Basement Electric Brewery

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kchomebrew

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Thought I'd share my project. Gutting a semi-finished room in my basement to build an electric brewery room. Here's some photos of the room originally and the ongoing remodel. Plan is to install the same sort of set up on www.electricbrewery.com with some minor modifications. Right, I'm getting the room up to par. It's going to take new electrical, new plumbing, new dry wall, new tile, and new windows to get the room right. From there, I'll be building my own condensate/vent hood and duct-blower system and then adding in the electrical brewing equipment. Hope this thread will help others who go down the same path. I'll try to share as much as I can about the process.
 
Attaching in photos of the original room. House was built in 1930 and the room we are tearing down has been unchanged since that time. One of the dead spaces behind one of the walls had an old shower sealed off behind it. Interesting to find this.

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Lucky enough, with the shower we found in the dead space, there was already a drain in the floor. As such, there will be a floor drain and it will also make it handy to connect the sink directly into this (initially wasn't sure if we'd have to jack-hammer into the floor. Finding this working drain really saved me some $ on the remodel !
 
Lucky enough, with the shower we found in the dead space, there was already a drain in the floor. As such, there will be a floor drain and it will also make it handy to connect the sink directly into this (initially wasn't sure if we'd have to jack-hammer into the floor. Finding this working drain really saved me some $ on the remodel !

Excellent. Weird secret shower saves the day!

How are you going to do the floor?
 
Might seem obvious, but make sure that old floor drain still works, before you get too far into the remodel.
 
Awesome project. Wish homes had basements out in the west coast.

Epoxy that floor up!
 
I would love to do something like this one day. I've got the basemen space to do it too. Time to start saving!
Subscribed. Excited to see where this goes.
 
Rami said:
Awesome project. Wish homes had basements out in the west coast.

Epoxy that floor up!

That's a pretty general statement like you're saying no homes on the west coast have basements. I can point to 7 by my house in Astoria, OR with basements. Or did u mean to say, I wish my house on the west coast had a basement. Don't mean to harp on you just thought it was an odd statement. I don't have a basement either and am super jealous of this build!
 
That's a pretty general statement like you're saying no homes on the west coast have basements. I can point to 7 by my house in Astoria, OR with basements. Or did u mean to say, I wish my house on the west coast had a basement. Don't mean to harp on you just thought it was an odd statement. I don't have a basement either and am super jealous of this build!

It's of course too strong to say that no houses on the pacific coast have basements, but it's not terribly far off either:

http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=64030
(check out figure 3)
 
New breaker box/power upgrade installed. Ought to cover the power needs for the room and then some....

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Very nice start! I am starting a basement brewery myself and gathering stuff I need. I will be gutting 1/4 of my basement and starting fresh.
 
That's a pretty general statement like you're saying no homes on the west coast have basements. I can point to 7 by my house in Astoria, OR with basements. Or did u mean to say, I wish my house on the west coast had a basement. Don't mean to harp on you just thought it was an odd statement. I don't have a basement either and am super jealous of this build!

By west coast I mostly meant California. Isn't OR considered Northwest anyway?

Keep the build photos coming! You should make room for a little bar area too if you can. A little tasting area.
 
Photo is the box/frame I've build for the condensate/heat vent hood. 59L x 23W and about 10in deep. I plan to stain the oak wood and then but some wood trim molding around the edges to give it a nice professional look. I'm planning to line the inside with heat/moisture resistant lining. Lastly, I'll be attaching in some aluminum molding lips around the edges to catch any moisture drip/run-off. I ordered a Vortex 6" duct blower and will connect this through one of the windows.

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Area where the stainless steel commercial grade sink is going to be installed got framed up and also had the plumbing and drain lines added. Tomorrow all the framing will be completed and Fri. all electrical outlets and switches will be installed. After that, it's pretty much dry-wall and ducting to be installed. Waiting on a glass block pre-fabricated window with dry vent to arrive and it will go in the other window. Duct venting will go out through that one. Probably will be a week or 2 before that arrives.....

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Stone basement...where in KC are you doing your build out? We're looking at houses in the brookside area and I can't waaaait to finally be have more space to brew.
 
fifelee said:
If you have the room skip the expensive stainless sink and use a cheap used bathtub. Can't have a sink that is too big for cleaning pots.

Functional, but that sure is rediculous looking.
 
Interesting idea on the bathtub. I thought about doing a floor level mop sink...similar sort of concept. I'm not wanting to install anything permanent,which is why I'm going with a freestanding sink. Assuming I could end up moving at some point in the next 5-10 years, I'm hoping everything would be removable from the room. For instance, where I'm placing the sink, if I ever move, I would frame that area in and put closet doors on it (I'm guessing, if I ever moved, the next person who moves there wouldn't be a homebrewer).
 
Drywall and electrical started up. Nice to see this ! Duct blower (vortex fan 6" dia.) arrived also. Picked up ducting and vents at home depot today.

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Cutting the 6 in. dia. hole in the back of the wood ventilation hood and then staining the outside. After that, I found some adhesive backed aluminum sheeting that I'll be lining the inside with. I'd like to build a lip around the edges to catch any moisture run-off but am having trouble finding something that will work. Would like to find something stainless steel that would. Any suggestions anyone has would be welcome.
 
