JonyMac's Stillwater Home Brewery Bar Basement Build Thread

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

 

been following your threads on kal's site. incredible, just incredible...

 

Solid first post. Keep it up!

 

all ya'll need to be talking more about this fermentation/refrigeration controller:

 

Holy crap!! That is SWEET!!

 

You win for most epic first post EVER!!

 

Not gonna lie... I got tingles in my groin reading this post.

 

Thanks all! I spent a year building it out - here are the construction pics:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=566838

 

That's one of the best thought out brew setups I've ever seen. It's obvious that you've been brewing for quite a while and knew exactly what you wanted.

Well done!

 

Damn, someone finally beat Kal at blingcity. The apprentice now becomes the blingmaster...

 

I don't get it....So do you two guys supply a few pubs with brew or what? I don't even have enough friends to drink all the beer that you guys could make in a week, let alone on a sustained level that your obviously set up for. My wife thinks I'm an alcoholic at the 300.00 investment level making 5 gal a month.

Gorgeous though!

 

If you build it, they will come.

 

Hey I have the same plastic spray bottle for MY sanitizer!!! Similarities end right about there.

That....is.....awesome!

 

Breathtaking.

 

Beautiful! and perfectly timed. My wife and I were sitting in my future bar area last night discussing how we would build and finish out the bar and today this pops up. Awesome.

 

If you saw somebody pulling this

behind his car, you wouldn't think he was Bill Gates. But that is a $50,000 boat. That's what is amazing about this hobby. Extreme costs about what below average would cost in other hobbies.

 

Amazing build! Now how will you top this?

 

Totally speechless. AWSOME.

 

Stillraining - Rhumbline is right. I have a ton of friends and family who enjoy fresh homemade beer. The system serves us well. I usually send folks home with a growler full and often my buddies and I will split the grain bill cost-wise and they will take a corny home. Being in the basement, we are somewhat out of sight, our of mind, know what I mean? The taps can also be used for sparkling water, root beer, soda, etc... As if...

mblanks2 - Hope there is some inspiration here for you. I did a lot of the work myself and all of the brewery design and build using others for inspiration. It takes a time to make it right, but keep at it!

QuadconPana - no doubt my man!

Rocketbrewer and Elkobrewer - thanks! Don't know how I will top it - just little tweaks here and there, I will spend more effort making awesome beer and less effort making an awesome setup I suppose.

 

Your lucky I guess...I only have about half a dozen I would want hanging around...

Both your and Kal's builds are jaw dropping that's for sure. Iv been in the construction Biz all my life so have a good idea what this set you back or would have cost me to do anyway and its definitely more then that boat...Amazing Job from design to execution regardless, and you sure upped your resell value!!. I tip my hat to you sir...

We use to have what they called "The Street of Dreams" which was a showcase competition for builders to strut their stuff in the Greater Seattle area...You'd fit right in!

 

Thanks! Yes, I am blessed with great friends and beer buddies, and a supportive SWMBO!

 

Man, this is awesome. I've got an unfinished basement that I was going to finish just like Kal's, but I'm also going to borrow some of your ideas too. I really like the wood tile flooring, that is nice!

Do you find you need the drain in the floor for the brewery? I was debating on whether or not to put one in.

I think I'll just bookmark this, and ask questions as they come up. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

I've seen a lot of commercial brewery's with an extensive linear drain in the floor.

It's probably overkill for home brewing, but if/when I get the chance, I'll do it!

 

Drain in the floor is amazing to have. Trust me.

 

I keep looking through this for more ideas.

Did you use Ditra under all of the tile on the concrete slab? I'm wondering what I should use. Kal's installer put down wood, but Ditra sounds a lot better. Or did you put it down right on the concrete?

 

I used http://www.cosella-dorken.com/bvf-ca-en/products/foundation_residential/floor/products/fl.php when finishing the basement in my prior house. Underlayment fastened through it to the slab, with tile over that. Carpet in some sections. Worked great and created a much more comfortable floor with some "give" and warmth.

 

Holy ****ing ****. Nice build, Dude!

 

Beautiful - Great job! Looks like an awesome place to relax and have a beer.

 

Thanks! The tile is awesome - I love that I did the floor all the way from the bar into the brewery and up the back wall. I would HIGHLY recommend a floor drain - either round or linear like I have. I use it all the time with my fermenters.

 

I mortared the tile directly to the concrete - no problems whatsoever.

 

+1
I have a floor drain in my basement brew room....... absolutely essential. It is so handy if it is something you have or can put in.

 

Truly awesome.

Sheldon

 

Absolutely Awesome! I too spent last year building an electric brewery/pub in my basement but mine pales in comparison to yours. Very nice design (I see some similarities to Kal's) and I love all the rustic accents.
Tom
P.S. Here is my build http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27986

 

Thanks Sheldon!

Thomas - your setup rocks! I love all the wood and the floor. Do your really keep your brewery that uncluttered and clean?!

JonyMac

 

That is an amazing job you did! Well done.

Bobby

 

Hey JonyMac, Can you tell us a little more about how you created your menu board/computer screen? What software did you use to create it etc/

Thanks,

Tom

 

Sure - I am using Raspberry Pints - http://raspberrypints.com/ I am running it off a Macbook Air as an external monitor. I have it configured to think it is on a RaspberryPi box, but it is a virtual RaspberryPi within the Mac OS. All the instructions are in the link above. I will add flow control in the future so that ounces poured updates live. It isn't that hard to setup, just takes some tinkering and a little determination. Give it a shot!

JonyMac

 

Thanks JonyMac, My new brewery project has just begun. I am so pumped to get this info.

 

Let me know if you need help!

 

Good Lord of Shiny Objects!