Home Super Brewery Build: Hybrid Electric/Gas 3BBL Build

As long as you have a heat sink to mount to the SSRs, you're good. If you mount a SSR to some DIN rail, it isn't going to last a long time. Switching a 20amp load is a lot of energy... that creates alot of heat, it needs to go somewhere.

 

Ahh, I understand where you are coming from now. I think due to the photo angle you can't actually see that it looks like he has the SSR mounted to these heatsinks which are then attached to the DIN rail

 

Better angle?

 

Marcb, with the DIN mounted heatsinks do you have to slide them on from the end before mounting the din rail or can you snap them on?

 

Where are these kettles from?

 

Nevermind, read closer

 

Slide on.

 

SWMBO rocks! Pod got dropped off today to begin the garage overhaul in preparation for the new buildout!

 

Perfect!

The original photo, I couldn't see the heatsink... sorry. Carry on, I'll just watch from the sidelines as my E brewing setup stares at me, half done, reminding me just how lazy I really am.

 

This is looking like it is going to be a good one. Sub.

 

What's your gas rate vs your electricity? If its cheaper to run electric for the boil it would be so for the sparge etc. Around here though gas is cheaper than electricity.

Do you have a detatched garage? I was under the impression you can't get any kind of brewery licensed if it's attached to a residence?

 

For NG rate it looks like it varies month to month here is .91-.97 per therm

Electricity is .088-.102 per kWh depending on non peak/peak usage

My garage is attached but no common entrance. I believe it will take longer to get through but I do not think I'll have TTB issues as there are separate locked entrances and all finished beer will be locked in a separate cold room. Now state ABC and county will prohibit me from having a taproom open to the public here but may allow me to produce limited quantity of beer. If it turns into a fiasco I'll pick up a leased industrial space less than a mile from my house pretty cheap. At least that's the plan so far, my wife isn't too keen on having me brew offsite so I'll do what I can to keep it in the garage and her happy!

 

Getting the garage cleaned out, checking out the kettle layout.

 

Four vessel?

 

Two mash, two boil kettle and a tankless for strike and sparge.....

Hoping to squeeze 40-45 out of each kettle for an 80-90g brew day

 

Shhhweet!

 

At what rate does the tankless spit out 170degree water?

 

I'm going with a rinnai condensing unit that does 9.8 GPM at 45 degree rise. Max flow rate at 170 will be ~4-5gpm. Within 15 minutes I will be mashing in both tuns. Rinnai also has a very low activation flow rate which makes it ideal for an automated sparge system with a float switch.... I am also designing an automated valve setup that has a thermometer and will divert tankless output to a recirc loop if it is below the set point. This will keep me from getting any lukewarm water during the auto sparge.

 

So the only drawback I see with instant sparge is that you can't adjust the water profile if you need/want to right?

 

You have to keep in mind when you use electricity to heat 100% of the energy goes into heating the liquid, when using gas a lot of the energy gets lost because you are heating the pot to heat the liquid and a lot of heat goes right past the pot.

Most of the time electricity will cost less per batch even if it costs more per BTU.

 

You can for strike certainly but yes, sparge would be a challenge. I have good water that I run through a two stage filter plus uv for purification prior to brewing and have brewed many different styles of beers very well without adjusting my water profile.....

 

Federal law does not allow for alcohol production in a residential area unless it is zoned for agriculture. This is why they have the 200 gallons per year per adult in a household law.

 

Booooo Hisssssss

 

Yes it is a stupid law because you are allowed to bake cakes, cookies, bread..ect for resale but not beer. Making beer is just like baking.....

 

I can make a 100000000 gallons of wort per year if I want at home. I can only ferment 200g per 2 people living in a residence ; )

 

Pretty sweet setup.

 

Thanks! Still a work in progress and feels like I change directions everyday. Got most of the garage emptied out, will finish it up today and then the demolition begins.

Anyone ever have a floor epoxied? What am I looking at cost wise for 400 sqft?

Also FRP paneling seems to be the consensus for the walls...

 

Im in the works of opening up a 3 bbl brewery in Florida. We just epoxied our floors for our tasting room which was stained first with eco stain and then a 2 part water based epoxy. It took 4 gallons to do 2 coats in 800 sqft. In the brewery area where using a grey epoxy with is also 2 part and then there's a 2 part clear that goes on top of that. I sent you a private msg yesterday. I'll send ya some pictures of or I'll start a thread maybe just been really busy with the build out. Are you wanting to paint the floor a solid color or clear what's on there now? We also rented a concrete and resurfaced the floor prior to staining and painting

 

What are you two doing for floor drainage?

 

You must drink lots of beer.

Awesome build. Can't wait to see it develop.

 

No reason to pay someone to do epoxy- if you're even mildly DIY you can do it yourself. Sadly, the previous tenant of my space was NOT even mildly DIY.

I have epoxy in my 1000sqft brewery and it's not a choice I'd make for myself. It was put in (badly) by a previous tenant, and now it's coming up in spots and will be a pain in the ass to remove if we decide to do that. I'd clean the concrete you have and seal it. I'm also concerned about its heat/chemical tolerance.

 

Great info! Thanks!

 

Awesome. Sub.

 

Huh.

This guy is close to me and runs out of his garage:
http://www.foggynogginbrewing.com/

This guy built a 192sqrft brewery in his back yard:
http://www.192brewing.com/

Both were licensed and sold beer. They spoke at our club and told about how hard it was for all the permits and licensing but they are residential brewers.

 

Well, there is only one way to find out for sure! I'll post my process updates here as well!

 

OoH! You're a cwafty waskel..

 

Wait, I live on a farm. Does this mean I can sell beer to my friends rather than give it to them for free?

 

This should turn into an epic thread. Mind if I post build pics of your panel straight to this thread?

 

Absolutely not! Dig in!

 

Hey marcb,

I epoxied my floor last summer as part of a garage remodel. It has a slight texture to it from the colored flakes tossed into it to give it a speckled look.
Made a huge difference in the Man Cave and hid all the large cracks in the concrete.

The texture might not be ideal if wort is being spilled all over it and not hosed off regularly. But it feels grippy enough to feel safe walking on a wet floor. The guy did it for 900 bucks.

Took about 2 days. Grind down and patch cracks and first layer. Second day epoxy layer. 20X23 feet. PM me if you want pics or see it up close.