Showing off my new indoor brewery

[drgonzo2k2]

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):

 

[drgonzo2k2]

This is after our demo on day 1:

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

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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

OMG, tile is such a pain:

Grout done and tile sealed:

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Starting on the 240V run:

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

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Finishing up the electrical work:

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Time to paint:

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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

 

[drgonzo2k2]

OMG! Things are happening now:

 

[drgonzo2k2]

New brewery = new fermentation chambers:

Storage, lots of storage:

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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):

 

[drgonzo2k2]

"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

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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?

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

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.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Here is the link to the Danby 120 at Amazon Warehouse

Yep, that's the one! If you scroll down under purchase options you should see "used and new from..." and that'll take you to the scratch + dent ones.

Maybe this one on Amazon

That one looks identical except the motor is a little different. I'm sure it's basically the same thing.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

First brew day today, and everything went really well! The grain mill worked like a champ, except it's a little slow, so lesson learned to get it going early next time. Of course previously I was using a cordless drill and almost certainly going way to fast.

End to end on the Braumeister it was a 5 hour brew day, including cleanup which was an absolute breeze. Got 78% efficiency and a little more than I expected into the fermenter so will update my equipment profile in Brewer's Friend a little bit.

Unbelievable on the plate chiller, really have to watch the output from the pump. For a second the wort coming out of it got down to 60F!! I sped up the flow a bit and wound up at 72F in the fermenter overall. It took a little under 5 minutes and only 15 gallons of water, all of which I was able to reuse for cleaning!

Fermenter is in the fermentation chamber now, and the wort is right at 68F, which is what I like for US-05. Tilt hydrometer is connected to my iPad, and it's updating everything at Brewer's Friend. Their new integration is pretty slick. It'll sit at 68F for 5 days before I ramp it up to 75F for 2 more before dry hopping.

 

[Trevor Mack]

It's this Danby model from Amazon.

I've had issues with these coolers as they get shipped. Seems to not want to go colder than around 50 degrees inside, fiddling with the controller on the back and changing the regulator was the only way to actually get these units to get cold. Other than that these units work really well for me too.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

I've had issues with these coolers as they get shipped. Seems to not want to go colder than around 50 degrees inside, fiddling with the controller on the back and changing the regulator was the only way to actually get these units to get cold. Other than that these units work really well for me too.

Oh, same here, sorry for not mentioning it earlier, but yes, there's lots of mentions of this in the Amazon reviews. There's also instruction in the reviews on modifying the thermostat, which takes about 5 minutes and a screw driver. It was actually in the reviews where I saw people mentioning using them as kegerators which made me think they'd make good fermentation chambers as well.

 

[beernutz]

Very nice! How long is a typical brew day from start to end using the Speidel?

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Very nice! How long is a typical brew day from start to end using the Speidel?

Well so far I've just done the one, and it was right about 5 hours. I'm guessing you could speed it up a bit, but probably not too much as a lot of it is just waiting on things, and there's honestly not a lot of cleanup to be done after.

 

[Trevor Mack]

Are those custom made temperature controllers activating the reptile rope for heating and fridge compressor for cooling?

Have been looking at doing same, but was also intruiged by just buying a AnyConnect 211 (though nearly impossible to come across)

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Are those custom made temperature controllers activating the reptile rope for heating and fridge compressor for cooling?

Have been looking at doing same, but was also intruiged by just buying a AnyConnect 211 (though nearly impossible to come across)

Yeah, I built those a long time ago using STC-1000s as the controllers. A dual stage plug and play controller didn't exist at a reasonable cost back then.

Today I'd just use an Inkbird ITC-308. They are $35 on Amazon and just plug and play.

 

[Trevor Mack]

Oh yeah those squid controllers... Cheap, but I've liked the look of flat front display mounted controllers over them. That is why I've been looking so hard for anyconnects, but haven't had much luck. Thought probably just end up making a controller myself,doesn't take long and is super easy.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Oh yeah those squid controllers... Cheap, but I've liked the look of flat front display mounted controllers over them. That is why I've been looking so hard for anyconnects, but haven't had much luck. Thought probably just end up making a controller myself,doesn't take long and is super easy.

Actually after thinking about it a bit more, I agree with you. The front display does look nice and I don't think there's a way you could use the squid controllers (nice name btw) and make it look clean.

I have one on my kegerator just because it was so cheap, but it's on the back, and I never have to adjust the temp.