My build

[Roadie]

Well basement brewery room is framed in, lights in, electrical done, water supply lines ran, insulation in and vent hood installed but still needs vented to outside.

To do list includes drywalling, tiling the wall behind where kettles will go and painting. Stout kettles should be here within 2 weeks as well as the Electric Brewery control panel. After brewery is setup I need to put in a 7' bar which will look into the brewery.

Hoping to have brewery setup sometime in February and maybe bar by the end of March.

 

[Ttownbrewer]

Looks like its coming together for you.

I have kettles due in from Stout, and a panel from ebrew supply. I need to get started on my basement soon!

What are the dimensions of your room?

Keep the pics coming!

 

[Roadie]

The back wall is 11' and it's about 9' wide. Wish it was square but furnace and hot water heater take up some real estate.

 

[Woodbrews]

Great build -- looking forward to the rest. What kind of flooring do you have down? I can't tell if its rubberized tile, or painted concrete.

 

[Ttownbrewer]

The back wall is 11' and it's about 9' wide. Wish it was square but furnace and hot water heater take up some real estate.

That's a good size. Will you have fermenters in the same room?

 

[Roadie]

Great build -- looking forward to the rest. What kind of flooring do you have down? I can't tell if its rubberized tile, or painted concrete.

Thanks. It's rubberized tile that locks together along a couple seams and one piece goes under the other so any spills will not go straight through.

 

[Ttownbrewer]

Taking another look at your hood. Did you build that, or where is it from? I'm trying to figure out what I want to do in my basement still.

 

[Roadie]

I had a local metal fabrication shop build the hood for me.

 

[Ttownbrewer]

I had a local metal fabrication shop build the hood for me.

I'll probably be doing the same thing. What dimensions did you go with?

 

[Roadie]

I'll probably be doing the same thing. What dimensions did you go with?

Mine is 60x24x10. Was going to go 12" high but that's prime real estate once the kettles come in so only went 10". I got a quote from a "union shop" which was over $1,500 then got the quote from small business owner of $650 so it was a no-brainer. I'm using a 6" vortex fan for evacuating the hood outside.

 

[hunter306]

Looks really nice Roadie, much bigger space than the area I had set for mine! The hood that you had built is about exactly what I'm looking for as well, I had contacted a fab shop around here, but he seems a bit confused about what I'm looking for. Did you end up having drawings for your hood, or did you just explain it and have them fab it up for you?

I'm thinking my budget for the hood is about the same, if I could find something around that price, I'd pick it up in a heartbeat.

Nice work so far.

 

[Roadie]

I had the guy check out the ventilation pages on theelectricbrewery.com as they have a drawing on like page 3 of that category.

 

[Roadie]

Delays. Drywaller is sick. Chiller faucet hasn't shipped from Amazon vendor though I ordered it a week ago. After drywall gets installed I still have to tile the wall behind the kettles and paint the others. HVAC company can't come out until 1/15 to install the vent hood. Decided to let them do it as hood fabricator welded a 4" vent onto hood instead of the 6" I requested. The vortex fan has a 6" inlet/outlet so a converter will need to go in and there is not much room. Also I didn't have the cojones to drill a 6" hole in the side of my house. I figure it's money well spent.

Hopes. Hoping the kettles will ship from Stout this week and the panel with calibrated temperature probes and power cord from Spike this week.

Ordered. Ordered the plate chiller, heating elements, element to kettle connections, panel connectors for the ends of the pump and element cords and some wire to connect the elements to the panel.

Need. Camlocks. Stainless filter to strain wort on way to chiller. Some type of work surface with drawers for misc brewing equipment. More money, as my spreadsheet shows with tool costs and estimates for drywall and vent installation that I'm over $9,600 into brewery build so far.

 

[Roadie]

The wire and plug ends are in.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Mine is 60x24x10. Was going to go 12" high but that's prime real estate once the kettles come in so only went 10". I got a quote from a "union shop" which was over $1,500 then got the quote from small business owner of $650 so it was a no-brainer. I'm using a 6" vortex fan for evacuating the hood outside.

I don't know if you already bought the 6" fan and ducting, but if you haven't, consider this:

A 6" inline fan pulls about 435 CFM and spins at 2915 RPM.
An 8" inline fan pulls about 745 CFM and spins at 2530 RPM.

So an 8" fan pulls nearly twice the steam and spins slower, meaning it's less noisy. And the cost between a 6" setup and an 8" setup is not that great.

