Brewroom Build!

[RedIrocZ-28]

Thats what I plan on doing. My brother on the other hand just yesterday expressed his thoughts on "not even doing the door now, we don't need it."

I was like, uhh... I have been planning the door for a year, what kind of wood, where to get authentic looking hinges, the knob, the latch mechanism... and then he springs this on me? I think I'll build it anyway.

But thats beside the point! This is not even a part of my brewroom!!! The brewroom is on the other side of the hall. And I need to decide whether or not I am going to get a fermchamber that will be housing a 15gal conical and 4-5 other carboys/buckets or not. I wonder if one of those little mini fridges would be able to do the job, keeping that much space at about 65*?? Anyone?

 

[drinkabeergle]

I would think mini-fridges and/or a big freezer would do what you need.

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Ok good. Now, on to the final part of my brewroom build thats not been explored yet. I was thinking that I will want to do some brews indoors come winter time again, but I am not plumbing gas lines into a bedroom for a stove, Soooo.... I was thinking of doing a brew kettle with a coil in it to boil wort like the guys building a HERMS.

It will be nice because there will not be a gas flame burning for over an hour, heating the hell out of my 90sq ft brewroom. Now I just have to research the best way of building this setup.

 

[diatonic]

I would take a look at The Pol's electric boil conversion thread. The PID/SSR setup is pretty easy and inexpensive.

 

[SHvanBommel]

You have obviously never lived on a submarine . Make it 3 feet in diameter, put a watertight door on it, and paint everything grey. Then it would remind me of a submarine.

I used to live on one... yup... nothing like a submarine because it doesn't have a screen door

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

RedIrocZ-28 - Thanks for posting up the door making in progress, very nice. I think just buying that many clamps would break my piggy bank.
Please keep the pictures coming, it is really great to see.

 

[Domminigan]

Awesome awesome awesome. I might steal the laminating idea for some supports around my house.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Damn, that's awesome.

 

[Tusch]

Unbelievable! Also thanks for the extra pics on the door design/assembly I do think an oak barrel top would be primo for the door. I was over in germany and remember checking out the hundreds of gallons wooden casks out, they had top diameters in the neighborhood of 12-20 ft though Those germans do love their beer.

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

One day very soon we will be doing a door much like you see in the Shire, which is of course just like an Oak barrel top.

There will be photo updates tonight, I got the GF to bring her camera over last night and I took a bunch of pics of the progress. It will look like quite a leap because work progresses quite quickly around there when I have a couple days off. The electrical is done, the walls are all drywalled and mudded, all that needs to be done is sanding and paint! Then its on to the little things like deciding what beer I will brew first and put in my ferm-chamber.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Iroc, you may want to consider something like the fermento-lager-taporator I have posted in my sig. That way you can use a chest freezer for the cooling source (much more powerful than a minifridge) and have more space with more functionality. Just an idea. I haven't started mine yet, but it is on my very long list

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

I really wanted to do something like that Boerderij, but I happen to have a free mini-fridge. Maybe I'll have someone not want a freezer anymore next week, I've been pretty fortunate the last few months with people just giving me stuff or selling it dirt cheap (6 glass carboys with 13 gallons of wine still inside them for $80!).

Who knows. Maybe I will build one. If you guys can't tell I'm just a big kid that has a house that I do whatever the hell I want with. Whatever I can dream of, I make into reality. Pics in a little bit of the progress. I'm leaving work shortly and have a half hour drive home, in the rain it sounds like.

 

[Skrimpy]

Holy moly Red, your door hijacked your thread! You keep saying you are working on the ferm chamber and everyone wants to hear about the door. Even under the influence coming up with that door idea takes an imagination. The Hobbit has been my favorite book since the third grade (I think that's something like 25 years now) and never would have even thought of copying Tolkien's idea of a round door...and now I'm going to steal it from you. Is it really stealing if I tell you I'm doing it but then give you the credit when I finish it? Not sure. So...+1 on the door being super cool. As far as the ferm room goes I would suggest figuring a way to get the room to between 60-65 for your ales then build one of those cheap ice boxes for fermenting lagers...Im working on getting the insulation on one of those too. Too many projects so little time. Here's a link for the chamber...
http://www.olderascal.com/brewing/fermentationchiller/index.html

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I'm really wondering what Hobbit fermenter looks like.

