Cowbrau eBIAB brewery build

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cowgo

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Location
Kansas
I literally haven't brewed in the 2 years since we moved into this old house. Any work has been done on the secret hidden mancave (See build thread here ) or on the 1000 different things needing done on a 130 year old house.

My plan was a single tier electric set up in the basement. Because of space and getting jazzed over reading about BIAB brewing, I scaled it back to an eBIAB build.

The basement is a typical old limestone foundation space. I first started by sealing and painting the walls and floors:

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Blue floor and clean white walls.

The brew area is an alcove with a window, next to easily accesible water lines and a floor drain. I tore out all of that dangly plumbing:

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Because it's an old house the ceiling is bristling with pipe (probably wrapped in asbestos), duct and a mishmash of wiring. The easiest thing to do was to use 2x4 firring, even though that will lower the ceiling to about 6 foot 8.

Today I ran the 220 line (my brewmation control panel has a built in GFCI) and the lines for the vents and pump outlet. You can see them over on the far back and right walls.
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I also ran several lengths of copper for my tub sink. I went with ball valves up high to use with RV hoses. Yep, my brewery is right next to the bathroom:
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To end the day I wired and hung two bathroom vents. Last week I spent an hour going through 2 masonry bits boring through the rock foundation to install a vent. The blood on the beam indicates how sharp those vents are:
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Verified that the plumbing didn't leak and that the electrical worked and called it a day. Left to do is install the ceiling (with a rope ratchet pully install as well), hang cement board and drywall, paint, build a brew stand, and test the ekeggle. I've got 200 pounds of grain and several pounds of hops crying to fill the empty 4 tap keezer.
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Hopefully next weekend I'l be able to update with a finished build!
 
The basement was a bit too dark so I installed a couple more ceiling lights, those along with the fan light really brightens up the space.

Still have to install and plumb the tub sink, but that's just a matter of cutting pvc to fit down into a floor drain. Spent today building the brewstand, installing a couple lights, putting a ceiling in the bathroom so my daughters don't go, ewww gross, spider webs, and hanging my Brewmation controls.

Here's the set up. Above are two vent fans, one with a light:
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I think the ceiling is too low for the rope ratchet to be effective. Dang. I can make the stand shorter but I wanted to be able to gravity feed into the carboy. The electrical isn't too pretty, but it's safe and it works:
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The tub sink will fit right next to the brewstand.
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Should finish up everything this week and with any luck, brew the first batch this weekend! It'll be a wheat, all to be bottled and given to my buddy who helped with the build.
 
just get rid of the turnbuckle on your pulley and make a slightly larger hole in the ceiling. That might get you the height you need.
 
After five brews on the new rig, condensation is an obvious problem. I thought two bath fans with 100 cfm would be sufficient, but I'm getting crazy drippage.

Here's the new solution: a cone hood with a 700 cfm hydroponic fan that sits over the keggle. It's about 2 inches larger in circumference than the keggel so if the odd drip does occur, it'll be outside the pot

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The fan is mounted on the other side of the wall in the bathroom and vents directly outside. I wired it to a switch.

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Another view:

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It's not copper, just rustoleum over sheet metal. Can't wait to try it out next weekend. It's got a lot of suck, should work great. I can detach it for the mash, just unchain it and pull from the wall. I put plenty of sheet metal screws into for rigidity. The stand is on casters so I can just wheel it out a couple inches for hop additions.
 
pvtschultz said:
Did you buy or have someone make the cone?

Oh, and how has that keg coozie worked for you?

It was fabricated at a sheetmetal shop. Only 100 bucks, about in line with the cost of a stove hood. The fan was 120 though. Also had about 20 bucks in elbow fittings.

The keg koozie isnt working out for me, but i like the way it looks. Since it has a lot of elasticity yet to give i think I'll use it to hold some wool insulation in place and throw an electric blanket over the top of it all. If that doesn't hold temps i dont know what would.
 
What are the finished dimensions on that exhaust hood? Thanks.

It's 24 inches wide, rising 18 inches to an 8 inch opening. I had to use a reducing elbow to get down to the standard 4 inch pipe for the rest of the assembly. It's made from 24 gauge sheetmetal, so it's a bit more sturdier.
 
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