This thread has been a long time coming. I have been working on my home brewery for just about a year now and it is up and running with the bugs worked out. I now have a bit of time to go through and document what I did for the community's use. I have been a shameless lurker up to this point and am now coming out of the shadows. Kal asked me to put together a thread when I could so here it is.
A little history: I have been home brewing for over 20 years and occasionally lend a hand at a local micro brew place in my neighborhood. I have moved from cook top extract setup to a garage propane 5 gallon setup, added full grain capabilities and now have the full blown electric setup in my basement. I love brewing and the camaraderie of brewing with a bunch of great guys who love brewing. I have a vertical side by side fridge in the garage with three taps, but my wife has moved me to the basement. As I post pictures, I will go into further detail on the builds for each appliance if there is interest. The most notable home build is a fermentation refrigeration controller I built to look exactly like Kal's brewing controller so they look like a matched pair. I have to say that I am overwhelmed with how well it came out and learned a TON about wiring and refrigeration set points, etc.
I have a number of messy hobbies and needed a space out of the way of SWMBO to do them (Brewing, Beekeeping, Cheese making, Maple Syrup Making). I use my brewery to 1. brew, 2. extract honey, 3. make cheese, 4. boil down sap from my sugar bush to make maple syrup. Not doing this in my wife's kitchen has improved our marriage substantially.
Our basement was unfinished this time last year. The area where my brewery and bar is used to be my wood working shop, the rest of the basement was storage and junk. I will post construction pics of the basement. We wanted a guest suite, home theater, work out room, copious storage, a bar and brewery, and a rec room for ping pong and pool. The basement opens out with sliding glass doors to a patio and a path to the lake. I built a 12x24 workshop as a separate building and moved my woodworking equipment in there. We also tackled moving the washer and dryer from the first floor to my closet on the second floor and rebuilt the first floor room as a mud room and pantry. (Momma's happy.)
-JonyMac
My setup:
- Brew controller built by Spike Innovations
- Custom homebuilt fermentation refrigeration controller
- Copper Convoluted chiller
- Two March pumps for wort and water
- Blichmann version 1 20 gallon kettles
- Stainless heating elements
- Fill faucet for HLT
- Large slop sink with sprayer
- Custom condensate hood with fan and return air grill
- Barley crusher on a homebuilt cart with drill
- 3 SS Brewtech 14 gallon conicals
- Keezer with homebuilt collar - holds 10.5 cornys, I use 8 kegs, 1 cleaner keg, 1 Nitrogen tank, 1 chilling recirc keg for the fermentation tanks, and 1 reservoir recircing to the freezer then to the taps and back
- Freezer with 50' 1/2" coil of copper that connects to tap chiller and Keezer - holds hops and other goodies
- Cooler - holds 4 kegs for lagering/conditioning, glasses, harvested yeast, cheese
- NEST live webcam to remotely monitor fermentation controller or for brew buddies to watch brew day when they can't be local
- Bar Area:
- 8 tap Micromatic T post with stout faucet
- 1 scuba tank sized CO2 tank
- Laptop with two external monitors - 1 for Raspberry pints, the second for brewing recipes during brew day
- Articulating flat screen for watching ESPN channels
- bar sink
- microwave
- mini dishwasher
- bottle beer fridge (for cloning purposes of course)
- glass and bar stuff storage
- water conditioning system
My Other Build Threads:
Stillwater Home Brewery Construction Pictures Thread:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28619
Fermentation Refrigeration Controller Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28624
Keezer and Freezer Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28625
Fermenter Cooling System Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=314563
Brewery Grain Grinder Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28627
Return Air System for Brewery Fan Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28626
CO2 System and Pressurized Beer Moving Build - COMING SOON
Taps, Trunk Line and Cooling Coil Build - COMING SOON
RaspberryPints Running on MacBook Air Build - COMING SOON
So for some pics:
IMG_0244 by jonymac, on Flickr
IMG_0156 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery West Wall
IMG_0157 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery North Wall
IMG_0158 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery East Wall
IMG_0159 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery South Wall
IMG_0145 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0146 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0147 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0148 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0150 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
Construction pics: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28619
A little history: I have been home brewing for over 20 years and occasionally lend a hand at a local micro brew place in my neighborhood. I have moved from cook top extract setup to a garage propane 5 gallon setup, added full grain capabilities and now have the full blown electric setup in my basement. I love brewing and the camaraderie of brewing with a bunch of great guys who love brewing. I have a vertical side by side fridge in the garage with three taps, but my wife has moved me to the basement. As I post pictures, I will go into further detail on the builds for each appliance if there is interest. The most notable home build is a fermentation refrigeration controller I built to look exactly like Kal's brewing controller so they look like a matched pair. I have to say that I am overwhelmed with how well it came out and learned a TON about wiring and refrigeration set points, etc.
