ventilation near window

Had a question on what type of exhaust or ventilation system may work best and be the easiest for me to use in my new brewing space. I'm building an all electric system currently and thinking ahead to what I may need to do for ventilation of the BK and HLT. The window in my basement sits right above the BK and just beside the location of the HLT which will have my HERMS coil inside.

The window open dimensions are 11" tall and 9 1/2" wide. The window sits 18" above the top of my BK.

I'm looking to see what size fan I may need to buy and what duct work, if any I would need to avoid any condensation buildup on the ceiling above (which has hardwood floors just above it in our kitchen. Thanks for the help. Picture below is of the brewing space itself.

got the same sort of thing as you, i will get you a picture little later, used a fan same as used in the electric brewery.com guys did, except i used 6 inch ducting, do you have another window to open for return air, also might want to consiter supplemental heating for the air if you used outside air for make up air

here is what i did, only thing i would do diferent is maybe put the bk directly uner the vent instead of off to the side.

Thanks for the reply bf514921!

Is that just a regular range vent hood that you've attached the duct work to? Also, I looked at that same fan but thought it may be a little much for me in the way of power. I'm hoping to buy a smaller fan that would work well for what I want. I am looking at how to construct or the real need to construct a hood over the kettles. Thought about doing it with just a small constructed hood from galvanized steel or something cheap like that to hang from the rafter then have the duct at the top going right out the window. Keeping it very simple hopefully.

I do have two other windows that can be opened in another room adjacent to the brewing room in the photo. I think that should be enough fresh air input. In your picture, is the pipe just beside your ducting for your fresh air?

My brewery has a 12" squirrel cage mounted in the window and when i want to use it it has a simple slide gate I open. It' made of plywood but it blows under my deck so it's not seen.

"is the pipe just beside your ducting for your fresh air?"
Was originally until it started sucking in exaustem steam, so now i open another window and taped over the other vent so it is closed now.

"small constructed hood from galvanized steel or something cheap like that to hang from the rafter then have the duct at the top going right out the window. Keeping it very simple hopefully."

would work great, you just need something to "catch" the steam and then have the fan suck it out, I have tried several fans and eventually settled on this one, regular low grade range hood wasn't enough, had a squerel cage from a range hood that just wan't enought, the one in the picture is the current setup, 440-450 cfm, works well so far, used it for a couple of brews.

Here is what I am thinking of doing. Again based on what I have seen at theelectricbrewery.com. I am going to use the styrofoam insulation to build a hood, I will probably reinforce it some how with plywood. Then I will cover it with the plastic shower board. this seems to be a lot cheaper than buying a hood and easier than building something out of metal on my own. It will be easy to clean and shouldn't weigh to much. I got a high output fan and will buid 6" duct work to vent from the hood out the side of my wall in the brewery.

Can't drop down $500 - $1000 on a hood, I think I can build this for around $100, plus I have some material lying around.

I think what I may do is similar. I looked over things in my area too and think it may be worth a shot to make a small vent hood out of plywood and then put a few coats of polyurethane on it to help prevent against continued steam penetration. Since there is no more than 12" from the window to the hood I think I may go with an inline fan like this one:

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/active-air-165-cfm-in-line-duct-fan-p-2755.html

I think it should be more than enough power to carry that distance I think and hopefully won't have a lot of moisture buildup since it's such a short distance.

you might want more than 165 cfm look for something more in the 300 would be my suggestion.

the plywood and polyurathene should work fine i think

I got pretty lucky with a fan I pulled from a "solar panel" that was on the roof of my house when I bought it. It was leaking like a sieve so I had a roofing company remove it but I saved the fan.

Not sure what the CFM rating is but it moves some serious air. It's been collecting dust for 4 years now so I'm glad I found a use for it.

For your hood build since you have 6" ducting you could get a 10 or 12 to 6 round reducer. I called the local Famous Supply and they'll sell me a 10/6 for around 10 bucks. I'll be piping it so it's directly above the BK with a quick disconnect to remove it if I need to.

