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Brewing on the cheap.
 
My home brewery. 10 gallon kettle 3vessel 120v e-herms system. I have 2x Haier wine fridges tucked under the bar that fit my ss brewbuckets fully temperature controlled. EVentually i'll move up to 2x conical fermenters but for now the buckets work great tucked inside the fridges. 4 tap keezer on the back wall

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This is my work in progress. Moving from a 20 gallon outdoor setup. Outdoors was fine at first, because I had friends and brew buddies that were always stopping over to help. Toward the end it was most often just the wife and I, which was a lot of work to unpack, brew, clean, pack up, then haul down to the basement.

I don’t have very much “free” space in the basement so I had to carve a little niche out in the corner. Some of the requirements (from me and my wife) were that it had to be contained, it had to be compact, it could remain set up in place, it had to be modular (we have a few acres of land that we will eventually build on, so this had to be able to be “torn down” and moved with minimal effort, and it couldn’t be an eyesore.

I still have to do a wall outlet drain (similar to a washer box) for the CFC, and will also install a steam slayer in the very near future. I am a firm believer in sub 10% boil off so currently the overhead vent keeps up, I also have a box fan in window as back up.





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The power leads are on 20’ cords.this allows me to reach where I need to now, and in the future. It’s just a matter of disconnecting feed line from service panel and unscrewing outdoor enclosures from wall. Easy Peasy.


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3 vessel SS Brewtech eBrewery with RIMS. Pot filler to fill pots without having to lift or carry. There is also a feeder stub, so when I get RO I can just slice in and the pot filler will be fed from RO system. It is currently on city water.

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The pump cabinet

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A further back view. Cabinet on bottom going left to right are: storage ->pump cabinet -> CFC cabinet. There is a hose bib that is just barely visible on top right of control panel that feeds chiller. Ultimately there will be the wall mounted drain on the piece of cedar that runs vertically, that will be used for CFC and steam slayer. Currently I run the hoses to the floor drain.

There are double utility sinks that I don’t have a pic of that would be to the right of where this pic was taken. Base grains are in buckets with gamma lids. Specialty grains are in cereal containers in kitchen cabs.

The hops and yeast are in a top freezer keezer upstairs. The fermentation chamber is a 1950s fridge with and STC 1000 that sits behind where this pc is taken from.
 
Here is a picture of my brew station:
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I ran a 50 amp sub panel to the back of the garage next to my woodworking area. I installed a vent hood and the big plastic sink. The motorized grain mill is wall mounted and on a wall switch. The HLT runs off a basic 220v temperature controller with SSR and 5500W element. The BK uses the still dragon DIY SSvR kit. I also Teed off the copper water lines for both hot and cold for the sink, and just cold to three valves, one to feed the GAC water filter which is on a flow meter with solenoid valve so it fills the HLT to exactly the volume that I want. The second valve feeds a distributor with pin lock and ball lock disconnects to rinse out my kegs with mains pressure. The third valve is for the RV hose which feeds the chiller. The chiller is on the floor wrapped around and inside the home depot bucket as a two stage counterflow chiller which uses pumped recirculated ice water for the second stage for very quick chilling. I have two chugger pumps, one just the standard center inlet, the other the mini-max version. One of my jockey boxes is underneath the stand as well (I have a total of 3 jockey boxes, a 6, 5, and 2 pass).

This is also where I roast my coffee.

This is the entrance to the warm side of the walk-in cooler:
49466270883_4d8cb23682_c.jpg


I use this freezer for my bulk hops, have my flitch lumber slabs that I'm drying and aging in front of the door.

Inside the warm-side of the walk-in:
49466271193_ee9276ccce_c.jpg


This is where I do my ale fermentations, where I have my first two sanke vessels for my barleywine solera, a wine rack, and the prosciutto that I'm dry aging (I also dabble in charcuterie) on the baker's rack.

This is one wall in the basement room:
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These are my empty and pressurized kegs (so I will know if any have a leak when I want to use it), my specialty grains, canned wort, other random items, and one of my 50# CO2 tanks.

This is a wide view of the other side of the basement room:
49466989527_0b856c805e_c.jpg


I have a small chest freezer there to freeze ice blocks, more random equipment on the right rack, bulk grain in the back next to the popcorn machine underneath the bald-faced hornet's nest I captured.

