Showing off my new indoor brewery

[user 204491]

I tried to post this as a single post; however, HBT was having none of that, so I'm now trying to split it up. Fingers crossed!

After several months of planning, changing plans a few times, and then several weekends, holidays, and vacation days doing the actual building I am done with my new electric indoor brewery!!

I was originally building to support the installation of a PicoBrew Z2 that I pre-ordered, but after several months of delays on their part I got tired of waiting, canceled that, and I ordered a Speidel Braumeister 20L instead. Just this weekend I did my first "dry run" with it, and I am super happy with how it went. Gearing up to do my first real brew on it this weekend. I was able to re-purpose the pump and plate chiller from my old brew rig. This was a ton of work as it involved demo, plumbing, electrical, tile, and dry wall/plaster work where best case I had limited experience and worst case was learning as I went, but with the help of a good friend and lots of YouTube videos I pulled it off. Here are some pics from start to finish.

This is the space I started with in our laundry room (side note I was able to salvage all of that and turned it into an outdoor potting bench for my wife that she is over the moon about, happy to share some pics of that if anyone is interested):

 

[user 204491]

This is after our demo on day 1:

Roughing in to make sure I had actually measured everything correctly:

 

[user 204491]

No more giant hole in the wall (wife was quite pleased this day!):

OMG, tile is such a pain:

Grout done and tile sealed:

 

[user 204491]

Starting on the 240V run:

Couldn't stand looking at that big blank wall any longer:

 

[user 204491]

Finishing up the electrical work:

 

[user 204491]

Time to paint:

 

[user 204491]

Shout out to @Jaybrid from NorCal Brewing Solutions for the stainless "side splash" for my sink in this one:

 

[user 204491]

OMG! Things are happening now:

 

[user 204491]

New brewery = new fermentation chambers:

Storage, lots of storage:

 

[user 204491]

The Braumeister arrived (also OMG my electrical worked!!):

Reusing the chugger and plate chiller from my previous brew rig + my new motorized grain mill(also the "now ridiculously oversized but I had it so I'm using it chiller" resulted in a 5 minute chill time with only 15 gallons of water yesterday):

 

[user 204491]

"This time I ain't lifting anything"

(Please note that tiny rope was only for demo purposes and has since been replaced with a suitable one. "Safety first, then teamwork.")

 

[Transamguy77]

Looks awesome! And a nice view when your brewing!

 

[Jtk78]

Looks great. Awesome clean space. I'm sure it's rewarding knowing how much you put into it yourself.

A suggestion if I may. Put some nails or hooks on the wall next to your sink so the hoses can drain into that instead of on that nice white window sill and casing.

 

[TechFanMD]

I have a similar space, and plan to eventually do something similar with electric brewing (I still do my boil outside). Do you have issues with the amount of moisture, or do you have ventilation (besides opening the window)?

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

I think you should do very well with that congrats

 

[user 204491]

A suggestion if I may. Put some nails or hooks on the wall next to your sink so the hoses can drain into that instead of on that nice white window sill and casing.

That's a great idea and something I hadn't even considered! I actually have just the hooks for that! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[user 204491]

I have a similar space, and plan to eventually do something similar with electric brewing (I still do my boil outside). Do you have issues with the amount of moisture, or do you have ventilation (besides opening the window)?

Right now I've got a clip on fan that attaches to the window when it's open. During my dry run I only boiled for 10 minutes, but it was not an issue. I'm going to keep an eye on it, especially as we go into winter to see if having the window + fan alleviates the condensation without making it too cold in the room.

If it does then I think my alternative is to go with something like a bathroom exhaust fan, but I'm hoping to avoid that. I can post an update after I've got a few brews under my belt.

 

[Mike Howard]

Looks awesome....now you have me waffling....

 

[Calfj60]

Great job! Looks great, any input / impressions on that grain mill? Looks like one I saw on amazon?

 

[LeeH]

That’s a smart set up.

 

[Trevor Mack]

What brand are those shiny new fermentation chambers?

 

[user 204491]

Great job! Looks great, any input / impressions on that grain mill? Looks like one I saw on amazon?

Based on the couple of pounds I've ran through it as a test I really like it. It's very quiet, does a good crush, and it's very easy to adjust the gap.

I'm doing my first actual brew on the new system tomorrow, so I should know more, and of course time will tell with grain mills. Hopefully it's still performing well in a couple of years.

Here is the exact one I purchased, although it is now $40 more than I paid for it. I'm pretty sure this is identical (or very nearly so) to ones that are selling at home brew shops for a lot more money. For example, it's very similar to the one I nearly purchased from MoreBeer for $300.

 

[user 204491]

What brand are those shiny new fermentation chambers?

It's this Danby model from Amazon. I picked them up for 1/2 that price from Amazon Warehouse scratch + dent. One had a decent dent on a side you can't see, and the other had a small scratch on top that a Sharpie took care of no problem.

It looks like they've got 4 of them at the Amazon Warehouse now for $150.

They'll hold Cornies no problem, and a 30L Speidel fermenter fits, but only just so. I'll need to put the plastic spigot on the top and use a blow off hose as an airlock would be too big.

The controllers I wired up myself, and I'm using reptile heat tape as the heat source and a small computer fan for circulation.

 

[Calfj60]

Will check back in with you after a few brew days, and the link you used isn’t working for me

 

[jcav]

Nice job! Congrats on your new electric brewery!


John

 

[Todd_Sails]

Very nice work. By using fermentation chambers, I'm assuming you're doing Lagers?

 

[Jtk78]

...and the [grain mill] link you used isn’t working for me

Not working for me either.

 

[Mike Howard]

Here is the link to the Danby 120 at Amazon Warehouse

Maybe this one on Amazon

 

[user 204491]

Will check back in with you after a few brew days, and the link you used isn’t working for me

Whoops! Sorry about that. Updated the link in the original post, but here is the link as well.

 

[user 204491]

Very nice work. By using fermentation chambers, I'm assuming you're doing Lagers?

No, I mainly do ales but sometimes lager. The fermentation chambers allow me to keep them at the exact temps I want for fermentation, raise or lower temp to dry hop, and cold crash at 34F.