Need advice on a what could be a feasible pipedream

[BigBezizzle]

Alright, so here's some background first. I'm an engineering student at my college, and as far as my living conditions I'm thinking of moving into a co-op next year. In case you don't know what that means, (I didn't either) co-ops are student owned houses that operate as a non-profit organization that takes care of its own governing and expenses.

How this plays into brewing is something that I believe could be very exciting. Since the co-ops are focused around meeting new people, mutually accepting the responsibilities of owning a house, and promoting getting to know new people and their cultures/backgrounds, I thought it would be an excellent idea to set up an AG set up that would stay at one of the co-ops and would then be usable by future tenants.

This poses a few challenges, the first of which is that I personally have never brewed AG before, although I currently have maybe 6 or 7 extract brews under my belt and am also looking up as much info on the subject as I can. Another aspect is that I'm trying to cut back on cost as much as possible so that I can ask for fellow co-op members to pitch in for the initial start up cost. A third factor is the fact that I am looking to scale up to brewing around 20 gals (2-10 gallon batches back to back) at a time instead of my current 5 gallon extract batches.

To address the cost issue I'm looking to create as much of the set up as I can myself. So far what I'm planning on doing is re-purposing two used kegs into a sparge and a brewing kettle, I've found guides for building my own mash-tun for about $40 and similarly for a wort chiller (on this website actually =D), and I was reading that I could find a couple propane ring burners at a camping store somewhere for pretty cheap too.

My questions (sorry I took so long) begin here. Where could I buy or how could i make several ~14gal primary fermentors/carboys for the 10 gallon batches? Should I set up the rig to work by gravity from sparge to mash to boil, or would it be possible to set up a handmade pump to do that or even find a cheap pump to buy? Since I've never brewed AG myself before I'm assuming there are some tricks to these new steps that I don't know and therefore have some holes in my design already, if so I really hope you could help me fill them.

I'm thinking of a set up very similar to this: and if you watch all the way through you can see this is where I got the idea to brew two batches of 10 gallons simultaneously. He uses an automatic pump, but I had an idea that since the flow rate of the sparge running into mash should equal the flow rate of the mash flowing into the boil kettle perhaps a pedal-powered pump could be made using a cam shaft that pumps both at the same time, does this sound at all possible?

If you made it through all this text, I really appreciate it and I welcome any and all criticisms because as I said earlier, I am very excited to get this thing going. I think with the proper design and planning I can actually make this work and I couldn't begin to explain how grateful I would be if you guys could help me get this up and running.

Thanks in advance,

Shaun

 

[Copperpots_Brewing]

Shaun, I think this would be a good idea... assuming the residents embrace the concept and actually get some use out of the system so you dont waste your money.
Not sure where to start with the questions, so i'll just pick a random spot:
For fermentation, you have a couple things to think about. If you are brewing 10gal batches you have 2 options for fermentation. You can split the batch into 2 separate 5gal fermenters (cheapest option) or you can get a conical fermenter. I beleive you can get a relatively large Brewhemoth conical for about $475 or so. But you have to think about your fermentation temperatures. Michigan can get pretty warm in the summer and super cold in the winter, and many college homes are not well insulated. So you'll have to find a spot to keep the fermenter that you can keep a consistent temperature. If you ferment 10+ gallons at one time, in one fermenter, you most likely will NOT be moving it. It would take a couple guys to move it, and i guarantee you'd oxidize the beer.

As far as whether or not it should be gravity fed or use a pump, you should definitely use a pump. If you want to try gravity feed, you'll have to create a brew-tree which would be way more money than spending the $150 on a pump that you can get from Northern Brewer.

Depending on connections and your personal know-how, this could prove to be a pretty pricey project. You'll have to pay a welder to make a stand for your system (i guess you could go without the stand if you need to) and you'll need the welder to cut the top of the kegs off and pop a ball valve on the side. You'll also need to look into getting a false bottom, at least for the mash tun.

 

[H-ost]

There are an incredible amount of options for making a set up that I really don't want to get to far into this thread but I do have a little advice.

Investigate BIAB (Brew In A Bag)
- most space efficient
- no pumps or 2-3 tier set up
- relatively cheap
- looks kinda cool so people in the future might be more interested to learn how to use it.

I have never done and don't plan on doing BIAB anytime soon but it sounds like a good option for you.

The biggest issue that I forsee is that although some people might think brewing sounds cool, as soon as i start talking about it or showing them anything other than krausen or finished product they start to yawn. Brewing is awesome and addicting but not to everyone.

 

[Airborneguy]

Not sure if this helps, but one of the members of my club has been wading through the legalities of a brewing co-op/private club at his house (its a big building). He already built the bar and has a space to build the brewery. It is an interesting concept, and the legal framework does exist in NY.

Basically, it would be a private club that sells memberships. Membership get the holder in the door and entitles them to a certain amount of beer per month. We can also do certain things to make money such as teaching brewing classes and holding special events. The only thing I can't recall right now was the tax situation. I believe that is was very favorable to us.

The major plus is that our members who want to pursue commercial brewing get experience and something to put on their resume, plus recipe creation experience.

EDIT: we would also be able to purchase our personal brewing ingredients through the co-op's account.

 

[motobrewer]

there's a co-op bar in milwaukee

http://riverwestpublichouse.wordpress.com/

 

[BigBezizzle]

So I'm in the middle of studying for a statistics exam but I saw all the great advice and wanted to pop on here and thank all of you! I can't wait to read about the milwaukee co-op, and the membership idea is pretty clever. I hadn't planned on making money off of this endeavor, but it sounds like the membership thing is a legal loophole I might have to use.

As far as the welding, keggle conversion, MLT conversion, I'm going to ask the head of the machine shop at my engineering school if they have the right tools for this kind of job (which I assume they probably do) so I can make these things myself. I think you are right about the fermentors though, I should get just a ton of 5gal containers for ease of storage, and if you're right cost.

I did just find out the other day through having dinner with one of the co-ops that they have a program in place already for education or something like that. Meaning that each co-op house gets around $150 per semester from grants to be put towards workshops and events that would be fun, and it sounds like I wouldn't have too hard of a time finding 3-4 houses to pool that money together for a semester to put towards this project.

Again, thanks for the ideas guys I really appreciate them alot!