Ok I have a chance to get a 12 X 16 building pretty cheap. It is right next door and less than a year old BUT it was VERY poorly put together. It is one of those tall barn looking ones so adding a loft would be a piece of cake as both of my boys have done a lot of building and construction work. will this be big enough to brew and store all of my equipment and bottles in? maybe even make a small cold room?
12X16 building with a loft big enough?
- Thread starter OHIOSTEVE
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I've got slightly less space than that, so I don't see why not.
OHIOSTEVE
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what about the cold room? or rather a temp controlled room?
mcflyfisher
Member
My brewery is 10x14. I could easily lose a 4x6 chunk of this for a cold room. That should work just fine for you.
jeepinjeepin
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I am guessing that's larger than what you have now, so yes.
My basement hovers between 64 to 70F year-round... the most the temp fluctuates in a couple degrees up or down on any given week.
Having said that, I have a 4'x4' spot that I will be turning into my ferment room. I have no ambition at all to brew lagers, so I'll be able to ferment and condition everything in that separate space.
I got a few pictures as I started setting up my new space this afternoon.. I'll start a thread at some point and include a link to it in my sigline.
OHIOSTEVE
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Actually it isn't. I have my entire upstairs along with a wall in the computer room lol.
bendavanza
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Best thing to do is mark the ground where you want to place it and walk around in it. Maybe bring your brew stand, some kegs and buckets etc into the designated area for scale.
Exellent idea!
OHIOSTEVE
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good idea. I think maybe use the loft ( if I put one in) to store all of these damned bottles.
flatrockbrewing
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If you dont want to build an aging room from the ground up you could try an old hot tub. I found one on craigslist for about $150. It hovers around 65 degrees in the summer and i just stick a small space heater inside during the winter. i have corny kegs in the middle and bottles stacked up in milk crates on the sides. The tubs come well insulated already.
Im_Lars
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I have a shed that is about the same size with a loft. I wish I could turn that into my brew room but it is stacked full of tools and lawn equipment. The space I brew in now is about have the size of my shed. If you can get it for a good price and be able to add power and water to it, I'd say jump on it.
Laughing_Gnome_Invisible
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Sounds plenty big enough to me! That was a good idea posted above to mark the ground. Also, you can save a hell of a lot of space by imaginative storage. Go have another look inside it and look for places that you might be able to hang stuff, shelve stuff and generally utilise every inch of space that can leave the floor space clear. I would even be looking at hanging or shelving kegs. Walls and ceilings are my friend.......Maybe that's just me though.
OHIOSTEVE
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Ok, I need to see pics. I can't figure out how you are doing this?
BrewMoreBeers
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This is how I laid out my entire basement which includes a media room, kitchen, utility area, storage, wash tub with extra cabinets and some more storage. It worked great and gave me a reason to spend many hours drinking in the basement and planning by project. I am very happy that I taped everything out and lived with it for a while. I only made a few changes during this time, but they were very good changes and they made the cabinets fit much better than they would have has I used my initial design.
OHIOSTEVE
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I have been kickin around some ideas. electrical stuff is no big deal as my nephew is a certified electrician, PLUS I hve a friend who is an electronics whiz ( may get him to help me go electric in the future) and a neighbor / friend who owns an electric company..... I thought about water supply but do not really want to get into digging a trench and laying piping etc. maybe a sink with a french drain and a quick disconnect to attach the garden hose. No hot water supply but cold water is better than no water I guess. However a small under counter type water heater would be no big deal IF I did plumb it.
wildwest450
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That's only 8 sq. ft. smaller than mine, and I managed to squeeze in a bar and urinal, you'd be surprised how little space a brew rig takes up, go for it!!!
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jeepinjeepin
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OHIOSTEVE said:
Electricity is a no brainer. Water would be nice but would make sewer a necessity by code and a real good idea anyway. It just depends if your houses main drain is near where the building is going.
OHIOSTEVE
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I am certain that I would be required to upgrade EVERYTHING if I attempted to attach to my septic system.
OHIOSTEVE
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well I got the building bought dirt cheap. Now to decide if I am gonna try to move it or disassemble it and rebuild it.. Moving would be easier but disassembling would allow me to rebuild it correctly
OHIOSTEVE
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I was afraid someone would say that. It was nailed together so it will be a slow tedious process but I think the RIGHT way to do it.