Here is the last side wall of the basement room:
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The jack daniel's barrel is filled with the flander's red single vessel solera, tools for kegging needs, my big 120 Qt mash tun for my big beers, second 50# CO2 tank, and my pressure test gauge in the pelican case.

Here is a view of the serving side of the cold side of the walk-in cooler:
49466272488_91cf6a91c2_c.jpg


Here is a closer look at the taps:
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The unlabeled one is actually the first pull from the multi-vessel solera. These are all Perlick 650ss, and I use John Guest fittings for everything in the walk-in.

Here is a view of the inside of the cold side of the walk-in cooler:
49466767131_64712871c0_c.jpg


You can see the bev seal ultra 235 coming in on the right, kegs stacked up to 3 high inside, yeast, cans of soda, some charcuterie hanging in here too. You can't see all the kegs in here, but I believe there are over 70 kegs in here (I have around 90 total, the empty ones you already saw, and I keep others around for specific tasks).

Overall, I'm quite happy with the setup, and it has worked quite well for me!
 
Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle!
The only thing that amazes me more than the 14 faucets is the fact that they are all in use...
Haha. I don't actually drink nearly fast enough for the amount that I brew, so it tends to accumulate. I've been able to age some of my big beers for a very long time, the oldest keg in there had been an 11 year old barleywine!
 
My brewing vessels are standard kitchen pots (some just huge), most of my fermentation in the summer is in my brew closet. I winter my outdoor storeroom turns in a brewery and many gallons of beer is fermented.
 

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Here is a picture of my brew station.....
Overall, I'm quite happy with the setup, and it has worked quite well for me!

Holy cow!! I'm sure if any LEO gets in there you will have a huge problem trying to explain it is not a commercial place! You are bigger than many of the breweries I have visited! :-O
 
Here is a picture of my brew station:
49466988392_a2c071df2e_c.jpg


I ran a 50 amp sub panel to the back of the garage next to my woodworking area. I installed a vent hood and the big plastic sink. The motorized grain mill is wall mounted and on a wall switch. The HLT runs off a basic 220v temperature controller with SSR and 5500W element. The BK uses the still dragon DIY SSvR kit. I also Teed off the copper water lines for both hot and cold for the sink, and just cold to three valves, one to feed the GAC water filter which is on a flow meter with solenoid valve so it fills the HLT to exactly the volume that I want. The second valve feeds a distributor with pin lock and ball lock disconnects to rinse out my kegs with mains pressure. The third valve is for the RV hose which feeds the chiller. The chiller is on the floor wrapped around and inside the home depot bucket as a two stage counterflow chiller which uses pumped recirculated ice water for the second stage for very quick chilling. I have two chugger pumps, one just the standard center inlet, the other the mini-max version. One of my jockey boxes is underneath the stand as well (I have a total of 3 jockey boxes, a 6, 5, and 2 pass).

This is also where I roast my coffee.

This is the entrance to the warm side of the walk-in cooler:
49466270883_4d8cb23682_c.jpg


I use this freezer for my bulk hops, have my flitch lumber slabs that I'm drying and aging in front of the door.

Inside the warm-side of the walk-in:
49466271193_ee9276ccce_c.jpg


This is where I do my ale fermentations, where I have my first two sanke vessels for my barleywine solera, a wine rack, and the prosciutto that I'm dry aging (I also dabble in charcuterie) on the baker's rack.

This is one wall in the basement room:
49466765976_7e22a3c216_c.jpg


These are my empty and pressurized kegs (so I will know if any have a leak when I want to use it), my specialty grains, canned wort, other random items, and one of my 50# CO2 tanks.

This is a wide view of the other side of the basement room:
49466989527_0b856c805e_c.jpg


I have a small chest freezer there to freeze ice blocks, more random equipment on the right rack, bulk grain in the back next to the popcorn machine underneath the bald-faced hornet's nest I captured.

Here is the last side wall of the basement room:
49466766761_16a1607278_c.jpg


The jack daniel's barrel is filled with the flander's red single vessel solera, tools for kegging needs, my big 120 Qt mash tun for my big beers, second 50# CO2 tank, and my pressure test gauge in the pelican case.

