My Garage conversion to brewery

Ok this has been a ten month plus project. I'm still not done, but I got it to the point of being able to do batches.

Some more pics and I will take some more pics to day.

Again still under construction. The Primary/Conditioning room is done. I'll be controlling my AC with the BCS in less then a month. I also want to put a temp probe in each of the primary's to monitor temps while fermenting.
Any questions?

Looking great! I'm jealous of that sink. I end up doing a lot of cleaning in an old fiberglass utility sink in the basement. I always have to be careful to rinse well and sanitize in other containers.

I have a cool sink. I mean, a REALLY cool sink.. complete with a 60+ year history from the family I bought it from.




But yeah... I have total sink envy. Bast*rd.

What are you doing about the door being blocked by the sink? And the light fixture against the drywall - that's super easy to fix: just bump the fixture out on a 2X4.

Brewn4life said:

Ok this has been a ten month plus project. I'm still not done, but I got it to the point of being able to do batches.

Click to expand...

looks like a door relocation, or angle the sink and build storage cabinets behind it. cool project! Im officially jealous

Yep there is still things to be done. The light needs mounted and the door is going to swing out so we still have to re-install for that. The table is completely movable, but its were its going to stay. I need to add a strip of some thing on the front of the Primary stand, strap down the propane tank to the wall...clean and organize build shelf's just a lot of little stuff.
Thanks for the compliments on the sink. It wasn't cheep, but after using it a couple times....I will never wash my carboys, pots....what ever in the kitchen sink or bathtub again!!!

I like the conicals in a shelf idea. Hadn't thought of that. Looks really tidey that way. Not to mention,being easier to draw off the trub.

Thanks Unionrdr,
When I was building the F&C room I really had no idea how I was going to hold up the 500lb. So we put 2x4 on the two sides and across the back then put the angled 2x4's to make it easier to get to the ball valves. I tell ya those BV's are bad ass and I recommend them to any one. I thought my threads were 2" but were 1.5" and so I ended up needing to get reducers. The thing is 2" BV's have a 1.5" through port which is the same size as the conical. The reducers are only $1.50 and they are the same material as the BV's. Which is all food grade. They weren't sure of the maximum temps to be used, but they were being used by many food applications. My only problem now is how am I going to get my wort from boil kettle to primary. Were thinking maybe a 12' section of the silicone tubing and pump it from the kettle through the filter in to the primary. The lid opening is about 4.5'+- high.

Looks like you'll have to use a chugger pump & long food grade tubing to get it in those. Luggin that much wort is too much of a pita!

No doubt about it, That is way to much wort. We dumped it in the primary using a 6gln pot on the last batch. I'm still getting all the kinks worked out.....a lot of kinks!!

This is the layout of the electrical box for the BCS, pumps, burners, ac..etc...

Hey Brewn,
Just a thought.
Layout your SSR's with the control voltage sides together. You can place them tighter and the larger power wire wont interfere. (they dont care if they are upside down)

'da Kid

Got it thanks,
I was like hu.,..Ohhh I see! Lol
Good idea!

Random side question... looks like you have a trub strainer from brewers hardware... how do you like it? Where do you put it in the pump, plate chiller order... strainer->pump->plate chiller?

I too have sink envy for sure. This is a nice build. So much fun.

Impressive build.....

Cheers
Jay

Thank for the compliments!!!
It's ben a very big job, now I got two batches under my belt working on the third this Saturday!
The hops back/trub filter is after my wort chiller going into my primary. Word of advice keep a container under the bottom of it when you take off the bottom whose barb...sticky/hard lesson learned!
It's ben a lot of work and once I get my BCS control hooked up and every thing dialed in I'll be ready for show and tell.

Brewn4life said:

Thank for the compliments!!!
It's ben a very big job, now I got two batches under my belt working on the third this Saturday!
The hops back/trub filter is after my wort chiller going into my primary. Word of advice keep a container under the bottom of it when you take off the bottom whose barb...sticky/hard lesson learned!
It's ben a lot of work and once I get my BCS control hooked up and every thing dialed in I'll be ready for show and tell.

Click to expand...

How did the third batch go?

Ok so the third batch a Chocolate Stout went great up intill the wort chiller clogged right up. I'm thinking of putting the find screen in the trub filter and sticking that between my BK and WC! So what should've ben any easy chill took a good hour. I was like damn this is taking forever, let's see if any thing is clogged!!! Hot damn it is...shoot! Only 2oz of hops. Or I'll go get some nylon and sow up a nice big hops bag for my hops spider.
My last two batches came out on the low side of 65%+- mash conversion. Maybe it's my grind. I thought it was looking good when I checked the grind, but I'm no master brewer!! maybe my sparge sucks! In a couple weeks I'm doing an IPA. We'll see how it goes!

Do your best to keep everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, out of your chiller/pump setup. A few nylon bags for your hops/spices will save you worlds of hurt. Trust me...just...trust me.

Brewn4life said:

This is the layout of the electrical box for the BCS, pumps, burners, ac..etc...

Click to expand...

Can you give some more details on why you have a transsformer, power supply and 2 wall warts in there? Cheers

Brewn4life said:

Ok so the third batch a Chocolate Stout went great up intill the wort chiller clogged right up. I'm thinking of putting the find screen in the trub filter and sticking that between my BK and WC! So what should've ben any easy chill took a good hour. I was like damn this is taking forever, let's see if any thing is clogged!!! Hot damn it is...shoot! Only 2oz of hops. Or I'll go get some nylon and sow up a nice big hops bag for my hops spider.
My last two batches came out on the low side of 65%+- mash conversion. Maybe it's my grind. I thought it was looking good when I checked the grind, but I'm no master brewer!! maybe my sparge sucks! In a couple weeks I'm doing an IPA. We'll see how it goes!

Click to expand...

Are you using leaf or pallet hops?

I have a hops spider but it was for my 6gln ktl, now I have to make one for my 25gln ktl. If you know of big nylon bags by all means post a link. I use both leaf and pellet. I used leaf on the first batch and completely clogged my uptake tube...I mean clogged done not a drop coming through.
The transformer is for 110ac-24ac...burners, The two walwirts are for powering the BCS and manual control of the relays. The other power Suply is 24vdc, which is for the relay board and when I can get the electric valves it'll power them as well. I'm sure there is a better way of doing it, but I think it'll work.

Left IPA Citra and IPA Halertauer
Center is my BMC
Right is my chocolate stout

For Super Bowl
3 glns IPA Citra
3 gallons IPA Halertauer
5 gallon sweet chocolate stout on nitro tap

This is the IPA being dry hopped in secondary. The one gallon I dry hopped with Chinook and Falconers Flight. I put one ounce of hops in the 5 gallon so I just kept ratios the same for the one gallon.

This is the Hallertau IPA from the tap!


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This is the Citra IPA from tap!
Wow what a difference between the two hops.


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And on Super Bowl Sunday!!
Although the stout was to flat for me. I put it back on Co2 for this week and see how it is next weekend.


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