I guess for another 10 bucks they offer a fan that is 400 cfm. That would be more than enough I guess.

I picked up this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RKOOGE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I thought about the Vortex line but pretty pricey for what I think I need. I found this one which still has 400cfm and a 5 yr warranty for only $80.

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/active-air-400-cfm-inline-duct-fan-p-2754.html

Yeah I'd say that's a good price! I hope to get this built this week, will post some pics once done.

Nice. Looking forward to seeing the finished product you come up with. I still have some other stuff for my build to complete before I get to the vent part. Want to make sure I have things ready to go and a plan though before I put it together. This is helpful for me no doubt!

Not the greatest photo, but here's what I did. I also bought an active air fan, but I bought the 8", which was only slightly more expensive. $86 for me. Still, the 8" duct fittings were harder to come by.



I just thought I'd show this because I've found that you don't have to have a hood sitting over your entire brew area to effectively deal with the moisture. Granted, my fan is 720 cfm. But I really haven't had any moisture issues just using the adjustable 8"-10" increaser. I position it near the keggle, but not necessary right above it like a hood.

Well, that old picture was a surprise. Here's my brewery now, 4 months later. I guess I added a RIMS tube, inline O2 injection, sanke fermenting under pressure, bigger mash tun, hard plumbing, a fill valve, and an autovent... uh, didn't realize I'd been so obsessed.

EuBrew said:

I got pretty lucky with a fan I pulled from a "solar panel" that was on the roof of my house when I bought it. It was leaking like a sieve so I had a roofing company remove it but I saved the fan.

Not sure what the CFM rating is but it moves some serious air. It's been collecting dust for 4 years now so I'm glad I found a use for it.

For your hood build since you have 6" ducting you could get a 10 or 12 to 6 round reducer. I called the local Famous Supply and they'll sell me a 10/6 for around 10 bucks. I'll be piping it so it's directly above the BK with a quick disconnect to remove it if I need to.

Click to expand...

Bit off topic, but I was curious how your Ranger IPA Clone turned out. I had that recently and found it outstanding.

Dgonza9 said:

Well, that old picture was a surprise. Here's my brewery now, 4 months later. I guess I added a RIMS tube, inline O2 injection, sanke fermenting under pressure, bigger mash tun, hard plumbing, a fill valve, and an autovent... uh, didn't realize I'd been so obsessed.

Click to expand...

Obsessed, that's a nice way of putting it. I called it insanity. I think about my brewery while I sleep!

Yeah, obsessed would be a good way to describe all of us I'm sure! I've been thinking about this non stop for days now and will be excited to post some pics here soon. I finally got the last couple parts I've been waiting for which came from China so now it's time to do some wiring. I'm doing a replica of Kals build so hopefully all goes well! I already had the kettles, pumps, wort chiller, and some parts so my actual costs weren't that bad. Now I just have to sell my single tier Brutus propane stand and I'll be ahead of the game. I dropped the price to crazy last week so hopefully that will get some bites.

I appreciate all the feedback for the hood so now I just have to decide how to finish this off. The plywood hood with polyurethane looks like the most cost effective and efficient hood to build but I still like just having a duct tubing that I can move from kettle to kettle as well. So many decisions!

Looking forward to the pics!

So I have finally started to wrap up the new electric brewing system that I started when I first posted this ventilation question. After hearing the suggestions here this I what I decided to do.

The hood I made from hardwood scraps from Home Depot. It is 33" long and about 19" wide. This was about the right size that I figured based on the diameter of the Blichmann kettles I'm using. It is 24" above the top of the kettles. The fan is 400cfm. I'm hoping that all this is plenty to expell the steam from the HLT and BK during a session. It is going to be vented right behind the hood where a window is located. There is a separate fresh air duct running to the back of the room I'm brewing in. I think this covers all the bases I'll need for things.

Just for documentation here's a couple of pics of the completed brewery just prior to me putting up the vent hood and ductwork: