McGsters Electric Brewery Rebuild

After a few years of brewing on my steel shelving stand in front of my windows in the basement and many messes / spills, i decided i needed a more permanent home for my brewery that could handle the occasional spill / splash of boiling wort.

I had also gone through several upgrades and different techniques of brewing so my system was pretty piecemeal, i thought this would be a good opportunity to build a permanent home, and finally build a new PID controller to replace my DIY panel.

The current setup was located right next to my electrical panel, at the time i built my controller this seemed like the best idea, it didn't take too many brews to realize i need some more distance between brewing and my panel.

My main goals with the rebuild are to build a protected area to brew in that will contain any spills or splashes without damaging the room, increase my easy of brewing, and create a space that facilitates my brewing.

Anyway, here is my previous setup:

Here is a shot of where the new brewery will be moved to, nestled between my beer vault and wall where an under utilized shelving rack is.

I looked around for different options below my brewery and for a variety of reasons (price / application) i ended up sticking with ceramic tile, once the grout is treated it provides an easy to clean and durable water proof floor covering. I built a 4 ft x 4 ft platform to lay the tile and and primed / sealed / water proofed the ends so they wouldn't mould on me.

I purchased 8'x4' 20 gauge galvanized panels from my local ventilation store for a reasonable price (everything is reasonable compared to stainless) and laminated them to 1/2" plywood to enable me to secure shelving / hooks through the sheeting and into the wall.

I'm very happy with how the panels compared to other options. The 20 gauge is probably overkill and if i had to do it again i'd go with 22 or even 24 gauge, 20 is harder to screw through and quite a bit heavier but it will be great once its completed.

The last picture is with the panel dry fit in place.

I assembled the walls together with 5 strong tie galvanized brackets on each side, it did solid job giving the structure some rigidity.

(ignore the skew in the photo as it is a panoramic to fit it into frame)

The second picture is after i wrestled the walls into place.

Next step is to build the hood.

I was able to get the hood done but sadly didn't snap a picture before i had to leave for a month. I'll be sure to post one when i get back.

I'm trying to track down some heavy duty stainless steel hooks for suspending the grain bag and hanging my mash paddle and rig my ventilation up.