Im_Lars
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Time to picture up!!!!!!!!!!!! Sharing is caring and then we can better assess the project 
Sounds like a great summer project
Sounds like a great summer project
OHIOSTEVE
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Time to picture up!!!!!!!!!!!! Sharing is caring and then we can better assess the project
Sounds like a great summer project
will do, but it is POURING right now.
OHIOSTEVE
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Just had a mover come and give me an estimate on moving the building. It will be moved to my property tomorrow morning. We are still gonna basically rebuild it, but according to my wife if I tried to tear it down, then move and rebuild it it would never get done lol. I went and did a closer "inspection" of it this afternoon and tearing it apart will be easy. there are probably only about 25 nails in the entire thing..... And I am NOT exaggerating that by a whole lot... There are outside sheeting pieces that have TWO nails in an entire 4x8 sheet. One in each of the top two corners and the rest is just hanging loose. The upside is that it is so new it still even smells like fresh cut wood inside. Pics will follow, but don't expect quick work, this will be a slow drawn out process I believe.
OHIOSTEVE
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I fill my HLT from my garden hose right now when I brew outside lol... I KNOW it is supposed to not be good but I drink out of it all the time when I am outside.
OHIOSTEVE
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Ok a few pics of the screwed up mess I am starting with.
As you can see, this building is basically BRAND NEW. It still even smells like fresh cut wood inside. BUT if you will look closely at the upper left hand corner you can see daylight through the wall.. BTW it is so new, the papers on the floor are the construction instructions that were obviously ignored.
As you can see, this building is basically BRAND NEW. It still even smells like fresh cut wood inside. BUT if you will look closely at the upper left hand corner you can see daylight through the wall.. BTW it is so new, the papers on the floor are the construction instructions that were obviously ignored.
OHIOSTEVE
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As you can see, the walls were just haphazardly put up. Fortunately they didn't actually cut anything, and they used VERY few nails. The black line is to show you how unlevel they put the walls up. the ground was sloped and they actually put up the walls with the slope!
BTW ignore the dates on the pics. My camera had been dead for months. I forgot to reset the date.
OHIOSTEVE
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when I told you they used very few nails I was NOT joking. This wall board literally has 2 nails in it. one in each top corner and it is just hanging loose. you can see the gap between the plywood and the 2x4.
When they put the plywood on, they didn't even make sure they caught 2x4s at the seams
I hired someone to come in the morning and move it to my property. Once it is set in my sons and I are pulling off all of the exterior plywood and squaring everything up and fixing it as best as we can then reattaching the plywood. Some of you may wonder why I am going to the trouble and didn't just buy a new building. AFTER I have it set on my property ( including the price of setting it on a trailer and moving it to my property and setting it where i want it.) will be $400.00 building and moving and all.
cyberbackpacker
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At that price, you would be foolish not to act on it!
Celticway
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My brewshed is 14x12. Perfectly cozy!
OHIOSTEVE
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It is amazing how people can screw up things if it isn't theirs to worry or care about. we got the building set on cinder blocks. I leveled the blocks as much as I could with a long 2x4 and a small level. I got very lucky, the guys I hired to move it did a terriffic job, and set it right down on thew blocks for me. I layed a level in the middle of the floor and left to right it is dead on plumb. front to back is VERY close to plumb with a slight grade towards the front, which is what i wanted. we pulled some of the walls off to straighten em out and the idiots that built it actually took a saw and cut the lap pieces off of the boards. They are still usable but how can someone be that ridiculously stupid? Anyway we pulled up a piece of the flooring and that isn't too bad so I will probably just lay another layer over it.
Laughing_Gnome_Invisible
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I'm jealous. I think you should burn it.
OHIOSTEVE
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The ass you see belongs to my oldest son lol...Little guy in the front is the neighbor boy. His daddy was killed in a car wreck when he was just a toddler. They moved in next door, and he took to me like a duck to water. He helps me do whatever it is that I am doing. One helluva gopher when you are in the middle of doing something and one really really good polite nice kid. I took him hunting last summer and got a rerally good pic of him holding up a groundhog. His grand dad framed it amd has it hanging in his machine shop.......ANYWAY as you can see pretty major tear down rebuild going on. probably gonna get rained out today though.
almost the entire floor has to be torn out and the joists respaced. Plus as you can see the back wall is gone right now. NONE of it is hard or even really time consuming. when you can take the side of your hand and knock the wall boards off, it isn't hard demolition lol.
IMHO, that is a very smart decision especially as it appears that the floor joists are 24" on center.
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