bmoritzasu
Active Member
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2013
- Messages
- 44
- Reaction score
- 2
So after three years of brewing on the patio outside, and storing my beer in a room temp closet, I finally got a house with a detached garage. So what does one do with a detached garage that's too small to fit both cars in? You make it into a shop/brewery with a walk-in cooler.
Here is what the beginning of the build looked like. One of the first projects was rewiring the garage and putting in insulation. Since the only way to enter the garage was through the garage doors, I wanted to be able to enter from the back. As seen in the first photo, the door was installed in the south wall, or the wall behind the opened window. This was no small task since the garage is a brick garage, but in the end it turned out great.
Next up was the walk-in cooler/cellar. Since we have moved, all my beer has been sitting in the guesthouse closet that's been around 75-80 degrees all summer/fall long. Obviously this is not ideal, and I wanted to be able to store my beer properly. So I sketched out a corner in the garage for a walk-in cellar. I want to be able to store not only the beer, but all my grains and misc items. I figured a reasonable size would be a 6x6 structure. This would allow me room for cellaring, and leave the shop enough room for brewing equipment and power tools.
The cellar design didn't have to be overkill with the insulation since I only plan on getting the room down to 50 degrees. The walls were build with 2x4's and a layer of rigid foam insulation (3/4" R-5) went on the outside, followed by R-13 between the studs, and another layer of rigid foam to complete the sandwich walls. The outside of the cellar and inside were covered with OSB and the hole was cut for the A/C unit. The floor was built out of PT 2x4's and insulated with R-13 and covered with 3/4" plywood. We also framed a door for access. As you can see from the photos, not too shabby!
Those last two photos show the AC unit attached to the wall. Below that is my fermentation chamber.
Lastly we built some cabinets and shelves for the shop and installed a sink. We plumbed the sink to allow for a small 1 or 2 gallon portable water heater to be attached and ran the water through a CAMPO RV water filter.
I still need to finish the inside of the cellar by waterproofing the floor, putting in cove base, and building shelves for the grain and beer. I've also tested out the AC/Cool-Bot setup and was able to reach 35 degrees! Obviously I won't be running the AC that cool, but it's good to know that if I need I can lager some beer
All in all this project took two weeks to finish. I'm extremely happy with it and can't wait to get back to brewing. Hope you enjoyed the read. This hobby is more than addicting, and the projects people come up with are so great to read about.
Here is what the beginning of the build looked like. One of the first projects was rewiring the garage and putting in insulation. Since the only way to enter the garage was through the garage doors, I wanted to be able to enter from the back. As seen in the first photo, the door was installed in the south wall, or the wall behind the opened window. This was no small task since the garage is a brick garage, but in the end it turned out great.
Next up was the walk-in cooler/cellar. Since we have moved, all my beer has been sitting in the guesthouse closet that's been around 75-80 degrees all summer/fall long. Obviously this is not ideal, and I wanted to be able to store my beer properly. So I sketched out a corner in the garage for a walk-in cellar. I want to be able to store not only the beer, but all my grains and misc items. I figured a reasonable size would be a 6x6 structure. This would allow me room for cellaring, and leave the shop enough room for brewing equipment and power tools.
The cellar design didn't have to be overkill with the insulation since I only plan on getting the room down to 50 degrees. The walls were build with 2x4's and a layer of rigid foam insulation (3/4" R-5) went on the outside, followed by R-13 between the studs, and another layer of rigid foam to complete the sandwich walls. The outside of the cellar and inside were covered with OSB and the hole was cut for the A/C unit. The floor was built out of PT 2x4's and insulated with R-13 and covered with 3/4" plywood. We also framed a door for access. As you can see from the photos, not too shabby!
Those last two photos show the AC unit attached to the wall. Below that is my fermentation chamber.
Lastly we built some cabinets and shelves for the shop and installed a sink. We plumbed the sink to allow for a small 1 or 2 gallon portable water heater to be attached and ran the water through a CAMPO RV water filter.
I still need to finish the inside of the cellar by waterproofing the floor, putting in cove base, and building shelves for the grain and beer. I've also tested out the AC/Cool-Bot setup and was able to reach 35 degrees! Obviously I won't be running the AC that cool, but it's good to know that if I need I can lager some beer
All in all this project took two weeks to finish. I'm extremely happy with it and can't wait to get back to brewing. Hope you enjoyed the read. This hobby is more than addicting, and the projects people come up with are so great to read about.
