New Basement Brewery Build

[huhwha]

Great job! I'm also in the Columbus area (Hilliard). It will still be a while before I make a similar build in my retirement home in Tennessee. Would you be willing to get together and share some lessons learned in your build? I have homebrew to share!

Thanks for all the good I info in the thread.

 

[billr1]

Heh I can relate. We've attempted to bottle or do other fairly involved tasks while in the midst of brewing a few times and have since figured out it's kinda risky to get distracted. Especially while sparging!

 

[highland_brewer]

Just a little update. My original setup was working ok but had a hard time with boilovers on 10 gallon batches. moved up to a 20 gallon brew kettle and solved that problem... but you know how that goes.. now I have done a couple 1/2 bbl batches.. *sigh* out of headspace again...

 

[user 125772]

Have not really thought about it... Should I?

When I did a trial run with the hlt it got slightly warm but nothing i was concerned about... The table is like a big heatsink as far as i can tell.

Actually, Stainless steel has very low thermal conduction properties, basically the opposite of copper and aluminum, (it only gets hot where you heat it) thats one of the reasons it makes great cookware. It definitely doesn't hurt to isolate it from the table with cork tho.

Nice job on the build

 

[highland_brewer]

Actually, Stainless steel has very low thermal conduction properties, basically the opposite of copper and aluminum, (it only gets hot where you heat it) thats one of the reasons it makes great cookware. It definitely doesn't hurt to isolate it from the table with cork tho.

Nice job on the build

Thanks!! Been some changes since it started.. Haven't had any activity on this thread in forever!! Cheers!

Out of curiousity how did you find it?

 

[Town9]

Hey man, sorry to re-resurrect an old thread, but I'm building my basement brewery now and found your thread while doing research.

Your brewery is awesome! For the vent hood, it looks like you affixed the stainless panels to the outside of the wooden box, but did you add anything to the inside of the hood? Or is it just sealed/painted plywood? I may have misunderstood the build though...

Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[highland_brewer]

Hey man, sorry to re-resurrect an old thread, but I'm building my basement brewery now and found your thread while doing research.

Your brewery is awesome! For the vent hood, it looks like you affixed the stainless panels to the outside of the wooden box, but did you add anything to the inside of the hood? Or is it just sealed/painted plywood? I may have misunderstood the build though...

Thanks in advance for any info!

No problem!!

The hood is covered with a "U" shaped skin of stainless. The box is wooden and I coated it on the inside with that "as seen on TV" flex seal. Would NOT recommend that for covering the inside.. $$$ it did not cover like I thought it would and once I was committed there was no going back!! Lol If I were to do it over I would get some kind of catalyzed product to coat it with.. Marine paint might be an option for this.

Hope that helps!!
Cheers!
Brian

 

[Town9]

Great thanks for the heads up!

I have a huge roll of aluminum flashing from a deck project I was thinking of using to coat the inside. The only thing is that there’d be seams on the inside where the flashing pieces met, but I figured I’d just use some silicone to seal it. Do you think that would have worked for yours?

Also, are you still getting drips out of the bottom of your exhaust fan drain when you brew? I hadn’t thought of that, but if that’s the case, I’ll need to plan some sort of channel since my fan won’t be over the sink.

Thanks again!

 

[Toejam792]

I would use your plywood box with aluminum flashing and silicone at the seams or even just an exterior paint on and caulk the joints on the inside. My theory is houses get way more moisture with direct rain than there is boiling water vapor during a boil, expecially if your only brewing once a week. I've been using an untreated plywood box as my vent hood for a year with no problem, its just a box that I put pallet wood over to match brewery. I plan on moving soon so didn't treat inside and haven't had a problem with moisture. All I have is a 6" vortex fan over the bk, behind sign. It does sag were my receiver is because of my shoddy workmanship but it vents really good.

 

[Town9]

That’s good news, I figured the sealed flashing would probably be fine. Plus I have most of the materials on hand. I’m going to get one of those Vortex fans too and hope it can hack The 20’ run it has to push air through to get outside through the vent.

Thanks for the advice!