Basement brewery and bar build

[stageseven]

I started this project a little over 3 years ago, but it took a back seat right after tearing everything apart. A couple months ago I finally started putting the shambles of my basement back together, and am very nearly done so I feel better about sharing with you all. Enjoy!

Before, IDK what the previous owners were thinking with this paint job.

More before

Tearing it all out

Started framing, this is where I got stuck for years

Ready to start again, at least it's cleaner

Drywall going up

Spackling done and ready to paint

Base coat done, bye bye camo

Lots of stenciling going into this wall

Painting done

Starting on the bar

Sides and shelves in

Put some wood facing on to make it look more like cabinets

Whitewashed everything

Top going on, whole thing is 9' long by 32" wide

Some cedar tongue and groove boards to make it look nice

Some trim around the outside to cover the edges

Cut tile for the top


Hit a limit, more to come...

 

[stageseven]

Grouted and sort of cleaned

Put some cabinets in as well, hole is cut for attaching my grain mill

Sump pump is now in the left side of the cabinet, sink added on the right

Finished bar side and back, still needs some hardware for the cabinet doors

The heart of the brewery, lots of steel from brewhardware.com

Finished bar front, waiting on a TV and speaker shelves

The whole thing

Brewery close up​

 

[micraftbeer]

Very nice! The bar almost had me thinking, "Yeah, I could do that!" But it would probably look like your picture post-demolition for months...

 

[stageseven]

Very nice! The bar almost had me thinking, "Yeah, I could do that!" But it would probably look like your picture post-demolition for months...

Thanks! Honestly the bar itself wasn't all that bad. The whole bottom cabinet area was cut and put together in a single day, although a lot of planning went into the dimensions to make it work. The top on the other hand was several days of work, but a lot of that was waiting for glue to dry and figuring out how to fit everything together.

 

[mj1angier]

Looks great!

 

[Ajae]

Any updates?

 

[Jag75]

Man that is slick ! Love the bar. Very nice work indeed

 

[Calfj60]

Nice work, looking forward to the next update

 

[stageseven]

There are a few things I've gotten done/upgraded over the last couple months. I'm pretty happy with where things are at now, the only thing I have left to do really is make a few modifications to my mash tun to allow me to use a copper chiller and a 2nd pump to do a RIMS setup. I'm not sure when I'll get around to that, but at this point it's just a matter of drilling some holes and buying some fittings.

Sign is up, it really ties the brewing space together

This was a little bit of a side project, but I was given a stir plate. I screwed on a plastic paint can to keep my 2L flask from being thrown off.

Stools for the bar are in, the TV and speakers are up. Definitely makes for a more fun place when people come over.

The bar is also fully stocked now, with a bluetooth audio receiver and bluray player, all my glassware, and a nice stash of bottles. Down below are cabinets to store spare CO2, ingredients, and whatever else I need.

When no one else is around, the barcat has run of the place.

Most importantly the brewery is fully functioning. The one pump I have now is used to recirculate the mash and save my back from lifting full vessels to dump into the kettle.

Also got some handy wire shelves for storage

So that's about it for now. I'm loving this setup, it's made brewing faster, easier, and all around more enjoyable for me. I've done somewhere around a half dozen brews so far, and the biggest issues have been too much volume boiled off and having to turn down the power on the element because the boil was too vigorous. It's a huge step up from having to use a heat stick just to keep a boil going on a glass top stove.

 

[Jag75]

I like it !

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Looks fabulous...

If you wouldn't mind sharing, where did you get the stencil for the wall? I am in the midst of a project myself and love this idea-- I would like to steal it basically!

 

[HB_ATL73]

Awesome set up!

 

[stageseven]

Looks fabulous...

If you wouldn't mind sharing, where did you get the stencil for the wall? I am in the midst of a project myself and love this idea-- I would like to steal it basically!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0061MA4E8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

That's the stencil I used, although I'll warn you if you're trying to do something similar it was a huge pain. After about half a row the finer details started getting clogged up with paint, so I'd have to stop and peel off some of the dried paint from those areas. Eventually even the bigger sections started having the same sort of issues, and all the paint peeling started warping the stencil which caused it to lose more definition. I ended up buying another of the same stencil just to finish the wall, but if you're within a couple feet of the wall you can definitely see sections where the pattern is better or worse depending on the state of the stencil.

