Wish me luck…I’m going in…

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
BierMuncher

BierMuncher

...My Junk is Ugly...
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
12,440
Reaction score
953
Location
St. Louis, MO
Inside to brew that is.

I’ve cleared the brewshop in the basement, removed all flammables, installed a 20” box fan in the basement window for exhaust (a bit of overkill) and cleared and organized a large open area for the process.

Plenty of room to measure ingredients, study recipes and generally ponder the secrets of the universe...and draw a pint.
Brewshop_6.jpg

With a double basin sink close by, I can fill my lauter with 130 degree tap water and save propane. With my fermentation bench just a few feet away, no more carrying two full, five gallon pales through the house and down the stairs into the basement.
Brewshop_5.jpg

(Note the Card’s game in progress…another win over Atlanta.)
Brewshop_4.jpg

My rolling workbench is the perfect height for my mash table.
Brewshop_3.jpg

Cleanup should be a snap and best of all…no more sitting guard over my equipment with a fly swatter in the sweltering heat and humidity.
Brewshop_2.jpg

Best part is my 5-tapper is just a reach away and the weather will be perfect…year-round.

Safety precautions: Carbon Monoxide detector, Fire Extinguisher and a garden hose connected to the sink.

Now I just need to build a grain storage rack and built in crush table.
 
Nice setup...I'd love to have a big'ol space fully dedicated to brewing! You mentioned you'll be fermenting down there and I'm just curious about how much heat will be generated when you're brewing. Will the heat from the burners warm your basement enough to increase the temp on your fermenters to unwanted levels? You think the fan will take care of that?
 
Good stuff, BM. Let us know how it turns out. I'll be brewing later today myself... but am atill at work atm. I won't be able to get started until about 4:30.
 
Year round with no changing conditions. Good luck and stay filled with acceptable levels of CO2 and O2!
 
I do something similar and it rocks. I run my propane in the outside stairwell with a massive amount of airflow and the bilco doors adjusted for exhaust while keeping kettle protected from the outdoors.
 
Craig5_12 said:
…Will the heat from the burners warm your basement enough to increase the temp on your fermenters to unwanted levels? You think the fan will take care of that?
Click to expand...

Shouldn’t be a problem. The door (louvered) to the brewshop is at the bottom of an open stairwell to the family room and adjacent to the finished area of the basement. Very cool down there, around 67 degrees and lots of airflow. With the box fan in the window, exhausting from the shop, there should be a pretty strong draft.
 
I'm sure this is just habit, CO2 is mentioned in every other thread here... But JUST in case... You'll want a carbon monoxide detector, not CO2...
 
Kevin Dean said:
I'm sure this is just habit, CO2 is mentioned in every other thread here... But JUST in case... You'll want a carbon monoxide detector, not CO2...
Click to expand...
Ha, ha...

Duly noted. Maybe the CO1 is already going to my brain.

EdWort said:
SWEEET! Must be nice. Let's all go over to Muncher's to brew! yahh!
Click to expand...
I've seen your brewhouse. I wish I had your back yard paradise to dump the grains. If you come up...bring the deer.
 
Nice set up man. I wish i had something that cool. I get to brew in my arizona room. I gets pretty hot out there.
 
BierMuncher said:
I've seen your brewhouse. I wish I had your back yard paradise to dump the grains. If you come up...bring the deer.
Click to expand...

Thats a mockup of my brewhouse to be in my front yard. Deer are not optional, they can smell boiling wort and now associate it with spent grains. I'm gonna start charging bow hunters for a 10 minute window on brew days to sit on my upstairs balcony. :D
 
uglygoat said:
remember, don't grind where you ferment!!!

and open a window eh? :drunk:
Click to expand...


Forgive my n00b-ness (I've never done an AG brew), but why is it important to grind somewhere else?
 
DSean said:
Forgive my n00b-ness (I've never done an AG brew), but why is it important to grind somewhere else?
Click to expand...

Your fermenting environment needs to be as clean as possible and a grain mill throws out a lot of grain dust (flour). My plan is to build the crusher into a shelving unit, enclose the hopper and the shoot leading to the crushed bin pale and then wrap the entire space with a drop tarp of plastic sheeting. Should contain the grains and flour to an enclosed area for a quick hand sweep.
 
BierMuncher said:
Your fermenting environment needs to be as clean as possible and a grain mill throws out a lot of grain dust (flour). My plan is to build the crusher into a shelving unit, enclose the hopper and the shoot leading to the crushed bin pale and then wrap the entire space with a drop tarp of plastic sheeting. Should contain the grains and flour to an enclosed area for a quick hand sweep.
Click to expand...


