Building a brewery in my basement

Greetings,

Due to the harsh winters here in Wyoming, I am contemplating building a brewery in my basement. Currently it is unfinished, so it is kind of a blank slate. I don't know if I should be using either my existing natural gas or switching over to an electric setup. I am curious if there are some of you that have gone through the pains of researching the advantage/disadvantage of these two setups. Which setup is more economical (initial setup/long term)?

My preliminary ideas about each setup:

Natural Gas:

I know that I would need a commercial style hood for the natural gas setup. It looks like I could get a used one off of Craigslist for about $500 from down in Denver. I am thinking about also installing a stainless commercial sink that I could easily get kegs, mash tun, boil kettle etc. in and out of. Is going with used kitchen equipment a good option? Any other good beta on how to setup a basement natural gas brewery?


Electric:

I really don't know much about electric breweries other than a random visit to the electric forum. I know I would need a 220 plug to run an electrical brewery. Could I get away with just using a regular hood (for moisture) if I went electric?

So any advice would be greatly appreciated.


-Michael

I have never attempted anything like this, so my recommendation would be of little value likely. However, knowing that temperature control with gas, in my experience with stoves, is far more precise than with electric. With gas, when you turn it up or down, it is up or down right then. With electric, there is always a lag. Gas is just easier to cook on. So, I am a fan of gas, and if I choose to undertaking anything like this, I would lean toward gas. But then again, I don't know what I don't know.

I completely agree with you on the ease of using gas. My wife and I love cooking with our gas range. I am currently leaning that way now, but don't want to rule out electric (if it offers any advantages).

I would think electric would be the way to go indoors. And possibly less expensive as you wouldnt have to worry about fumes and an overhead fan and duct work. As far as accuracy i know there are some pretty sweet electric systems people have built shown on here maybe they could chime in. Either way hope you share the build cant wait to see!

I will keep the forum updated as I take on this project.

I'm in the process of making a temporary electric basement brewery. SWMBO wants to move in a few years, so don't want to drop too much money in the setup, but would still like to brew indoors this winter. All I'm planning on doing is building a wooden platform for my HLT, MT, and BK (using converted kegs for the HLT and BK, converted cooler MT). Then I'll do all my heating with heat sticks. I plan on putting two outlets on two separate breakers near the brewing setup. This way I can run two 2000w elements at the same time, and move them from HLT to BK, wherever they're needed.

Also, as far as sourcing restaurant equipment, keep an eye out Craigslist, but also watch for any restaurants/malls closing. I was able to get a 3 bay SS sink w/ spray arm for $100 from a guy who had the demo rights to an area mall. It came from one of the food court restaurants and works great. I just made sure to install 1/4 turn shut offs, so I can take it with me when we eventually move.

jay672 said:

I would think electric would be the way to go indoors. And possibly less expensive as you wouldnt have to worry about fumes and an overhead fan and duct work. As far as accuracy i know there are some pretty sweet electric systems people have built shown on here maybe they could chime in. Either way hope you share the build cant wait to see!

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You won't have to worry about dangerous fumes but you'll still need the overhead fan and duct work to get rid of the moisture. Especially indoors.

If you can't find an affordable sink try getting a used bath tub at a Habitat Restore. Raise it up to counter level and you have a huge sink for washing pots (or even the dog). This is what I will be doing in my basement brewery when the house is done in a few months.

Jerry, I was thinking that I could use just a regular kitchen hood with an electric setup. As opposed to having to use a commercial kitchen/homemade hood for a natural gas setup. Thanks for the great advice guys.

I would think that a bathroom ventilation fan would be ideal. Most will move a lot more air than a regular kitchen hood and their made to pull moisture out of the air. I think their in about the same price range also, if not less.

Unless you have free gas, the electric will be cheaper per brewsession to run, not to mention it's almost completely silent.

jerryalan said:

You won't have to worry about dangerous fumes but you'll still need the overhead fan and duct work to get rid of the moisture. Especially indoors.

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Exactly what I was going to say. Electric or gas, that commercial hood is probably something that you're going to want to invest in.