I have an 8" setup and it's very quiet and it pulls so much air that the steam doesn't even have a chance to condensate on the inside of the hood. So I was able to get away with a wooden hood. But I did line the inside with plastic. Didn't need to, but I did anyway.

Something to think about.

 

[Thedutchtouch]

You volunteered the 9600 so hopefully don't mind a $$ question, -how do costs break down on brewing equipment vs construction vs ?? I see 650 for the hood (sounds like a good price to me), what's the other 9k going to?

 

[waffle418]

Not to steer you away from the amazing metal vent hood, but theres another DIY hood on here for much less than the $650 if thats a concern... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/5-1-2-foot-diy-hood-approx-75-a-371453/ just to give you some other ideas.

 

[Roadie]

I don't know if you already bought the 6" fan and ducting, but if you haven't, consider this:

A 6" inline fan pulls about 435 CFM and spins at 2915 RPM.
An 8" inline fan pulls about 745 CFM and spins at 2530 RPM.

So an 8" fan pulls nearly twice the steam and spins slower, meaning it's less noisy. And the cost between a 6" setup and an 8" setup is not that great.

I have an 8" setup and it's very quiet and it pulls so much air that the steam doesn't even have a chance to condensate on the inside of the hood. So I was able to get away with a wooden hood. But I did line the inside with plastic. Didn't need to, but I did anyway.

Something to think about.

I already bought the 6" fan. I wired in a 3 position switch for low-med-high. If the case size is much bigger not sure how I would have gotten an 8" to fit. The 6" sits against the wall it will vent through so don't think I'll be under powered but the 8" sounds like a good idea for some.

**edit**
Just went out to Amazon and looked at the 8"... that thing is a beast! About the same size as the 6" but twice as heavy. If I hadn't got mine already I would consider it for sure. I didn't see any sound ratings for the fans there but would be concerned about noise from the larger fan.

 

[Roadie]

You volunteered the 9600 so hopefully don't mind a $$ question, -how do costs break down on brewing equipment vs construction vs ?? I see 650 for the hood (sounds like a good price to me), what's the other 9k going to?

I don't mind telling you where my vacation/christmas/birthday money went for the next few years. If you count flooring and tile behind the kettles into the non-brewing catagory I have about $2,400 in non-brewing stuff. I bought a framing nailer, large compressor, and smaller misc tools. I installed a large light for general lighting and 2 smaller fixtures for task lighting. A vinyl tile product for the floor for it's ease of installation and resistance to spills going through and some very nice 12 x 24 tiles for the wall behind the kettles. Electrical wire/outlets/boxes and a huge GFI for the panel. I've allocated $750 for drywall installation and vent hood installation; might be too little or too much just don't know yet.

I have about $2,800 in panel/temp probes/cords/heating elements/element enclosures. Looks like kettle cost is around $2,100 counting shipping.

The rest of the duckets went for misc stuff like sink, table, pumps, hoses, chiller, etc. Nothing except the few big ticket items seem to cost that much but it adds up quickly. Probably have another $500 or so to put into another table of some sort and the items I listed in my post above that I still need. I didn't even add the cost of the 8 tap keezer I built into the brewery cost but it will go into the room. Didn't add the RO system with 20 gallon holding tank either. Also not added into that total is the cost of a small bar which will look into the brewery.

All this could have been done cheaper but I went for aesthetics considering it an extension of the house. I did all framing, plumbing, electrical and will do the tiling myself so saved a couple of bucks there.

 

[Roadie]

Not to steer you away from the amazing metal vent hood, but theres another DIY hood on here for much less than the $650 if thats a concern... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/5-1-2-foot-diy-hood-approx-75-a-371453/ just to give you some other ideas.

Plenty of ways to do this and most of them are cheaper. For my look I'm going for somewhat of a stainless steel bling.

 

[Roadie]

Heating elements and plate chiller are in.

 

[hunter306]

Nice to get more goodies for the build! What plate chiller did you end up choosing for your system? Any reason for opting for the plate over the counterflow coils? I was seriously tempted by the Therminator, but ended up going the Convoluted Coil route.

 

[Roadie]

I went with the Duda Diesel B3-36A 40 plate. We've been using that where we've been brewing for the past 6 months with good results.

 

[Roadie]

Over the weekend I assembled 1 of my elements and 1 of my pump cords. The elements connect to the cord through a 1.5" TC unit from Bobby. Damn those are very nice and completely match the look I'm trying to achieve in the room.

