks, but some of the equipment is so light (empty carboys, growlers) that I use the cheap plastic shelves from Walmart. I do have a concrete ledge around most of my basement that holds the Rubbermaid containers well and have built some 2x4 shelving to put on that ledge as well.

I bought these fold-up shelves from walmart that work great. When you're not using them, you can fold them up flat really easy and put them someplace. They work great for keeping brewing equipment on and they were cheaper than the ones you have to screw together (at least when I bought them). I just hang my hoses over the post and keep the rest of the stuff in buckets or boxes. I've found that screw-on tubs are great for things like grain and adjuncts or dry extract. Just try to keep it cheap. I find a lot of good stuff at dollar stores.