 

[Soulshine2]

Kil

I started this project a little over 3 years ago, but it took a back seat right after tearing everything apart. A couple months ago I finally started putting the shambles of my basement back together, and am very nearly done so I feel better about sharing with you all. Enjoy!

Before, IDK what the previous owners were thinking with this paint job.

More before

Tearing it all out

Started framing, this is where I got stuck for years

Ready to start again, at least it's cleaner

Drywall going up

Spackling done and ready to paint

Base coat done, bye bye camo

Lots of stenciling going into this wall

Painting done

Starting on the bar

Sides and shelves in

Put some wood facing on to make it look more like cabinets

Whitewashed everything

Top going on, whole thing is 9' long by 32" wide

Some cedar tongue and groove boards to make it look nice

Some trim around the outside to cover the edges

Cut tile for the top


Hit a limit, more to come...

Killer job ,man!! Did you do all this yourself or did you have some help I hope. I was impressed on the framing, the soffits , the wrap on the post...then you built the cabinet and bar top. wow.

 

[stageseven]

Killer job ,man!! Did you do all this yourself or did you have some help I hope. I was impressed on the framing, the soffits , the wrap on the post...then you built the cabinet and bar top. wow.

Thanks! My dad helped out quite a bit, especially with the framing and planning things out. I've never done anything like this before so having someone to bounce ideas off of and call whenever I got stuck was great.

 

[Soulshine2]

Thanks! My dad helped out quite a bit, especially with the framing and planning things out. I've never done anything like this before so having someone to bounce ideas off of and call whenever I got stuck was great.

I'm a carpenter /millwright by trade (26 yrs total) so to see someone do this ....its very clean, impressive to say the least. Tell your dad he did a great job helping you. I'm sure he cant wait to sit in the bar you both created and have a home brew. Great memories I'm sure.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0061MA4E8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

That's the stencil I used, although I'll warn you if you're trying to do something similar it was a huge pain. After about half a row the finer details started getting clogged up with paint, so I'd have to stop and peel off some of the dried paint from those areas. Eventually even the bigger sections started having the same sort of issues, and all the paint peeling started warping the stencil which caused it to lose more definition. I ended up buying another of the same stencil just to finish the wall, but if you're within a couple feet of the wall you can definitely see sections where the pattern is better or worse depending on the state of the stencil.

Thanks for the info... definitely something to ponder. My wall is only 10.5', and I'd only be doing the lower 48" of the wall, so definitely seems less square footage than what you did.


I appreciate the help!

 

[orionol73]

Is it just me or does your cat look drunk??

 

[NathPowe]

Awesome job stageseven - really digging the colors and style you went with. Currently finishing my basement with a brewery as part of the project, so it's nice to see hard work paying off. Was wondering what type of vent hood are you rocking there? Is that 6" ductwork? Finally, how is it working for you to vent steam?

Thanks and congrats on a job well done.

 

[stageseven]

Awesome job stageseven - really digging the colors and style you went with. Currently finishing my basement with a brewery as part of the project, so it's nice to see hard work paying off. Was wondering what type of vent hood are you rocking there? Is that 6" ductwork? Finally, how is it working for you to vent steam?

Thanks and congrats on a job well done.

Thanks very much! The vent hood is just a cheap Broan under-cabinet range hood with a 190 CFM fan that I was given for free. The hood has a 7" outlet but I had to use a reducer coming off it to 6" to get vent pipe to fit and so I could install a baffle easily since it runs outside the house. It's technically underpowered since I'm running a 5500W element, but during the boil I can only run at 50% power anyway or the boil goes nuts. The hood is a bit small for my setup, only 32" wide by 18" deep, and during the boil the edge of my pot can be up to 20" from the wall which means some steam escapes into the room. I'm always running a dehumidifier down there anyway though so it's not a huge deal. Some condensation also drips back into the pot, but I roll the whole setup over to my sink as soon as the boil is done to chill so that doesn't bother me. If I was going to do it all over again and actually buy something I'd look for a hood that was deeper and wider than my pot when set up by 2-3 inches and had a higher CFM fan rating, but as is it works well enough for me and isn't worth the cost or hassle to try to replace.

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Would love to see some more photos of the Grain milling cabinet