If you could build your fantasy brew area...

...what would it look like?

El Hubbo and I are looking at buying a home up here in the hills, then building a shop area/home office/secondary kitchen/brew complex. All this is theoretical at this point, but I wanted some input from my brew buddies. Okay, so the "fantasy" part is exaggeration. There are some constraints here. Assume, maybe 20' X 40' of space.

Already, I have in mind:

high-output gas stove with pot-filling faucet above it
dual deep sinks
cabinets (how many? what sizes?)
maybe a closet area that runs the full length of the room for dark, climate controlled fermentation space and additional storage
outdoor concreted patio area for outside brewdays

???

Tell me what your brewery would look like!

Budget?............

Let's say $5,000 after plumbing and walls are built. Assume cheap interior components. I don't want gold doorknobs or granite countertops. Bolt-together cabinets from Slowe's will work just fine. And don't include actual brewing equipment, either. That's separate. Budget is a a bit flexible.

Does EdWort get to participate in this, that rat bastard?

If I had one on an outbuilding, I'd want to get a shed big enough for a possible 3 tier system with venting, and a cooler for at least 4 fermenters. It'd need plumbing, water, electricity and gas hookup. Add an outdoor grain grinding station. Definitely an outdoor place to brew. I may think of more later, but I'm tired and getting off work soon.

Forget three tier systems, were I building my fantasy brewery, I'd handle everything pre-fermented with magnetic impeller pumps. A temperature controlled fermentation area would also recieve much consideration.

Definitely a walk in cooler.

maybe a water conditioning system if your water sucks. My water in my new house sucks since it instantly clouds up starsan.

It should be interesting to see where this goes... I'm still figuring out my evolution to 10g batches.

Shameless bump, as this thread has crapped out.

So part of this planning process is trying to predict how much more involved in the hobby I will be in the future. All grain? Maybe, maybe not. I will certainly be building a kegerator, probably one of those small chest-freezer types, maybe with 3-4 taps. I like brewing hard cider. Lagering seems like it'd be in my future, too.

While I really enjoy brewing, my part of this hobby has been on the small scale so far. I'm really comfortable brewing 2 X 5 gal batches at a time and liked the trial run I had with kegging before I moved and left the old kegerator in Texas (it was on its last legs anyhow and highly inefficient.). I've been using kits from Austin Homebrew and modifying them just a bit here and there to my own taste. That's it, so far.


But I look at the three-tier systems some folks on here have and it doesn't seem like that would be up my alley. I like the "earthy-ness" of homebrewing and I'm not a real technical/detail person. I don't even know what half that stuff is for, although all the stainless steel sure looks pretty. But who knows? Now is the time to plan for any expansion I might want to make in the hobby in the future. Tough job, but a pleasurable one!

Thanks for all input so far! Keep it coming.

base cabinets should be large enough to store 2 or 4 buckets side by side(probaly hafta build em custom from 2x4 and plywood). these would also double as fermentation closets, need 2-4 of these. take a used kitchen base that will fit a bucket and convert it to roll and fit a grain mill in the top(you can roll it outside to grind). one farmers style sink and one laundry sink with appropriate taps and a line for a bottle washer permanately installed. a high speed ventilation fan to handle combustion gases if you decide to go AG it's just as easy to do it on the counter as it is to use a three tier imo.

upper cabinets will hold small items like minerals, adjunct grains, scales, etc. so plan spacew accordingly. plan on a hanging rack over one of the sinks to hang strainers,spoons,tubing,

UPDATE!


We are in the middle of building the shop. Whoo-hoo! Trouble has been mostly getting the rain to stop long enough to get stuff done.

We started clearing the land ourselves last Feb. There were lots of trees we cut! We counted about 40 sizeable stumps that the backhoe had to dig out when it got here. El Hubbo here is sitting on several cords of wood, and there's a large stack of 12' poles that we cut out of medium, straight trees for another project that aren't pictured.



One of many stump/brush piles:



Here's a pic of the early ground-clearing, once we got to the point where heavy equipment became involved:



And, finally...drum roll....here's the framing!!!





The structure has a 20' eave height, and we will start framing in the upper floor decking at some point this winter. My brewspace will be there. We are envisioning it as a "mother-in-law" apartment that will be really designated as a brewery and bunkhouse. I simply cannot convey how excited I am about this project. I'll post up more stuff as things progress, if you'd like.

That looks and awful lot like the starting stages of a 24X40 woodshop I built a few years ago.

CONGRATS!!!

If you can build a 20X40 for 5K, let me know, I'll put a few more up. My 24X40 was a little over 12K finished.

Well...this one is now 34 x 70...and 5k is what I want to sink into finishing up the upstairs part with alone...not what the structure itself costs.