New house build: Brewing options

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DubbelDach

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2008
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Location
Lancaster, PA
So I am building a new house. My wife is finished with her residency in July, and begins her real doctor job in October. So we're moving from Harrisburg to Lancaster and are going all-in on a new dream house.

Needless to say, I'm taking the opportunity to build in some options that are conducive to brewing! Not really DIYing since the builder is all over these, but this is the most appropriate forum.

Now of course, the first option I wanted was a 3-car garage. I would have walled off one bay and dedicated it as the brew haus. However, we fell in love with this neighborhood, the design, the location, etc... While it would have been nice, I am OK with not having it. So here's the house as of yesterday:

house_front.jpg


Now, just to the right of the front door and to the left of the garage door is Feature #1:

hotcold.jpg


Hot and cold hose bib. No more running inside for hot water. Will make startup (less gas to heat mash/sparge/etc) and cleanup a breeze. Also, to the top right of the garage will be a double floodlight to light up the whole driveway for night brews.

Inside of the garage, is a bumped back area. It's 8.5 feet wide, perfect for my brew table to fit in:

garage_wide.jpg


Now one of the changes we did was to bump it 2 feet further into the living space. So it made the future study (present toddler playroom) shorter, but the garage longer. However, on the back of the house, we bumped the living room and study out 5 feet for a cathedral ceiling, so we really didn't lose any living space. Also notice the garage floor is sunk down two feet. We have an 11 foot ceiling in the garage, so brewery storage will go vertical as well. Basement and first floor have 9 foot ceilings.
 
Closeup of the brewspace:

brewspace_bump.jpg


Right in the middle of the wall is a GFI outlet that will be above the level of my table. Two other GFIs in the garage as well. Now top right of this picture is my ace in the hole: A cable jack. No more rushing through Sunday morning brews to catch the NFL. Going to mount a TV up there in the corner. So although this space looks on the small side in this picture, it's actually 5 feet deep, 8.5 feet wide, and 11 feet high. That'll work for gettin' my mash on.

Moving to the back left of the garage, we have the steps up into the living space. Sort of a little dead zone there between the steps and the back wall, so... Let's put a laundry tub there with running hot and cold water. Cleaning up will absolutely be a breeze:

sink_rough.jpg


So they broke ground at the end of March, and we move in Memorial Day weekend. They only needed 47 build days (Amish framers!), which blew my mind. Hopefully within a few weeks I'll be up and running for my first brew. Then I can focus on us eventually finishing the basement/home theatre/bar... Not for a year or two though.

I know this isn't a super-awesome brew shed, but I was happy to be able to work some of these options in and hope it gives new builders some ideas...

Cheers! :mug:
 
Very nice. Good luck, hope the brewery comes out as you planned.

If you ever run into Randy and Alice Cohen up there in Lancaster tell them their nephew Matt say hi.
 
So... are there any tricks to get the maximum water temperature to exceed 120°F?

I think it will, yes... Maybe just a warning so I don't scald babies?

Very nice. Good luck, hope the brewery comes out as you planned.

If you ever run into Randy and Alice Cohen up there in Lancaster tell them their nephew Matt say hi.

I will keep an eye out!
 
Congrats man! This is great! You'll have to modify your logo. :)

"Brewed in a Garage in Lancaster, PA" :mug:
 
It may be out of scope at the moment but you'd be future proofing your brewery if you run some 240v outlets near the garage door and/or in the back of the garage in case you want to go all electric. You should also run a 3/4" natural gas run to near the garage door.
 
It may be out of scope at the moment but you'd be future proofing your brewery if you run some 240v outlets near the garage door and/or in the back of the garage in case you want to go all electric. You should also run a 3/4" natural gas run to near the garage door.

+1 on adding a 240V/50A circuit (w/ a GFI breaker) in the garage.

I had my garage retro-fitted with one last week. It was literally installed 2 feet away from my panel and it cost me $100 just to have a guy come in, install the breaker (which I already had purchased), run some wire (which I already had purchased), and connect it to a receptacle (which I already had purchased).

It was 30 minutes of pretty damn easy work that I could have done myself, but our homeowner's insurance won't cover any damages that are the result of work performed by a person without a valid electrician/contractor license, so SWMBO insisted I pay someone with the proper documentation "just in case".
 
+2. At least run the wire even if you don't spring for the breaker until you decide you want to use it.

Yeah, the GFI breakers can be expensive. I found one new-in-box for $36 shipped on ebay, so it wasn't the hard punch in the nuts it could have been.

Thinking more along those lines...

my house has a main panel outside that has breakers for the central air and the electric range, but then it has a 100A breaker that feeds to the subpanel in the garage. Everything else in the house is fed from the subpanel.

If I were building new and was going to have a main panel and subpanel like this, I would just make the breaker that feeds the subpanel GFI and be done with it. Everything in my house would be GFI protected then.
 
If I were building new and was going to have a main panel and subpanel like this, I would just make the breaker that feeds the subpanel GFI and be done with it. Everything in my house would be GFI protected then.

Would be cool until you have a ground fault somewhere and the entire house goes dark :)
 
Congrats man! This is great! You'll have to modify your logo. :)

"Brewed in a Garage in Lancaster, PA" :mug:

I did think of that... I have it a lot of places, and on my website it would entail a lot of changes... Hell, I even have it on clothing. I'll get to it some (boring day @ work) day.

