Unveiling my brewery & garage build

[fall-line]

Thanks, Oldskooler.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

I built a similar arbor for my parents and we put clear plastic corrugated roofing up. Looks OK. We set it up to be easily removable if they want it down for the dry season or need to scrub it. Just an option.

 

[fall-line]

I built a similar arbor for my parents and we put clear plastic corrugated roofing up. Looks OK. We set it up to be easily removable if they want it down for the dry season or need to scrub it. Just an option.

Thanks for the info. I've got the clear corrugated stuff in mind as a backup plan. We get very little snow here so I think that flat plexi will do the trick, but I'm totally aware of the possibility that it might not hold up and would need to be replaced with corrugated at some point. I imagine that once it's all in use and has hops going on it, I won't really mind either way.

 

[fall-line]

Last minute minor change here as the build wraps up. We decided to relocate the grill to the other side of the "L" in the kitchen area, allowing us to build a combo countertop (on top) & eating bar (a few inches below) on the portion that faces the deck. This is getting built out today, but here is the mockup I threw together with some plywood. A can't wait to be sitting there on an 80º day eating something delicious hot off the grill and drinking a lager.

 

[lstrowge]

Nice build all around. A word of warning on growing Hops on a trellis though, I did that last year for my first year Cascades and other than the daily baby sitting to train the bines it made harvesting those little flavor nuggets a real PITA! Look really cool when their in full bloom though!

 

[fall-line]

Thanks lstrowge, I had pondered that a bit myself. Harvesting certainly won't be as easy and cutting the string and bundling up the vines like I do now (I run a couple of strings up the south wall of my house.) I think I'll give it a try for a year or two though and see how it goes. It is after all an arbor on a brewery - it really deserves to grow hops! If it doesn't work out, I may plant some grapes on this one and relocate my hop production to a trellis in my garden, where they would get more sun anyway.

 

[dubprocess]

Fast forward a few weeks, and the insulation and drywall are 1/2 done. Plumbing is in and operational, and the funcional spaces of the brewery are starting to take shape.

The 5' wide enamled cast iron sink was scored for $40 at the same 2nd hand building supply store as the hood (and hot water heater, and R.O. water filter). I had hoped to find a good deal on a commercial 3 vessel sink, but I'm very happy with this.

Nowhere NEAR done with the building, or the brew setup, but you know it's all about the beer. I had to take a break from the real work on a Saturday afternoon and brew the ceremonial first batch. I wanted something easy that I had brewed many times before, so it's EdWorts's (Garage) Haus Pale Ale

Order #1 (of 4 total) from bargainfittings and brewhardware.com

Pump #1 taking shape.

Brew space really starting to look usable. Stainless steel backing. I had planned to use cheap whiteboard material, but heat was definitely going to be an issue. Stainless sheets were $250 (as opposed to $100 for the white board), and protect the wall from heat, as well as looking infinitely cooler.

Cutting the first keg. This jig was a joy to use.

Boil kettle taking shape. I owe you an update picture. It's since been cleaned up a bit and has a sight glass, return port and thermometer.

Meanwhile, real work continues on the building. It's painting day.

And via the magic of television.. after. We couldn't decide on the color, but had to get it painted. We don't like the blue color of our house very much, but didn't want the garage too clash to badly. In the end we went neutral and boring, but it looks nice enough. The blue door ties in the house color.

Ok that was no fun, back to the good part.

Building the gas manifold. Here we can see the first real signs of influence by JonW's outstanding build. Big props to him, there will be more.

Fire! Natural gas is really easy to work with, and I have been plesantly surprised by these 10-tip jet burners. They can be unruly at full blast, but are easier to control than I expected in the mid range.

I'v been putting this off for a while now, telling myself I don't really need to paint my stand yet. Well, I do. Mild steel is really easy to work with and much cheaper than stainless, but don't skimp or slack on the paint. I enjoyed learning to weld on this stand, though the majority of welds were done by a good friend (who was teaching me at the time) with his cheap wire feed welder. A MIG welder is in my future.

EDIT: January 2012 - After several months of use, I have confirmed my suspicion that pained mild steel diamond plate is not a good idea. I've been unable to keep it from rusting through the paint due to continued exposure to liquid. Go with aluminum, even it it means you have to bolt it on rather than weld it. I will be cutting off the steel plate and replacing it with aluminum soon.

Using an 80 and then 120 grit flapper wheel I sanded down the surface (and removed all the rust that had developed after a couple of 'test brews'. The diamond plate below is also mild steel (I'd suggest aluminum if your welder can handle it - EDIT: See above), and had to be sanded by hand with a sanding block for painting. For the frame I used this paint, thanks to BobbyM and others for the info. Available for $8.99 a can at the local auto parts store, very nice paint to work with.