Here is a view of the serving side of the cold side of the walk-in cooler:
49466272488_91cf6a91c2_c.jpg


Here is a closer look at the taps:
49466766956_173d016934_c.jpg


The unlabeled one is actually the first pull from the multi-vessel solera. These are all Perlick 650ss, and I use John Guest fittings for everything in the walk-in.

Here is a view of the inside of the cold side of the walk-in cooler:
49466767131_64712871c0_c.jpg


You can see the bev seal ultra 235 coming in on the right, kegs stacked up to 3 high inside, yeast, cans of soda, some charcuterie hanging in here too. You can't see all the kegs in here, but I believe there are over 70 kegs in here (I have around 90 total, the empty ones you already saw, and I keep others around for specific tasks).

Overall, I'm quite happy with the setup, and it has worked quite well for me!

How big is your cooler? I am looking at doing a cold room so starting to get ideas
 
Holy cow!! I'm sure if any LEO gets in there you will have a huge problem trying to explain it is not a commercial place! You are bigger than many of the breweries I have visited! :-O

Ha! I have documents to show my annual throughput is still under the federal limits for two adults, so I hope I'll be ok! I will agree that I am a bit disappointed when I go to a brewery or brewpub that has fewer taps than I do. I also don't really buy much beer at any establishment at this point because I have so much at home already.

How big is your cooler? I am looking at doing a cold room so starting to get ideas

Total outside dimensions are 7' x 7' x 14'. It is split into two chambers, each controlled separately. The framing is on 2x6's with batt insulation, and then rigid foam for the interior 'walls', and OSB for the exterior sheathing and floor (the floor is also on 2x6's with batt insulation). Interior dimensions are right at 6' x 6' x 6'. I can triple stack kegs, which is nice, otherwise it would be even more difficult for me to move around in there. It isn't perfect, but it has worked very well for me for over 8 years now. I have replaced the window AC units multiple times. I also now use lacrosse wireless temperature sensors and subscribe to the alerts, so I can view the temperature, graphs, tables, and am notified if anything goes beyond my set points.
 
So I’m to post in hopes we get some more pictures. We just moved and I need some more ideas for my brewery in the garage.
 
So I’m to post in hopes we get some more pictures. We just moved and I need some more ideas for my brewery in the garage.

I'll put up a few pics of newer iterations of what's in the original post:

There are a couple of major improvements over what's in the first post in this thread. One is the use of a single pump attached to the wooden bench. I'd seen someone else's stainless table setup and they had the pumps mounted below the kettles...which means, since the pumps need to be primed with liquid, that facilitated priming. So my Riptide is mounted low.

But....I originally used the electric panel to control the pump--there are push-button switches on it. But that was not quickly accessible, given how the panel is on the wall and high. So I added a couple of regular switches. The power comes from one of the GFCI-protected outlets (just above the CO2 tank), and there are two outlets underneath the bench top, into which the pumps are plugged.

"Left" switch controls the Riptide. "Right" switch controls a Mark IV pump I use exclusively to recirculate cleaning fluid in my conical (you can see that on the bottom shelf, just below the Riptide). They are as easily accessible to quick control as I can make them--and that matters, as it turns out.

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I have two CO2 lines coming out of my regulator to feed CO2 into...whatever. One line has a standard gas QD on it, I use that one to carb a fermenter, or add pressure during pressure transfer, or to push sanitizer out of kegs as part of purging them. Once you have a line like that, you'll be surprised what you can use it for.

The other CO2 line has a male Camlock connection on it. I can connect that to my hose lines and use CO2 to push water out of the counterflow chiller, or push worth through the CF chiller when it's going into the fermenter. A good blast of CO2 will push that through, but I want to be able to easily turn the pump on and off.

*******

This first pic below shows me transferring strike water from the BK to the Mash Tun. I'm underletting the grain, filling it from the bottom up at a slow rate (about a gallon per minute). You'll note the line from the RIMS tube on the left up to the top of the Mash Tun--I have it clamped off with a Hemostat so when the kettle fills high enough it doesn't start leaking down and through the RIMS tube onto the floor.

