A re-introduction of sorts...

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kenmcchord

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
726
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Location
Kissimmee, FL
Hey Everyone,
I've been on this site for years, but the last three I've been away from brewing. Very quickly, I moved from Southern NJ to Florida in 2017 (way more involved than expected). Once I got here I brewed a few batches with my brother in my cooler/blichmann kettle/bucket fermenter cobbled together brewery, and we had varied results. In hind sight I think the problem was that we started drinking from the word go, so by the time we were into the boil we were pretty sauced. After a few batches I called it quits, mainly because we were screwing the pooch sort of speak, but really I was heavy into procuring all the gear to build an electric brewery.

I swear, I'm trying to keep this short! Anyway, and yeah...I'm pretty luck, I stumbled into a home with a garage that's 1800 square feet of all mine. I'm into woodworking, and that was the major thrust of my first few years working into my space. So, a summer of hiking in 2018, and a full knee replacement last year, I'm finally beginning the phase of building the brewery (there will be pictures). But let me say this part first...I do have a pretty significant character flaw, which is I'm a one-at-a-time hobby sort of guy. Oh, I'm all in when I'm doing it, but I leave no room for something else while I'm doing my woodworking 110%. I'm trying to fix that part, but at 59 it's looking like I'll lose that battle.

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Okay, picture above is the side of the garage I've spent the last few years building. Nothing was there (worth mentioning) when I got there, which was good actually...a blank slate. Behind me from the vantage point was another 2/3rds of garage real estate, and that's where this comes in.

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Over the last few weeks I pulled off all the shelving and crap that I had lining this side of the garage, and I'm painting the walls in preparation of a 12' x 10' spraybooth room with an electric brewery nestled between that and the far wall. The white opening is where the spray booth room will be, and where the BREW! letters are is where I will have an 8' long brew bench.
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I've already got a double sink set up in the corner, and I have almost all the equipment I need (3 blichmann 20 gal kettles, control panel, hood and fan, all the rest really)

So I thought it was time I put this out there. I will try to update this post as I go. My son (Philly cop) is flying down to help me build the room in early November, then I side the outside of said room with the same T1-11 that I used behind my bench, and drywall the inside. Once that is done it'll be on to building the bench for the brewing equipment and hopefully I'll be electric brewing by February or March.

One last note, I have all my old equipment out (the cobbled together stuff) and I plan to start brewing in the next few weeks, along with this build project. That's asking a lot from a one at a time project guy, but I'm going to give it my best!

Thanks for reading, Go Eagles!

Edit - spelling
 
Nice project(s) and space. We sound very similar - woodworking, brewing, backpacking, 59. I will jealously follow your progress.

Go Eagles
 
Very nice brewing space!!!

I, too, am a 1 hobby kind of person. Prior to brewing, it was shooting/reloading ammo and motorcycles. Had a street glide and a v-rod muscle. Ended up selling the street glide because we didn't ride it. The v-rod was sold so I could purchase the Spike + brewing system. The reloading stuff sold because I just didn't have time for it anymore. Went full throttle into brewing!

Looking forward to seeing your progress as well!
 
WTF! HBT needs bigger stickers! now i'm intimidated! :mug:
 
As a woodworker with virtually no space to work with, a homebrewer, avid DIY'er, and a similar attitude towards hobbies (I refer to it as "I don't do, I overdo"), I can't begin to tell you how jealous I am of that space, your woodworking setup, and well, everything...
 
As a woodworker with virtually no space to work with, a homebrewer, avid DIY'er, and a similar attitude towards hobbies (I refer to it as "I don't do, I overdo"), I can't begin to tell you how jealous I am of that space, your woodworking setup, and well, everything...
Yeah, I get it. Again, I stumbled into this space, and I have to thank my wife for being so cool about this being my space.

Not a day goes by in that garage where I don't think about how lucky I am. Thanks for writing, and as this moves forward I will update.
 