Painting is complete. 4 coats of the high temp stuff on the frame, and 3 coats of a 'steel base layer' paint for the diamond plate. It looks really nice in person, as it does (I think) in the picture. I borrowed a friends heat gun (basically an industrial strength hair dryer) to help cure the high temp paint. It says to cure in steps at 250ºF, 400ºF, and 600ºF. This heat gun might have gotten me to the 250ºF step, but won't get anywhere close to the higher temps. The next step is to put some pots on the stand and fire up the burners to 'cure' the rest.

Where did you get those stainless sheets? Did you go to a local supplier for that?

 

[fall-line]

Yep, the stainless panels came from a local supplier. If you just search around a bit in your area for a metal shop, it should be pretty easy to find.

 

[dubprocess]

Yep, the stainless panels came from a local supplier. If you just search around a bit in your area for a metal shop, it should be pretty easy to find.

i found one..but not sure what gauge, finish, etc to get..so confusing just picking a a product!!

 

[fall-line]

Oh yeah, I went through that too. I went with the brushed finnish, which I am happy with. The mirror polish option would have shown smudges and stuff even more than this. I went with the thinest gauge they had in stainless.. I think it was 24 gauge?

Thicker would have been nice, but the prices go up quite quickly when you start looking at the thicker (lower number) gauges.

Once you get the stuff in place, you'll love it. It's definitely overkill for this kind of an application, but I'm pleased with my choice.

 

[MetallHed]

Wow this was an awesome build! One day I hope to have something half as nice as what you built.

 

[fall-line]

Thanks, MetallHed.

Here are a few more pictures to wrap up the build.

A few more items of trim to be added, and some site cleanup to go.. but it's pretty much complete. I drank a beer and grilled some food the other night in my new kitchen area. Despite being 34º, I loved every minute of it. It's going to stay like this for a few monts, and then we'll be adding concrete counter tops and a bar sink this summer.

The wine bottles are actually homemade tiki torches (example photo, not mine) that we made a few years back. I'll be mounting them on the posts.

Brewing last night, from outdoors looking in

It's been a lot of fun sharing these photos and experiences with you over the past several months. Thank you for all your encouraging comments and feedback. I'll post a few more photos and updates as they come, but I'm happy to be finally/maybe/tentatively/hopefully declaring this project.. DONE.

It's time for a beer!

 

[JonW]

Looks like you have a great man-cave space that will provide many years of enjoyment. Great job!

 

[MuddyCreek]

Duuude... It's never "done". ; )

That's a great build and I'm really happy for you.

 

[Echoloc8]

Well met. Fantastic build.

-Rich

 

[manofleisure]

Congrats on your awesome build!

You even finished off the deck with a great grill. Looks like you have the same model that I have. Can't beat grilling on a Weber while drinking a homebrew!

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Very nice build, I enjoyed following this thread!

 

[BeardedIdiot]

So have you actually been using it as a garage, or is it turned into more of a brewhaus/workshop building?

 

[chynes077]

Amazing!

 

[Genuine]

Absolutely jealous, the place looks awesome! Great job!!!

 

[cfrazier77]

Very nice, I hope that you enjoy it for many years to come.

 

[stu4stew]

After reading through your entire thread, all that I can say is, one day I hope to be able to do something even half as beautiful as what you have here.

Great work

 

[fall-line]

Thanks, all! It sure has been a lot of fun sharing these experiences with you. Even though much of the real hard work was done by my contractor, it has been pretty fulfilling to see our ideas come to fruition. Designing and building something like this gets under your skin for sure...

...We're going to take a few months to recover from construction fatigue, and then start in on a few projects in our basement, including a bar/lounge room.

 

[GMJager]

This turned out amazing! Awesome to see the final product!

 

[rockinmarty]

bar build!!!!! Woohoo!!!! can't wait.:rockin:

 

[mblanks2]

Unbelievable. This is awesome.

 

[twalsh]

Great job. Are you going to move to a BCS system at some point?

 

[fall-line]

twalsh,

I definitely still plan to. That being said, I recently took a new job that's kept me really busy. I've also gotten a good feel for the manual operation of my system, so I haven't felt too much internal pressure to get this done. It'll probably be several months, but I look forward to it. I'll be sure to post here when I get there.

 

[RevBrewer]

Fantastic and inspiring build! This makes me wish we actually had a yard to build something like this! It looks functional and well designed.

Thanks for sharing.

So...what time should I stop by? I'll bring the ingredients and the beer.

 

[majestic_brew]

This was a great read, and super inspiring. I just started building a keezer, but this! THIS!

Any thought to growing your own hops along the trellis I saw in the computer image (many pages back) of the completed building and surrounding space?