Sometimes, depending on whether I'm doing strict LODO techniques or not, I'll be preboiling the strike water and cooling it back down to strike temp through the counterflow chiller you see below the boil kettle. If so, the connections are slightly different but the same idea; this is one instance where I'll use CO2 to blow out the water and into the mash tun. I don't like losses!

brewarea1.jpg

Here's where it gets interesting; I simply move hoses over from the BK to the mash tun; the hose feeding into the Mash Tun is connected now to the bottom of the RIMS tube; the hose from the BK to the top of the pump is connected to the ball valve and sight glass on the bottom of the Mash Tun.

Same hoses, no fiddling with new hoses. I use Hemostats to clamp off the hoses as necessary. I disconnect the Hemostat preventing flow from the top of the Mash Tun back into the Rims Tube, and start the pump (after priming again). And the RIMS works, using the same hoses, same pump. No fiddling around.

Also note the small cottage-cheese container hanging from the RIMS tube. As I disconnect the hose from the bottom of the RIMS tube to run it back into the BK, there's always...drainage. I suspend that container under the camlock connector to catch that and add it back to the BK. I hate losses!

brewarea3.jpg

Here's a closeup of the RIMS setup; no cottage cheese container in this one.

brewsetuphosesRIMS.jpg

Third iteration. This shows the setup where I'm routing water/wort through the counterflow chiller under the BK; it's a little hard to see the hoses as one is in front of the other, but look closely and you'll see the hose coming out of the CF chiller and feeding the whirlpool port, and the hose coming out of the pump and going into the top of the CF chiller.

brewarea2.jpg

Note in the above photo that you can see a switch on the bottom right just above the dial thermometer. It's labeled "Reservoir Pump." I store my RO water in a 7-gallon aquatainer. While I can lift that up to a table and use it to dispense into pitchers poured into the BK, I figure since I've had two back surgeries lifting 56+ pounds of water every brew day is not a smart move. So I bought a self-priming transfer pump to move water from my aquatainer to the BK, or to refill gallon jugs I also use for water storage.

Here's that pump:

transferpump.jpg

It runs off a DC transformer, but it was child's play to rig up a switch for it. The connectors and tubing was bought at Menards. Here's the pump on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FT87XJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 here's the power supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073QTNF9F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Finally, here's the setup using that second Mark IV pump and the other pump switch.

cleanconical2.jpg cleanconical1.jpg
 
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Mongoose thanks for posting your updates, I really like that transfer pump especially since it’s 12v, all the stuff in my brewery is 12v and I use a 12v power supply out of an RV to power them.
 
View media item 70961 Here is my brew space in progress. 3V HERMS on a Harbor Freight woodworking table, the cabinets are from craigslist. To the left of the tv is a 4 tap keezer, a beer fridge and a fermenter fridge. I do what I can as my budget allows, and I can see by some other posts that I have a ways to go yet.
 
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Since last winter I've been chipping away on turning my junk-filled single-car garage into a brewspace. You'll see that it was pretty rough to begin with. Winter's can get cold where I am, and my goal was to be able to brew in the winter so I needed a powerful induction burner. That meant I needed a 30 amp 240v receptacle, which can also power my heater. Also insulated where possible, new drywall, exhaust fan, etc., etc.
I finally completed everything and have a 5-gallon batch of APA fermenting away as I took these pics! It's a smaller space (I still have to store lawn tools, etc. on the other side) but it works perfectly for me. Pretty pleased with the outcome.
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Since last winter I've been chipping away on turning my junk-filled single-car garage into a brewspace. You'll see that it was pretty rough to begin with. Winter's can get cold where I am, and my goal was to be able to brew in the winter so I needed a powerful induction burner. That meant I needed a 30 amp 240v receptacle, which can also power my heater. Also insulated where possible, new drywall, exhaust fan, etc., etc.
I finally completed everything and have a 5-gallon batch of APA fermenting away as I took these pics! It's a smaller space (I still have to store lawn tools, etc. on the other side) but it works perfectly for me. Pretty pleased with the outcome.View attachment 703581
Looks great! I have that same Mai Cook induction plate and a Spike kettle too. Use it in garage also and can be doors open or closed.
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Awesome! How long have you had the Mai induction? I was pretty pricey, and I'd never heard of the brand, so I have to admit to being a little worried about how well it would perform, but so far so good.
 
Awesome! How long have you had the Mai induction? I was pretty pricey, and I'd never heard of the brand, so I have to admit to being a little worried about how well it would perform, but so far so good.
I’ve had it about a year and a half - about 35 batches. Been great!
 
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