Too early planning of laundry room conversion

[azazel1024]

My wife suggested a few days ago, "Hey, when we put the addition on the house in a couple of years, since we are moving the laundry to the new mud room in the addition...why don't you convert the old laundry room to a brewing room"



Who are you and what have you done with my wife!

So now I am trying to work through a boat load of ideas for it. I am thinking a HERMS system. I've got 240V 30A and 120V 15A power there and if I need more power for some crazy reason the basement breaker box is 10ft away and its unfinished ceiling. I've got water and I've got ventillation already.

The space isn't big, only 8x10ft, but I figure that should be enough for a good HERMS system as well as washout/water supply. Probably even enough space to fit a fairly comfortable chair or bench (since you have to walk through the room to the rest of my basement storage area, I am thinking maybe a fold down padded bench). I can't help thinking TV/stereo for some company while brewing...but to be honest, if I really need TV, my basement entertainment center is right through the door from the current laundry room, not more than 25 feet away.

Stereo would be nice though.

Now just to resist from actually looking at HERMS systems and new kettles, stands, etc. I guess realistically I should BUILD the darned addition FIRST and then plot out my ultimate brew room.

 

[ColoHox]

Is there a floor drain already in there? That would make my life so much easier.

That space sounds like the perfect size. How about a stainless steel sink like this:

 

[JoshuaW]

HERMs or RIMs, take your pick. I went RIMs, because I like the ability to more quickly ramp temperatures, but its personal preference. There is certainly no shortage of people who prefer their HERMs systems. With 30amps at your disposal, you can do one element at a time, and you can do a perfect copy of Kal's system.

Im working on a similar system, but Im using 50amps. Its pretty typical, RIMs tube for mash temp (5500w element running at 120v/1375w), a 5500w element each for my HLT and BK. Im using Bobby_M's elements, element enclosures, and RIMs tube. Ripple element for the BK, straight 5500w elements for everything else. Im using appropriately sized kettles for my application. In my case, I wanted to do mostly 5 gallon batches with the occasional 10 gallon, so I have a 10 gallon MT, 10 gallon HLT, and 15 gallon BK. I bought those from Spike's and they look great! I have sight glasses and triclamp element ports on the HLT and BK. Temperature probes and ball valves on all three kettles. For pumps I have two center inlet chuggers, camlocks on everything, and tubing again from Bobby_M. Im using a stainless table for my platform.

Controlling everything is the big kicker. Im building a BCS-462 control panel, based off of a kit from eBrewSupply. The BCS-462 will allow me to essentially automate much of my process and monitor it remotely. That means on brewday I can spend more time on the couch drinking beer, and less time running over to check temperatures or adjust to the next temp for step mashing. Using alarms and monitoring it from my phone will allow me to enjoy the fun parts of brewing, like adding hops and grain, while not standing around for the boring parts. I would highly recommend looking into building your panel with a BCS, as it adds a very minimal amount of cost over PIDs ($100 or so, which isnt much in the grand scheme).

Congrats on having an awesome wife who supports your hobby, good luck with the build!

 

[azazel1024]

Supports is probably a little strong :-D

Thanks for the suggestions and what you are running! It sounds more or less like what I'd probably want to do. On the whole I tend to do 2.5-4 gallon batches now, its about half because of my equipment and process (2 step batch sparge BiaB, 5 and 6 gallon pots). Occasionally I'll do a 5-5.5 gallon batch. At some point, either because of time, bordem (never!) or whatever I'd imagine I'd occasionally want to do a 6-10 gallon batch (especially experimental batches where I might want to split a batch 3-4 ways).

JoshuaW, your setup sounds pretty much exactly what I'd want to copy.

ColoHox, I do have a floor drain in the room currently, but I'd want to "clean it up" a bit first. Probably also tile the room as well as put in splash/flood guards on the floor in case of any major spills (so no ruined carpet or liquids getting out of control). Its just painted concrete now and the slope of the floor isn't exactly perfect (IE a fair amount of the floor does not slope towards the drain).

I'd probably have the space to fit a sink like the one you posted a pic of with a 3 tier kettle system next to it. Maybe. Might have to be a smaller sink. Right now there is enough room for a 2x2ft plastic utility sink, wash, dryer and 18" wide cabinet along the one wall with a small amount of room to spare (I measured last night, the room is a little closer to 8'6" x 9').