I just did a brew session with a homebrew group in Louisville. Paul, who started the group, has his setup in the basement. There is a natural gas burner that is connected to the home gas line according to code, sitting on top of an open welded frame. His uses a high volume home range hood and fan over this, vented to the outside. During the session the temperature was only slightly higher than the rest of the house, and most of the fumes were also pulled out (we boiled 17 gallons in a 25 gallon pot). He put in cupboards, a counter, and deep 2-well SS sink. The batch was racked off to three 6-gallon carboys. He build a waist high shelf enclosed on three sides for these; easier to move the full carboys at that height. All in all, a nice, unobtrusive setup.

jscottb said:

However, knowing that temperature control with gas, in my experience with stoves, is far more precise than with electric. With gas, when you turn it up or down, it is up or down right then. With electric, there is always a lag. Gas is just easier to cook on. So, I am a fan of gas, and if I choose to undertaking anything like this, I would lean toward gas. But then again, I don't know what I don't know.

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Not necessarily true. Electric brewing is a different application than a normal stove. With electric brewing you have different controls than an electric stove that give you better control. Additionally, because the element is submerged in the wort, it is a direct application of the heat rather than indirect that you get with gas and a burner.

I'm sure others can go much farther into the science/application than I can.

A big dehumidifier would also go a long way to solving the moisture problem. I pulled about 3 gallons of water a day out of the air with mine when I had a modest 150 gallon reef tank going... without it condensation formed everywhere and it wouldnt take too long to get mold or rot issues without one.

Cheap in comparison to other portions of the build.

I regularly do 5 or 10 gallon brews in my 250 sqft garage/workshop and do not have ventilation. I do this when it is freezing outside, and I do it when it is 95F outside. I have never had an issue with condensation. I run an electric rig, and have a dehumidifier going on high from the time I start to about when cleanup is done 4 hours later.

Between gas and electric, I obviously chose electric, but I am comfortable with it. A simple electric setup may cost you a bit more, but it will be a hell of a lot cheaper than a professional hood and the heating costs of evacuating that much air out of the house. I like the controls you can implement with electric, and I like that I dont have CO worries. Just make sure you do it right if you go electric. Check out some of CodeRage's threads. You are also more than welcome to ask me, and if I can answer it I will.

My build is in my signature if you want to check it out. I should have some updates to it soon as well. I am redoing the control box.

Joshua

jscottb said:

I have never attempted anything like this, so my recommendation would be of little value likely. However, knowing that temperature control with gas, in my experience with stoves, is far more precise than with electric.

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Ahhh.....But your statement is not correct. Read this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/gas-temperature-control-dummies-116632/. You can control temperature with gas as well as you can with electricity.

Thanks for the ongoing discussion guys. I am going to do quite a bit of research on the electrical brewing forum, before I go any step further.

well, for the sake of cheaper, no combustion byproducts in your house, and efficiency i am in the middle of an electric cheapy build. i say electric all the way. i think all told i have about $90 or so into mine and thats with te\he pid and temp sensor so i can steep or mash at a set temp, then crank it up to a boil. my first run two nights ago the 5500w element had my tap water to 152 in about 20 minutes. by the way, you have a pm.

When I built my basement brewery I went with electric. Much cleaner setup and though either one can be dangerous if you don't know what your doing, I am more experience with electric. I don't fear having an open flame in the basement, but I didn't want to ever have to deal with the insurance company if the house burned down (from some unknown unrelated issue) and they brought up that I had a huge natural gas burner in my basement.

I do need the exhaust hood for my setup, If I am really trying to boil off I will get condensation on the floor joists above. I am in a smallish room though. I added a kitchen exhaust fan and an 8" duct to outside.

When installing an air exhaust system make sure to take into account some sort of makeup air solution. The air removed by the exhaust fan has to be replaced with air from somewhere else. Without an adequate air replacement source it might end up drawing air back in from a gas fired furnance or water heater flue with the carbon monoxide as well.

Commercial kitchens all have a makeup air fan system drawing outside air in when the cooking exhaust fans are drawing air out.

Sent one back at you techrunner. Thanks for the all the responses guys. I am strongly considering going electric with all the successful stories I've read here.

good point rcrabb22, my house is fairly old so I have plenty of makeup air, but I had thought about having another vent that would bring air in under the burners (when I was thinking of going natural gas)