Have you looked into various aluminum or vinyl trim pieces available at the big box home improvement stores? I'm looking at building a vent hood too, but haven't done much research on it yet. I'm also concerned with draining any condensate away rather than having it drip off onto whatever is beneath.
 
Cutting the 6 in. dia. hole in the back of the wood ventilation hood and then staining the outside. After that, I found some adhesive backed aluminum sheeting that I'll be lining the inside with. I'd like to build a lip around the edges to catch any moisture run-off but am having trouble finding something that will work. Would like to find something stainless steel that would. Any suggestions anyone has would be welcome.

What keeps the lip from condensating and then dripping onto what's below? I would think that whatever the lowest point was would condensate and then drip?
 
Drywall is just about finished. Just some minor pieces to be filled in around corners and odd spots around the ceilings and ducts. Still waiting for the glass block window to arrive that I ordered from Home Depot. Once that arrives the last window can be framed out, installed, and vent ducting installed. After that, electrical outlets and switches will be completed and then I have tile to install in the sink area and on the main floor.

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Progress on the room has been a bit slow. Mudding the drywall and it's finally dry. I ordered a glass block window which hasn't arrived from Home Depot yet (hoping that will arrive tomorrow). Once that arrives, I'll be able to get the last window installed, which means I can begin working on the install of the hood vent/duct blower/ducting. Still have a lot of things that need to be done (tile, complete the install of electrical outlet and switches, get sink/disposal/plumbing lines added in). Hoping there will be good progress this coming week.
 
Staining the vent hood today. Made out of oak. Polyurethane coating tomorrow and then will cut in the 6' dia. hole on the back side (where ducting will insert). After that, I'll be adding in the stainless steel accents to the hood vent and lining the inside with sheet metal.

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Ended up finding a tabco stainless steel sink 24" x 24" at a local restaurant supply store. Also found a pre-rinse faucet for a good price. Plumber is coming out tomorrow to finish up the sink line hot/cold connection and attach the garbage disposal to the sink and drain lines. Have a 2nd cold water line that will be installed with a 1/2" stainless steel ball valve with male barb disconnect attached. I have 2 hoses built with female quick disconnects. One will run from the ball valve to the HLT and the other will attach to the counterflow chiller. Once these items are set up, all plumbing work will be completed. Drywall priming is done, so I need to paint the ceiling and walls. Lots of work to do.

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Good amount of progress over the last few days. All electrical outlets and switches are installed and completed. Only thing that's incorrect is that duct blower outlet has a on/off switch hooked up to it instead of a 3 speed dial. Looks like the electrician made an error on that, so I'll have to have them come back out. GFI switches were added to the breaker box for the 30A electric control box and 2 GFI's attached for the breakers that power the outlets in the room. I painted the ceiling and walls and then installed the can light baffles. Hopefully, and according to UPS, the glass block window I ordered from Home Depot should be arriving today and installed tomorrow, which will allow me to install the hood vent/duct blower/and ducting. This weekend I'll be working on tiling the sink area so the plumber can come back out and finish up the water/drain lines. I'm also having them put a "t" on the cold water line and running 1/2" stainless ball valve with quick disconnects on it whereby I can run a hose attachment to the HLT and also run a hose attachment to the counterflow chiller. Here's some photos:

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Working on tiling the area where the sink is going to go. I found a large stack of white subway tile in the basement when I moved in. Decided use the re-claimed tile to tile in the sink area. Thing is, I didn't have enough tile to file the space....so I figured out a good use for bottlecaps I've been saving. Once the adhesive dries, I'm going to pour epoxy over the bottlecaps. I'll be grouting tomorrow and then setting up the stainless steel sink.

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Also have to put a second coat of beige paint on the walls today/tomorrow. Thought I'd also attach a photo of the stained and finished oak wood vent hood I build. It has the 6" duct vent hole cut in. Anchoring to the ceiling on Mon. when the final window gets installed and then hooking up the duct blower system.

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Hung the vent hood today. Bummed out. I mis-measured. The window bay where the duct blower sits doesn't have enough room to sit up flush with the hood vent. Oh well. You can see that I black markered in where I need to cut into the hood into a square shape to fit the duct blower now. What I figure I'll do is make a box around the duct blower that will fit it into the hood vent. Hey...nothing's perfect...but this will do.

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Probably going to have to rethink how to mount the duct blower tomorrow. I'm sure there is a way to mount it to the back of the actual hood vent....just need to do some more thinking. That way I can probably remove the wood blocks it's standing on.

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Got everything figured out. Drilled holes in the fan "in" side of the blower and placed in screws to mount the fan on the back side of the vent hood. Really sucked doing this and hard work to get it back up on the ceiling again. But everything looks real good now. Also got a 5 amp rotary switch to run the blower. Plumber finished the sink install. I have a quick disconnect ball valve cold water line. I'll run quick disconnect hoses to the HLT and chiller. Also found some stainless steel lag screws to bolt the sink up to the wall to keep it steady. Need to re-paint walls, paint the window bays, tile the floor and then I'm ready to get the brewing equipment into the room. Hopefully all ready by some point in Jan.

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Added in the condesation edges to catch moisture drip. Floor will get tiled this week and then I can start adding brewing equipment.
 

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