I was hesitant to cut the plugs off my Chugger pumps as they are new and I have not even plugged them in yet. No guts no glory so off came the plugs so I could put on the plugs that will insert and twist into the electric brewery panel. If those pumps are broken I'm totally screwed! I also spliced in, taped and shrink wrapped an extension cord to the Chugger cord as it was not long enough. One more to do.

What's funny is even though I ordered the panel on October 1 and my kettles on September 3 they are both coming in the same day (this Wednesday). HVAC guy coming on Wednesday as well. Drywaller coming on Thursday.

My Chicago faucet came in as a water supply for my plate chiller as my sink faucet does not have a garden hose adapter on it. Must've read something wrong about the Chicago faucet because it will not fit a garden hose and I will need to get an adapter. At least it has the bling factor which fits in the room.

 

[Roadie]

Returned the faucet shown above as it's not the right one. No external threads at all let alone 3/4" garden hose threads that I need to connect a length of hose for the plate chiller. That pushes me back on finishing my plumbing which pushes drywall back which pushes tiling back... snowball effect. Hopefully will have the correct one in sooner than later.

Also I have an RO discharge line hanging into sink as well as a humidifier drain line emptying into sink as well. Looking for a more glamorous way to drain these before sealing the wall up.

On a very positive note both my Stout kettles and my Electric Brewery control panel came in today! We washed the kettles with liquid dish soap, rinsed them out well then washed them with barkeeper's friend and rinsed well. Have to buy a bottle brush to clean all the ports, have to disassemble the ball valves for cleaning, clean all gaskets in rubbing alcohol and rinse stuff down again. Have to rinse out HERMS coil too. They look cool sitting on table though.

After drywall goes up we'll mount the panel to the wall on the reticulating panel that would normally hold a flat screen tv. We plugged it in just to see all the lights come on; very cool.

I test fit one of the elements in the BK which uses Bobby's tri-clamp fittings. While the element went in fine it is almost too "short" as the tri-clamp fitting on the kettle sticks out an inch and so when mated to Bobby's element enclosure the element is held back an inch from where it would mount if just screwed into the kettle which leaves space in the port (hole) on the kettle so the element base doesn't sit flush with the inner kettle wall. I run into the same issue on the temperature probes as they don't protrude into the kettle as far as they would if screwed to the kettle from the inside. I don't think either of these things makes it a "no-go" but something that I hadn't thought of ahead of time.

The HVAC guys came out today and hooked by 6" fan to my vent hood and out a 6" hole in the side of the house. On the outside it looks like a dryer vent but bigger so more awkward.

Still need to figure out what camlocks I need to make my hoses. Still need to wire the second element and second chugger pump cords up to plug into the control panel. Still need to buy a second table so we have a work surface when brewing. Still need some kind of small cart on wheels, preferably with drawers to keep stuff like refractometer, tea infuser balls for hops, etc. Still today was a giant leap forward.

 

[Roadie]

 

[Roadie]

 

[hunter306]

Congratulations, the panel looks awesome- Spike seems to do a really nice job assembling them. There are some good pictures of the shop/process on FB.

Like the custom touch on the bottom there.

 

[Roadie]

Congratulations, the panel looks awesome- Spike seems to do a really nice job assembling them. There are some good pictures of the shop/process on FB.

Like the custom touch on the bottom there.

Thanks. The wiring inside the panel is very well done.

Had to add our brewery logo/name as opposed to the generic Electric Brewery stuff.

 

[Roadie]

Filter from brewers hardware came in the mail today

.

 

[rvklein]

I had my hood made by a local fabrication shop as well. Turned out to be a funny story. I was wrangling around with the guy for 4 months trying to get a hold of him, get return calls, etc. Finally got to talking with him and he noticed my email address and says his step son works there too. Not only does he work with there but he works in the office right next to me and is a friend of mine.

Hood got done and he took $200 off. Paid $500

 

[rvklein]

Some thoughts reading through this. I know some of it is too late for you but others may find it useful:

- Instead of lopping off the plug from the pumps I took two three prong extension cords, lopped off the male end and wired in a twist lock then hooked the chuggers to that.
- The elements not flush against the kettle issue, you'll find hop debris gets stuck down in there. I hose it out those times I don't disconnect the elements from the kettles.
- I left my floor concrete and glad I did it. Makes cleanup so easy and I don't even worry about water & starsan spills as it just soaks in.
- I'm not happy with the performance of the inline trub filter. I find it better to use a hop spider & whirlpool. The domed bottom of the stout is great for that btw.
- I totally maned up and cut a hole in my house!