Also, grain just happens to harbor the EXACT bacteria that will ruin your beer if they ever get into contact with each other.
:drunk:

At work, if you mill in that day, you aren't allowed in the clean room...

Tomorrow we're doing a double brew of Southern Pecan for a total of 30 BBL's. Should be a fun day.

:mug:
 
Are you just doing 5 gallon brews, or larger? You're looking at several many quarts of vaporized water being ejected during a 60 minute boil. Without a hood, I'm afraid you might have a wet room. I'm not speaking from experience, mind you, but it seems to me that if you can remove the steam, the CO will go with it. Box fans don't move a lot of air, despite how good they feel on a hot day.
 
Fingers said:
Are you just doing 5 gallon brews, or larger? You're looking at several many quarts of vaporized water being ejected during a 60 minute boil. Without a hood, I'm afraid you might have a wet room. I'm not speaking from experience, mind you, but it seems to me that if you can remove the steam, the CO will go with it. Box fans don't move a lot of air, despite how good they feel on a hot day.
Click to expand...

10 gallon batches. I’m not too worried about humidity build up. The pot will be sitting directly between my louvered basement door and the window with the 22” box (exhaust) fan. I ran the fan last night to test the wind-flow and there was a nice “breeze” being pulled in through the door. I always run a low-roll boil to avoid boil-overs. I usually go from a 12.5 gallon preboil to just under 11.5…so just slightly more than a gallon of evaporation over a 70 minute period shouldn’t be too bad.


the_Roqk said:
Really nice place BierMuncher. Just wondering about that blue box you got there. A secret stash maybe?

View attachment 2472
Click to expand...

Ha, ha.

If it’s one thing that BMC is good for, it’s their packing materials. Makes great bottle storage.
 
Well, the first indoor brew is under my belt and went just fine.

I'll have to tweak the setup a little, just like I did when brewing in the garage.

IndoorBrew_1.JPG

The workbench was the perfet height.

IndoorBrew_2.JPG

Only down side is that I can't hose down the shop floor when I'm done so I have to be a little more careful not to be sloppy.

IndoorBrew_3.JPG

Mash equipment cleared away...now we boil. You can see the box fan up in the window. It's about time for the Card's game. Oh yeah...time for my first draught of the day...New Castle. :rockin:

IndoorBrew_4.JPG

It was nice not carrying two full buckets of wort from the garage into the basement. The garden hose hooked up to the hot water of my shop sink was great too. Saved propane by starting out at 135 degrees, right out of the tap.

Here are the newborns, resting comfortably. (Gotta get new labels on these primaries)

Brewshop_5.jpg

This is going to be sweet this winter.
 
EdWort said:
Ditto! The MunchMan always does great beer pron!
Click to expand...

ejaculates!

it is a nice set up! next weekend kicks off our brew season based around the browns schedule. :tank:

we're making plans for a brew shed for the winter.

edit: how old is your house muncher? those poured concrete foundation walls?
 
uglygoat said:
...we're making plans for a brew shed for the winter.

edit: how old is your house muncher? those poured concrete foundation walls?
Click to expand...

The words "Brew Shed" make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

The house is five years old. Yep. Poured foundation walls. I put a thermometer probe against those walls in July and got a nice cool reading of 68 degrees when the temp outside was 95.
 
the house i started brewing in was built around 1880's and had a brick foundation. it stayed a nice 58 in the summer, and would get cold enough to lager in the winter. when we moved, i told the wife and realtor the new house had to have a basement, the realtor couldn't understand why i'd pass over houses built on a slab...:D
 

Similar threads

M
Ss BrewTech Chronical + Pump Cart = Ultimate CIP
2
Replies
59
Views
44K
BrewinSoldier
B
M
  • Article
Failure to Launch a Brewery
2
Replies
53
Views
7K
Failure to Launch a Brewe
F
BadNewsBrewery
DIY Photo Dump - Basement Bar & Brewery (Electric)
Replies
13
Views
4K
BadNewsBrewery
BadNewsBrewery
TasunkaWitko
Roast Chicken With Yoghurt Masala
Replies
9
Views
2K
TasunkaWitko
TasunkaWitko
TasunkaWitko
Chokecherry Wine - My First Attempt
Replies
38
Views
18K
TasunkaWitko
TasunkaWitko
Yakima 300

Latest posts

Back
Top