It may be out of scope at the moment but you'd be future proofing your brewery if you run some 240v outlets near the garage door and/or in the back of the garage in case you want to go all electric. You should also run a 3/4" natural gas run to near the garage door.

I do have a gas line running to the deck... I plan on keeping the grill out there. Honestly, I didn't think of it for the garage. I do have two propane tanks now, so I don't mind doing the propane to the fryer. 5 gallon batches are plenty for me, so I don't envision building a Brutus or anything. And I am positive I won't go electric. I have my methods fairly dialed in now, and I like the manual aspects of it. Good thinking on both points though!
 
Man, that looks like it is in the new Wor.......on development. Just down the road from me. Glad to have another HBF member in the area. There are quite a few of us. Congrats to your wife for all of her hard work (and obviously your support). :)
 
Man, that looks like it is in the new Wor.......on development. Just down the road from me. Glad to have another HBF member in the area. There are quite a few of us. Congrats to your wife for all of her hard work (and obviously your support). :)

You are correct, sir... Great detective work! Cheers, neighbor :tank:

Good to hear there are more of us... Figured I'd head to LBC one of the last Wednesdays of the month and check out the brew club as well. You a member?

I do enjoy group brew days, so keep me posted!
 
Good deal Ryan.. it is cool to see the progress on FB and here as well.. better pics here.



My next time back home we will have to meet up.

Scott F..
 
+1 on the NG line, floor drain would have been badass. House looks great!

Floor drain I don't believe was an option... The whole floor is graded to run out the front, so not too worried. Any hosing off and such will be in the driveway anyhow. And I have a large push squeegee.

Hi Scott!
 
5 gallon batches are plenty for me, so I don't envision building a Brutus or anything. And I am positive I won't go electric. I have my methods fairly dialed in now, and I like the manual aspects of it. Good thinking on both points though!

heh-heh.

I never thought I'd go electric either. I also never thought I'd go all-grain. In fact, at one point in my life I had never even considered homebrewing. :D

It's now about 13 years since I made my first batch of ale, and I am probably a week or two away from plugging in and conducting my first all electric HERMS session.

It turns out that, for me at least, the hobby is as much about tinkering and building things as it is about making beer.
 
Looks great! Congrats on the house build, and keep us updated with brew room pics.
 
OK, so just about a month to move-in day, but instead of packing and stuff, I'm planning out the garage. Thanks to the board for getting me into Google Sketchup!

The space... Again, the bump out is 6 feet deep, 11 feet high, and 8'6" wide. Here are some preliminary shots to get a feel for the space... Plenty of room for the wife's Escape, and hopefully my Hyundai in the winter:

garage_1.jpg


garage_2.jpg


garage_3.jpg
 
Now comes the good stuff... Will add the "L" shape to the brew table, then build up with the shelving. Eventually, may replace the brew table/L with a one-piece work area. The shelves, I am thinking I'll just mount to the studs with regular shelf L-brackets. I use Better Bottles so there won't be anything crazy heavy on them. The brown panel is pegboard, which is standard in any of my work areas for other tools and such.

garage_4.jpg


garage_5.jpg


garage_6.jpg
 
Having two propane tanks just means you won't run out of all your gas in one session but it says nothing about the pain in the ass and expense of getting them filled or exchanging them. Nat gas never runs out and it's cheaper. You don't need a brutus to take advantage.
 
Having two propane tanks just means you won't run out of all your gas in one session but it says nothing about the pain in the ass and expense of getting them filled or exchanging them. Nat gas never runs out and it's cheaper. You don't need a brutus to take advantage.

True, but it's what I've been doing, and it's too late to have the builders add it. I have one on the deck in the back, but won't really feel like hauling stuff back there... Which brings up another dumb thing. I was going to convert the grill to NG and put it out there... But Weber customer service tells me that a Genesis Silver B can't possibly be converted from LP to NG. DAMMIT!!! :mad: Although, I'm sure there's resourceful people here..... :eek:

Welcome to Lancaster!

Thanks! Looking forward to it!

Why the hell is there a car in the middle of the brewery?!

Just had to show my wife that her car will be toasty warm in the winter. Wanted to grab a Hyundai from the 3D warehouse too, but alas... No one took the time to make an '02 Hyundai Elantra GT. Wonder why? If that Escape is to scale, I'm sure we'll actually be able to fit both in our 2 car garage (were thinking that with storage it would be tight). In my next postings it will be gone because it made my Sketchup file HUGE!
 
Here are the pics as of now... Pretty much ready to brew, I just need some time!

SDC16299.jpg


Laundry tub... Probably going to get a faucet with a pull out hose.

SDC16300.jpg


SDC16301.jpg


6' wide shelves... Wanted to get my stuff up and out of the way.
 
Pretty sweet!

I'm having a house built right now as well and will be doing something in the garage....

Although, I do have 5 pot shelves in the house, maybe turn them (at least the one in the den) into "carboy shelves" ?? :D

pot_shelf_5.jpg
 
Just a question, why not slap a couple coats of white on those walls to protect the drywall paper and make it look purty?

Was definitely thinking of painting around the sink... Some Kilz or something and silicone the top edges to the wall.
 
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