 

[Roadie]

I had my hood made by a local fabrication shop as well. Turned out to be a funny story. I was wrangling around with the guy for 4 months trying to get a hold of him, get return calls, etc. Finally got to talking with him and he noticed my email address and says his step son works there too. Not only does he work with there but he works in the office right next to me and is a friend of mine.

Hood got done and he took $200 off. Paid $500

Funny! I had to call the guy I used a few times as well to get a call back. I guess 1 or 2 man shops are pretty busy. Great price in the end.

 

[Roadie]

Some thoughts reading through this. I know some of it is too late for you but others may find it useful:

- Instead of lopping off the plug from the pumps I took two three prong extension cords, lopped off the male end and wired in a twist lock then hooked the chuggers to that.
- The elements not flush against the kettle issue, you'll find hop debris gets stuck down in there. I hose it out those times I don't disconnect the elements from the kettles.
- I left my floor concrete and glad I did it. Makes cleanup so easy and I don't even worry about water & starsan spills as it just soaks in.
- I'm not happy with the performance of the inline trub filter. I find it better to use a hop spider & whirlpool. The domed bottom of the stout is great for that btw.
- I totally maned up and cut a hole in my house!

I guess cord extensions make a LOT more sense than what I did. I kept thinking "what if the pumps are broken". I've only wired one so far and will probably use your method on the second.

I wish the elements went in just a little further as the end of the element will come ever so close to touching the side of the kettle next to the hole.

We will be whirlpooling and using either large tea infusers or hop socks. We've been using one for the last 5 months where we brew and it seems to do its job. I also bought the .3mm screen to slide over the .5mm element.

We are happy with the flooring and as we didn't have a floor drain knew we were not going the "just sweep it down the drain method". Also it is a finished space with one of the walls having a (future) bar so unfinished concrete didn't really fit with the aesthetic.

Good for you on the drilling the hole yourself. I just didn't have the cojones to drill a 6" hole in the side of the house. The fan inlet is 6" and that is carried all the way through to the exhaust duct. I had visions of drilling it in the wrong spot plus not sure my drill would be up to using a 6" hole saw. Although it was 50% more than I had budgeted it took two professionals 2 hours to complete the job so I would have spent all day and probably drilled in the wrong spot, burned up my drill and F'd the entire thing up!

 

[ImNoExpert]

Great build so far!

 

[Roadie]

Great build so far!

Thanks. Waiting on faucet company to get the incorrect faucet they sent me back so hopefully I can get the correct one and finish my plumbing. Then drywall. Then tile. Can't hang panel until that is all done. Haven't even looked at building the bar yet. This project feels like it will NEVER be completed! Hoping to at least be brewing sometime in March.

 

[MrSaLTy]

Where did you get the stainless table and sink and do you remember which ones you got? I have been looking at a ton of online places to get them but some of them just tear you a new one on shipping. Would love to know where you got em.

BTW very nice build. I have been following it as well as my project is much like yours. You are much farther on your basement then I am. I'm really having problems planning out all out. So much work to do.

 

[RobJ]

Hi Roadie
Awesome setup, I'm goning for something similar but 3 x 100l pots and I'm gona tier them so no need for pumps. The guy who I'm vying the equipment off sells gas burners for the pots but I'd rather use electric, on your setup do you have the element under a false bottom to prevent it coming into contact with the grain? I'm brand new to this all I've done is the beer kits but now want to start AG brewing, gratefull for any help matey. this is the setup I'm gona buy but like I said want to install elements under the false bottoms, cheers

 

[MrSaLTy]

Electric systems are usually either RIMS or HERMS systems. There is no direct heat or element in the mash. With RIMS there is a basically a tube that has an element in it that gets wort pumped out of the mash through this tube to maintain the temp and then back into the mash. HERMS usually has a coil in the HLT (or another stand alone heat exchanger) that the mash is pumped through. The mash get brought up the the temp of the HLT and pumped back into the mash.

If you haven't seen it, here is some very good and detailed information on electric HERMS systems. http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/

 

[RobJ]

Thanks for that matey, I'll check it out and see if I can get my head round it, cheers