So quick update. Got my son coming to town the beginning of next month to help build walls that will define the spray booth and brewery, so for now I've been painting and prepping the space. The old tankless point of use (useless) water heater finally died for good, so I pulled that pos and ordered a 38 gal lowboy electric water heater and have already run the wiring. The old water heater was a Bosch point of use, which is worthless imho. Even on day one it wouldn't put out more than 110° water, and I live in Florida where the ground water is easily 70° and warmer! Add to that it was a energy hog as the circuit I had to run for it was 50amp (I never did find out how much power it pulled as I was slightly concerned about giving myself a minor electrocution). New water heater will be 30 amp and at 38 gal that's plenty for the wash sink.

Also as I mentioned I managed to dust off my old brewing equipment and today was my first batch in a few years. My current set up is very temporary however we had great results today and the wort is in the fermenter bubbling away! Nice to get back. I'm planning to brew every two to three weeks, unless the renovation work makes brewing an impossibility.

Thanks for reading.
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So I promised to keep this post updated...

I've been busy! The spray booth room is built, today I finished up the wiring, cut the vents for the make-up air into the spray booth and I even ran plumbing for my ice maker. You'll see that I've got the woodworking side just about where it's going to be, and the brewery side is basically a mess. Doors came in yesterday, I should be able to get them installed sometime this week. Then it's on to hanging lights, drywall and cleaning up the entire garage.

The brewery build happens after I get my shop back into working order. I was planning to build a fairly robust work bench (5" SYP laminated top, 3" legs and stretchers) for the brew station, but I'm having second thoughts on having all that fluid on top of and around a big wooden structure. Just feel like I'm asking for trouble here, with difficulty in a good cleanup and worrying about how the finish will fair. But I've got a month or so to figure this out, maybe I'll just pick up an 8' stainless workstation; that'll probably be a wash given the cost of the lumber and all the extras in building a bench. But for now I'm still brewing on my cobbled together system, which is working just fine. And I am doing two things at once, that is brewing every two weeks and building out the shop. That's a lot coming from a one at a time kind of guy.

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Seems I'm overdue for an update.

I'm pretty close to being done with the electric brewery part of the garage, now I'm waiting on parts from Kal at the electric brewery and Bobby over at Brew Hardware. The next big project is going to be three cabinets and a countertop running the corner between the brew table and the refrigerator, starting that project today. So without further delay, the pictures...

To start off with we picked up an old True kegerator off Craigslist recently, replaced the towers and now I have a place for all the kegs I'll be filling...
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I wanted the spray booth to have storage above so my wife found a company in New Orleans that makes alternating tread stair cases. I cut down some of the shelving to 4' height and installed them above the spray booth, and the ladder makes the trip up and down fairly safe.
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Yesterday I finished off the brew table, hood and the panel.
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Next up, get the brewery finished and build three cabinets for the open space between the brew table and the refrigerator.
 
Since I've been drinking I thought I would check in again.

I'm busy building out some cabinets for the brewery side of things, I'm still awaiting a few more pieces before I get the brewery up and running. Tonight I got all the wood for the drawers processed and started the task of dovetailing the drawers. It's all hand work and for some reason I decided to start drinking once the table saw was shut down for good. I still have a black IPA that should be close to kicking, and I went after it tonight like I wanted to lay that keg in its grave. Good to the last drop I guess, it was tasty for sure! More to come...

I'm using some Pennsylvania poplar that I've been hanging on to for roughly 15 years for the drawer stock, here I'm planing to 5/8" thickness.
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My son is a Philly cop, I texted this picture and told him I'm back at the dovetails. He's at work tonight and seemed to appreciate the photos.
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I love my Blue Spruce toolworks chisels, they can dull quickly but I can get these incredibly sharp and I just love they way they feel in my hand.
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One drawer done, 7 to go. This is relaxing work if you're not rushing it. This is the result, right off the chisel. I'm sure I'll screw up a few of these but we're off to a good start!
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Today marks the first day using the electric brewery, currently boiling a Hop Stoopid clone. Brewery works well, bit of a learning curve here but been following Kal's recommendations over at the electricbrewery and I'm in the last 15 minutes of the boil. So far so good.

Came in a bit high on my pre-boil gravity but that's probably because I factored in a low efficiency to start off with; I'm taking good notes and will adjust until I hit my numbers well. Still need to finish the cabinets, the drawers are done and I just need to have a spray finish day to get them over the finish line. More pictures and updates will follow.

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34 lbs of 2 row with 4 lbs of Victory
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A hop heavy brew for sure!
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