Personally, the most annoying part of brew day is setting up and tearing down my equipment. I don't even mind the cleaning part, it's just having to walk back and forth to my garage to put everything in my kitchen and start brewing. Then an idea was born, a brew shed. I first looked at my garage, but the issue there is that I do other stuff in my garage which often results in a lot of saw dust and other junk. Overall, I obviously could have saved money if I just used my garage, but going with a shed meant that I would have a sort of future-proof brewing space. Meaning, if life changed, I would still have the whole house and garage and the brew shed would still be mine.
First, I ordered my control panel from Bru-Matic. I ultimately went with him on the reference of another member and no matter how many questions I've asked, he has always answered. That goes a long way with me. The controller came the second week of January.
Then I researched cost of electrical before I settled on the shed. Either way I would have the control panel, but the shed would be dependent on the electrical quotes. If the cost was high, I would not go the shed route. I received 3 quotes from licensed electricians. I toyed with the idea of doing it on my own, but I've always said I would never risk it. The quotes were as reasonable as I thought they would be and I moved forward.
I then researched sheds. I learned an awful lot about sheds actually. I finally settled on a size that didn't make me cringe at the site of it, but also was enough brew space for me. I also avoided a permit by making sure no linear measurement exceeded 12'. I ordered a 8'x10' shed with a single steel case door and a vinyl window. 80 sq. ft. isn't huge, but it is actually more room than I brew with now, so I know I could make it work. I had room for a longer shed, but this was basically on my side yard and I didn't want it to be too much of a monster.
The shed was built in a warehouse locally and brought in on a flatbed. The way the guy just whipped it into the spot was pretty outstanding. They were done in well under an hour and that was only because the manager wanted to be there to document the process and write something up about how I'm using the shed.
Once the shed was dropped I of course determined that I needed to paint my house to match (it was an intentional move on my part), but I'd focus on the shed first. I immediately called the electrician and that is where things got tough.
I ended up getting very much into trying to do it all myself, but I wasn't comfortable with certain parts. The quotes came back a second time and were all three times the price of the original quotes. I figure I did not articulate my needs well enough or they did not really understand what I was saying. Either way, I was feeling somewhat hosed. The shed is mine, I had to eat it with the cost of electrical.
I spent a good deal of time trying to find a company who wanted to basically do the work at the main and let me do the rest. No go. They frown upon that since a permit is required and they weren't going to be able to warranty the work. After about a month, I settled on a company. There were weird delays, lack of communication and such and weather issues. I rolled with it until last Friday when I met someone while at a bottle shop. Needless to say, I met him on a Friday, he was at my house Monday, he was done with the work on Wednesday, pending inspection. I couldn't be happier with him. In the end, while it would have been rad to say I did it on my own, this got done in about 4.5 hours and I wasn't digging in the mud, driving ground rods into the cold wet ground, or anything of the sort. Besides, I'll have plenty to do on my own here soon.
My next step after the inspection is to insulate and drywall the shed, paint, lay flooring, build my brew table then buy my wash sink, buy more components for my HERMs system, buy a chest freezer for fermentation, ventilate, and start moving into the shed. I want to be brewing in the shed by April 1 at the latest. I'm back to brewing with propane if I want to brew until then since I freed up space in my main by allowing them to wipe out the outlet for my induction cooktop. So there is that.
Here are a couple of photos of the shed the day it was delivered. I'll have photos of the rough in electrical shortly. There will be less words and more photos coming, I promise.
I had to get the initial ramble out of the way.
First, I ordered my control panel from Bru-Matic. I ultimately went with him on the reference of another member and no matter how many questions I've asked, he has always answered. That goes a long way with me. The controller came the second week of January.
Then I researched cost of electrical before I settled on the shed. Either way I would have the control panel, but the shed would be dependent on the electrical quotes. If the cost was high, I would not go the shed route. I received 3 quotes from licensed electricians. I toyed with the idea of doing it on my own, but I've always said I would never risk it. The quotes were as reasonable as I thought they would be and I moved forward.
I then researched sheds. I learned an awful lot about sheds actually. I finally settled on a size that didn't make me cringe at the site of it, but also was enough brew space for me. I also avoided a permit by making sure no linear measurement exceeded 12'. I ordered a 8'x10' shed with a single steel case door and a vinyl window. 80 sq. ft. isn't huge, but it is actually more room than I brew with now, so I know I could make it work. I had room for a longer shed, but this was basically on my side yard and I didn't want it to be too much of a monster.
The shed was built in a warehouse locally and brought in on a flatbed. The way the guy just whipped it into the spot was pretty outstanding. They were done in well under an hour and that was only because the manager wanted to be there to document the process and write something up about how I'm using the shed.
Once the shed was dropped I of course determined that I needed to paint my house to match (it was an intentional move on my part), but I'd focus on the shed first. I immediately called the electrician and that is where things got tough.
I ended up getting very much into trying to do it all myself, but I wasn't comfortable with certain parts. The quotes came back a second time and were all three times the price of the original quotes. I figure I did not articulate my needs well enough or they did not really understand what I was saying. Either way, I was feeling somewhat hosed. The shed is mine, I had to eat it with the cost of electrical.
I spent a good deal of time trying to find a company who wanted to basically do the work at the main and let me do the rest. No go. They frown upon that since a permit is required and they weren't going to be able to warranty the work. After about a month, I settled on a company. There were weird delays, lack of communication and such and weather issues. I rolled with it until last Friday when I met someone while at a bottle shop. Needless to say, I met him on a Friday, he was at my house Monday, he was done with the work on Wednesday, pending inspection. I couldn't be happier with him. In the end, while it would have been rad to say I did it on my own, this got done in about 4.5 hours and I wasn't digging in the mud, driving ground rods into the cold wet ground, or anything of the sort. Besides, I'll have plenty to do on my own here soon.
My next step after the inspection is to insulate and drywall the shed, paint, lay flooring, build my brew table then buy my wash sink, buy more components for my HERMs system, buy a chest freezer for fermentation, ventilate, and start moving into the shed. I want to be brewing in the shed by April 1 at the latest. I'm back to brewing with propane if I want to brew until then since I freed up space in my main by allowing them to wipe out the outlet for my induction cooktop. So there is that.
Here are a couple of photos of the shed the day it was delivered. I'll have photos of the rough in electrical shortly. There will be less words and more photos coming, I promise.
I had to get the initial ramble out of the way. 
