Brewing Kitchen Design

Hello All,

I haven't capped a single bottle yet because I've decided to do this right from the beginning. When I start brewing it will be from my basement which I have yet to finish. I'm looking for some advise on equipment (gas or electric stove, dishwasher, etc.) and design for the kitchen to optimize brewing. Anything else done there other than brewing is an afterthought. The basic design is rectangular with the entrance/exit at one end and the three other sides being walls. To date I have only one piece of equipment that I have bought pictured in the link below (craigslist, $135.). Hope this works: http://elkayusa.com/pdf/RNSF8358LR.PDF It is quite long and will take up the majority of one of the long sides. It has faucets that came with it. One is a regular faucet with a very long neck that can reach any of the three tubs. I'm not sure yet how the other faucet works yet, but it has two outlets and two plastic tubes that I can put into a bottle of sanitiser or soap and a valve that switches between the two.

Please go nuts with your ideas. I'm looking to have installed that one item the first time that I otherwise would be wishing I had done a year from now.

In my dream brewing kitchen, I would have shelves designed specifically to hold all my equipment, so it could be well organized and easy to grab. Plus they could hold all sorts of ingredients and supplies. I would have a cement floor, so it could get messy and I could just scrub it down with a hose. For stoves, I go for gas over electric any day. I think it gets hotter, and I know you get better temperature control and more even heating. Plus, a counter with a built-in scale, or at least a place for a scale. And a platform to hold buckets and pots and carboys high up, for easy siphoning. Most important, though, it a place for a really nice stereo, where it couldn't get wet. Don't forget to show us pictures when it's done!

I dunno, that sink might be more conducive to bartending than brewing...

That sink would be perfect for brewing and is definilty a part of my dream brewery. Fill one sink with sanitizer and leave all your stuff there on brew day, use the other two to clean things. I would also add a high backsplash so you could get everything wet without worries.

You're gonna need lots of shelving and cabinets.....so you can age bottles (you'll probably still bottle some, even if you keg). Search: brewing indoors. You'll find all sorts of stuff on ventilation, etc. so you can go from mill to fermenter all in your basement.

I'm working on plans for my unfinished basement too. One thing I'm toying with is a three shelf cabinet where I can place my primary on the top, secondary on the middle, and bottling bucket on the bottom so I don't have to disturb anyting by moving it around before siphoning.

Another idea is a shelf above your sink(s) to hold a bottling bucket. If you boiled 5 gal. of water then filled a bottling bucket, you could set it on the shelf, and use the spicket for rinsing things you have just sanatized. I just don't like the idea of 'no rinse' sanatizer in my brew.

Yes, please send pics of the finished project, or drawings of your plans.

A list in no particular order:

A clean area to do yeast handling, a restaurant type work table with walls on three sides would be perfect.

Heavy duty shelving, large and strong enough to hold full carboyS.

Some restaurant natural gas burners will do you better than propane turkey friers, electric will make you an unhappy brewer.

A hose on the sink which can be hooked to your wort chiller.

Beer fridge, hops freezer.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

You should get brewing and figure out what You need when You brew. Everyone likes doing things a little differently and with a bit different equipment. Get the basics going and then you can make Your dream home brewery.

Catfish said:

You should get brewing and figure out what You need when You brew. Everyone likes doing things a little differently and with a bit different equipment. Get the basics going and then you can make Your dream home brewery.

Click to expand...

I agree, you should brew two or three batches in your kitchen, then design the basement.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. It sounds like the consensus is heavy duty shelving. I was already going to have cabinets, but I think I'll replace some of the cabinets with the shelving. I'll post pics as work gets done.

A utility sink with a garbage disposal in it. (My next project.)

I am going to chime in, as a fairly new brewer who is in the process of doing exactly what you are doing, building my brew area from scratch in an unfinished basement. I agree completely with the comments above that you really should brew a few batches in your kitchen first, so that you can get a feel for how YOU like things to be, and also what logistical issues your particular combination of equipment brings to the equation.

I have picked up a stove, a side by side deep chamber stainless steel sink, a refrigerator, an upright freezer, a dishwasher, a section of pre-made counter top, and some cabinets. All of these have been from friends when they remodeled their kitchens, or else from Craigslist, and I have been lucky enough to get it all for free. I had already measured out the space, and drawn up diagrams of where I thought I wanted everything. All this, for a guy who had not brewed anything in four years.

Then I started brewing again, in the kitchen, and quickly realized that I needed to tweek a whole bunch of stuff about my design. Example, I really do not enjoy moving a pot around that has between 4 and 5 gallons of boiling hot concentrated sugar solution in it. Because of this, I would like the sink to be close enough to the stove to be able to run the lines for my counterflow chiller with out having to have 50 ft of new tubing running all over the place.

As to the comment about a utility sink, I plan on adding a nice $50 plastic one to my system, but I just looked at the specs on your sink, and it is 13" deep, and the standard utility/laundry sink is 13"-14" deep, so you are good to go there.

Catfish is exactly right, you want to install an EXTRA water faucet, with garden hose-style fitting, so that you can hook up your wort chiller WITHOUT taking up your sink. Check out JoeDragon's basement he just did at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=45492

At the bottom of the fourth, and throughout the fifth post, you can see what i'm talking about.

Im going a different direction and getting further from the house. I am planning to build a shop 36x36 and when I do there is going to be a brewing corner. My plan is to use a janitor basin with a faucet over it, where all cleaning will be done. Im going to build shelves to hold all my equipment. I have been considering digging a small pit somewhere for putting my primaries to keep them at a more stable temp.