Hello HBT community! At my wifes request, I need to move my brewing out of the kitchen. So Im moving to the basement, where I have an 11 x 15 space with a 50A sub panel. This means Im going electric. Reading the HBT threads has provided a lot of valuable insight and ideas, especially all the other Basement brewery builds out there so Im excited to get started.
I made the leap to all-grain a year ago, and recently starting kegging. Im making decent beer and am always looking to improve. The current setup is a 10-gal Igloo and an 8-gal Megapot, all transfers are by hand. Ultimately, Id like to get to a 10-gal Kal-clone-ish HERMS with lots of shiny stainless.
To make it more interesting, Id like to keep this build on a budget, where my equipment investment is about $100 per batch. That means prioritizing and making incremental equipment purchases with each batch. Now, lets get started! During my last brew session, I made a table of the resource gap between kitchen brewing and basement brewing. In both locations, I have:
Vessels: 5-gal HLT; 10-gal MT (Igloo); 8-gal BK (The Igloo holds temps well)
Space to brew; actually, should have more space in the basement.
Hand-held temperature measurement
Water source- laundry sink in basement for brewing water, cooling (Immersion chiller), and cleaning
What I had in the kitchen but dont have in the new brewery:
Heat source (up to 180F for mash/sparge; 212F for boil)
Ventilation
Other things that would make brew day easier:
Closer water source (currently, sink is about 15 from the brew space)
Pump(s) for transferring water, wort
Better vessel temperature monitoring
Water quality. Currently using tap water with Campden tablets. A Ward water report and carbon filter would be a big improvement.
I see heat as kind of a big deal, since its hard to mash and boil without it. I could put a fan in a basement window for ventilation- not ideal but a stop-gap measure. My dad is a master electrician, so a 240V outlet with GFCI is easy to get (probably for free), so the question is do I DIY a 5500W heat stick (about $70), an induction cooktop ($100 for 1800W), or drill a hole in my BK and install a 5500W element right from the get-go? I would have to put a bend in it since my BK is 12.5 diameter and silver-solder a fitting. I figure I could fab a project box with an on/off switch and potentiometer to control heat simply for about $30. The heat stick gives me flexibility to use it in different vessels and I can mount the element later- worried about dry-fire, though; the induction cooktop is plug-and-play but lower wattage; the element in the BK makes it harder to hand-transfer liquids. Which way to go, or is there a better option? Ill post pictures from my phone. Thanks for any help!
I made the leap to all-grain a year ago, and recently starting kegging. Im making decent beer and am always looking to improve. The current setup is a 10-gal Igloo and an 8-gal Megapot, all transfers are by hand. Ultimately, Id like to get to a 10-gal Kal-clone-ish HERMS with lots of shiny stainless.
To make it more interesting, Id like to keep this build on a budget, where my equipment investment is about $100 per batch. That means prioritizing and making incremental equipment purchases with each batch. Now, lets get started! During my last brew session, I made a table of the resource gap between kitchen brewing and basement brewing. In both locations, I have:
Vessels: 5-gal HLT; 10-gal MT (Igloo); 8-gal BK (The Igloo holds temps well)
Space to brew; actually, should have more space in the basement.
Hand-held temperature measurement
Water source- laundry sink in basement for brewing water, cooling (Immersion chiller), and cleaning
What I had in the kitchen but dont have in the new brewery:
Heat source (up to 180F for mash/sparge; 212F for boil)
Ventilation
Other things that would make brew day easier:
Closer water source (currently, sink is about 15 from the brew space)
Pump(s) for transferring water, wort
Better vessel temperature monitoring
Water quality. Currently using tap water with Campden tablets. A Ward water report and carbon filter would be a big improvement.
I see heat as kind of a big deal, since its hard to mash and boil without it. I could put a fan in a basement window for ventilation- not ideal but a stop-gap measure. My dad is a master electrician, so a 240V outlet with GFCI is easy to get (probably for free), so the question is do I DIY a 5500W heat stick (about $70), an induction cooktop ($100 for 1800W), or drill a hole in my BK and install a 5500W element right from the get-go? I would have to put a bend in it since my BK is 12.5 diameter and silver-solder a fitting. I figure I could fab a project box with an on/off switch and potentiometer to control heat simply for about $30. The heat stick gives me flexibility to use it in different vessels and I can mount the element later- worried about dry-fire, though; the induction cooktop is plug-and-play but lower wattage; the element in the BK makes it harder to hand-transfer liquids. Which way to go, or is there a better option? Ill post pictures from my phone. Thanks for any help!