I have a number of messy hobbies and needed a space out of the way of SWMBO to do them (Brewing, Beekeeping, Cheese making, Maple Syrup Making). I use my brewery to 1. brew, 2. extract honey, 3. make cheese, 4. boil down sap from my sugar bush to make maple syrup. Not doing this in my wife's kitchen has improved our marriage substantially.
Our basement was unfinished this time last year. The area where my brewery and bar is used to be my wood working shop, the rest of the basement was storage and junk. I will post construction pics of the basement. We wanted a guest suite, home theater, work out room, copious storage, a bar and brewery, and a rec room for ping pong and pool. The basement opens out with sliding glass doors to a patio and a path to the lake. I built a 12x24 workshop as a separate building and moved my woodworking equipment in there. We also tackled moving the washer and dryer from the first floor to my closet on the second floor and rebuilt the first floor room as a mud room and pantry. (Momma's happy.)
-JonyMac
My setup:
- Brew controller built by Spike Innovations
- Custom homebuilt fermentation refrigeration controller
- Copper Convoluted chiller
- Two March pumps for wort and water
- Blichmann version 1 20 gallon kettles
- Stainless heating elements
- Fill faucet for HLT
- Large slop sink with sprayer
- Custom condensate hood with fan and return air grill
- Barley crusher on a homebuilt cart with drill
- 3 SS Brewtech 14 gallon conicals
- Keezer with homebuilt collar - holds 10.5 cornys, I use 8 kegs, 1 cleaner keg, 1 Nitrogen tank, 1 chilling recirc keg for the fermentation tanks, and 1 reservoir recircing to the freezer then to the taps and back
- Freezer with 50' 1/2" coil of copper that connects to tap chiller and Keezer - holds hops and other goodies
- Cooler - holds 4 kegs for lagering/conditioning, glasses, harvested yeast, cheese
- NEST live webcam to remotely monitor fermentation controller or for brew buddies to watch brew day when they can't be local
- Bar Area:
- 8 tap Micromatic T post with stout faucet
- 1 scuba tank sized CO2 tank
- Laptop with two external monitors - 1 for Raspberry pints, the second for brewing recipes during brew day
- Articulating flat screen for watching ESPN channels
- bar sink
- microwave
- mini dishwasher
- bottle beer fridge (for cloning purposes of course)
- glass and bar stuff storage
- water conditioning system
My Other Build Threads:
Stillwater Home Brewery Construction Pictures Thread:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28619
Fermentation Refrigeration Controller Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28624
Keezer and Freezer Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28625
Fermenter Cooling System Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=314563
Brewery Grain Grinder Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28627
Return Air System for Brewery Fan Build:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28626
CO2 System and Pressurized Beer Moving Build - COMING SOON
Taps, Trunk Line and Cooling Coil Build - COMING SOON
RaspberryPints Running on MacBook Air Build - COMING SOON
So for some pics:
IMG_0244 by jonymac, on Flickr
IMG_0156 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery West Wall
IMG_0157 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery North Wall
IMG_0158 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery East Wall
IMG_0159 by jonymac, on Flickr
Brewery South Wall
IMG_0145 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0146 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0147 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0148 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
IMG_0150 by jonymac, on Flickr
Bar Area
Construction pics: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28619