Home Brewery Build

[gbrewing]

I am in the process of building a home brewery. The brewery is in a detached building and will include appropriate drains, water, natural gas and electricity. I am saving the cost of labor by doing most of the construction myself. I have a full time career outside of my hobby and construction so it is going a bit on the slow side. The dimensions are 22 x 18.

Here are a few pictures.

 

[gbrewing]

Foundation poured.

 

[DakotaPrerunner]

Very cool. What part of Washington are you in? I live in Edmonds and my wife and I are buying our first house with being able to build a separate brewery a big part of our decision.

 

[Brewsam]

Nice! This would be my dream! Are you going to grow hops in those raised planters in the back?

 

[gbrewing]

I am on the east of the mountains. I also selected this property when we moved here for the ability to add a brewery or accessory building at some point. One of my neighbors has a third car garage he used exclusively for brewery. When he bought his house, he had it plumbed in with extra water pipes and a sink.

That's not a bad idea for hops. I might even be able to add lots of sand to the mix to make it somewhat like Yakima Valley soil conditions.

 

[45_70sharps]

Very very cool.

I'm out on the west side of the mountains in Raymond, but I lived in Athol and CDA Idaho and worked out of Spokane for quite a while.

 

[fall-line]

Congrats on breaking ground! It sounds like you have things well thought out, and the initial layout and slab look great.

I recently completed a similar project in my backyard in Seattle, and I wish you the best in your build!

 

[Huaco]

Sub'd!!! Can't wait to follow this one through!
Congrats and good luck!

 

[gbrewing]

I am at the point of selecting an appropriate sized hood for my brewing equipment. I will be using a combination of electric and natural gas. My batch sizes will be from 30 - 45 gallons.

I followed fall-line's thread as well as what Kal posted on theelectricbrewery.com . My concern is brewing indoors and making sure carbon monoxide is removed from the room. I also want to make sure condensation is not an issue.

Can anyone point me to an appropriate formula or method to calculate the appropriate cfm and hood size? I obviously don't want to spend $5000 on a hood/vent/fan system. Does anyone have experience with a building inspector reference this issue?

 

[gbrewing]

Framing the walls. The leading wall was designed with a header to support a future garage roll-up door. For now it is being framed for a double steel door. I want this space to be as energy efficient as possible. If I get tired of the brewery idea someday, I will convert it to a man toy garage.

 

[freeokw]

Subscribed. Looking forward to following your build out!

 

[CBMbrewer]

Looks great!

 

[fall-line]

I am at the point of selecting an appropriate sized hood for my brewing equipment. I will be using a combination of electric and natural gas. My batch sizes will be from 30 - 45 gallons.

I followed fall-line's thread as well as what Kal posted on theelectricbrewery.com . My concern is brewing indoors and making sure carbon monoxide is removed from the room. I also want to make sure condensation is not an issue.

Can anyone point me to an appropriate formula or method to calculate the appropriate cfm and hood size? I obviously don't want to spend $5000 on a hood/vent/fan system. Does anyone have experience with a building inspector reference this issue?

A lot of the info you will find on hvac exhaust calculation is based of the volume of air in the room. Personally i have found that to be a dificult formula to apply to a brew space like ours are. What I was able to do however is use the BTU output of my burners as a starting point, using this calculation:
http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-CFM-for-Range-Hoods

I calculated I needed 750cfm or so, but the 200CFM fan that came in my hood works just fine for me (with the batch sizes you are planning, you will need more)

I've got a 400cfm inline fan that I plan to install in the place of my current fan to up the power a bit.

Personally I've found that the hood is much more important as a method to remove the vapor from the boil than the fumes from the natural gas burners, which are quite clean. I forgot to turn the fan on during my last brew and my co/flammable gas alarm (you'll definitely want one of these) never so much as chirped. I noticed the problem when every window in the building had so much condensation they started dripping. :smack: (of course, I don't recommend you ever burn any gas indoors without proper ventilation, just sharing my experience)

 

[fall-line]

Oh, and *subscribed!*

 

[gbrewing]

Rafters and roof sheeting completed. I also had to add a two inch insulation barrier around the entire slab which runs 18" deep and 6" out from the bottom. I guess this is some sort of energy code I needed to comply with since it will be a heated/cooled shop. It was lots of digging but is complete.

Thanks for the information about the vent. It looks like I have some additional reading to do before I make decision on that.

 

[gbrewing]

The building is sealed finally sealed up. Roughing in the electrical, plumbing, and gas. I will be running a 100 amp service to the brewery. I will post some pictures once I get some extra time.

 

[mikescooling]

For the vent you'll need about 4 to 7 room changes of air per hr,(match the cf/per hr of the fan to the room cf) and the fan should be a mushroom vent. You can have a flexible hood that's over the brewing area to suck up all the steam. When in doubt go bigger. My 0.02

 

[gbrewing]

Here are a few updated pictures of the building. Thanks for the information about the exhaust vent.

 

[kevinb]

Looking good.

 

[DoctorMemory]

I will be running a 100 amp service to the brewery.

LOL, I have 100A service for my whole house.

 

[gbrewing]

This building has consumed a large amount of my free time during the last few months. It is coming along nicely. Here are some updated photographs. Here is the building with the roof on and mechanical installed (minus rain cap)

 

[gbrewing]

Insulation being installed

 

[gbrewing]

Sheet rock up, taped, and textured. Side walls are waiting on FRP panels. The square box to the right of the window is a blending valve for water. The valve feeds a pipe which comes out on the other wall for filling the HLT or other water needs. At first, it will only mix water heater temperature water. My goal in the future is to have hot water on demand.

 

[NewJersey]

i cant wait for the good stuff! (the brewing setup of course!)
building looks nice

 

[gbrewing]

It's been a while since I have posted any updates. All the connections to the building have been completed and the building is ready for the equipment. Here is a picture of the sink and water heater. I have always wanted a three bay sink with a side shelf for brewing.

 

[gbrewing]

The brewery is complete after lots of fighting with the ventilation system. I am brewing indoors with a natural gas burner and tried numerous methods of ventilating the exhaust, steam and heat. In the end, I had to pony up and install a mushroom style fan and a commercial hood. (as suggested in the earlier posts) This ended up being the single largest expense of the brewery. I currently brew with door and window open for make-up air. As money allows, I will add some sort of make-up air system.