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Maybe I'll put a round door in the ferm chamber too! Oh man... this might be too good to pass up. Ok, I'm doing it. I wonder how far you can bend plywood before it wants to start cracking... I guess we are going to find out aren't we.

Ok, view of the round door from the brew room door

View of the brew room's diagonal entrance from the laundry room

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Looking straight on the brew room from the door

Further into the room we go, closet space is in the left corner, maybe 9sq ft or so on the closet.

Looking back toward the door from the wall

Looking out the door

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

My sweetheart who so graciously picked up some tools and started mudding the screw holes as I did the seams.

I know, sorry to ruin it with my ugly mug!

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

And just incase anyone wants to do a cat caption, I present to you my girlfriend and my normally pleasant but seemingly evil looking cats

 

[Tusch]

Lucky man in both the beautiful girlfriend (that supports these amazingly cool projects) and the amazingly cool projects.

And freaky lookin cats man.

 

[jshnks]

Nice Siamese's. Red point and a Seal point? my mom used to breed those, now she breeds Bengals.

 

[Brewin_the_goods]

What's that on the coffee table there red? A "waterpipe"?

 

[Homercidal]

A very interesting "Sculpture"...

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Haha, I knew someone would see that. The true explanation of that is that I have a lot of Arabic friends and we used to smoke the Argile pronounced - "adr gee lay" - where the g is soft as in goo, with flavored tobacco. Watermelon tastes awful, Strawberry is the best, followed by apple. Seriously, I would not be able to poke smot and have a house and fast cars and brew beer on my wages. I'm one of the most straight arrow people ever.

 

[Homercidal]

Haha, I knew someone would see that. The true explanation of that is that I have a lot of Arabic friends and we used to smoke the Argile pronounced - "adr gee lay" - where the g is soft as in goo, with flavored tobacco. Watermelon tastes awful, Strawberry is the best, followed by apple. Seriously, I would not be able to poke smot and have a house and fast cars and brew beer on my wages. I'm one of the most straight arrow people ever.

Fixed that for you...

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Haha, fine don't believe me. I know I'm not a pothead, and proud of it quite honestly.

On another note, I have decided that I am going to begin using cube shaped fermenters to utilize space more efficiently. This way, I can have a smaller ferm-chamber and still ferment up to 30 gallons at a time. Not sure if I'm going to build them myself out of Polycarbonate or if I'll buy HDPE "vittles vaults". The vaults are a hair cheaper, but they are not clear. Clear square fermenters would look more high tech too. I think I'll put one of my old fish tank cubes into service and see how it goes. I was going to do a small home business a few years back making rimless cube tanks for fish enthusiasts, sold a few but then the GF at the time left me, moved out, took half our stuff, and I was left with an apartment that cost me $750 a month by myself.

Thats all the past though. Its interesting to note that one of my 12" cube tanks will hold 7.48 gallons of liquid. They cost me about $25 in materials to build, and a few hours time. Clear, square, home built fermenters. How cool is that...

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

How are they constructed/sealed? That sounds cool.

 

[CarlLBC]

Vittle Vault II at usplastics.com are kinda see through and kinda square

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Well, basically you build a cube out of 5 pieces of polycarbonate. The manner in which you join the pieces together is called cementing. It is in actuality a solvent that is applied to the joint, that flows down the joint via capillary action and actually melts the Polycarbonate on both sides of the joint, and then solidifies. It is used in this exact manner by big aquarium builders that use polycarbonate (plexiglas).

Here is one of my masterpieces. Holding the full weight of all of 7.25 gallons of water, not a single leak.

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

Vittle Vault II at usplastics.com are kinda see through and kinda square

This was the other route I thought of taking.

 

[CarlLBC]

I think they would be better. large opening, you'd kinda be able to see what's going on and they are already air tight. it'd be nice to custom build the size you need though.