Wakkatoo's Brew Shed

[wakkatoo]

Well, contracts for my new house got signed today :super: . Building should commence in the next few weeks.

Part of the deal I made with the wife was to allow her to decorate the interior of the house however she see's fit in return for me getting a dedicated area for me to brew. It was a good deal as we have similar tastes and I've been p!ssing her off anyway with having all the brewing gear either in the laundry / linen cupboard / lounge room / walk-in-robe.

I've put more detail in my gallery but here is a pic of the shed and brewery floor plan.

Shed is approx 10.5m x 7.m with each bay being 3.5m x 7m. It was originally going to be another 3.5m long but when measured out, was too big and would have dominated over the house.

This is pretty close to final design but I do still have a few weeks to alter it if I need to. Hence why I've started this thread - I'd like input from the AHB community on any suggestions they have to make this shed better than it is (the fact I'm getting what I wanted is simply awesome in itself! :lol: )

So, I'm looking for suggestions on brew shed designs - any tips or tricks, or things to be careful of?

I'll keep posting pics as things develop. It might be a few weeks to the next pic as construction is due to start sometime in April on the house, not sure when on the shed.

Cheers

Wakkatoo B)

 

[flattop]

I would want running water, hot and cold if i could get it. Benches at the right height along one wall and shelves along the other, insulated walls and ceiling and possibly a small aircon if it gets hot (most sheds do).

 

[schooey]

If you haven't poured the slab yet, I'd seriously consider sloping the floor in the bay for the brewery towards a common drain point, or a long drain right down the centre. And starting with brand new concrete for a brewery gives you the perfect opportunity to go to someone like Parbury and get a food friendly surface coating to apply over the top that will help immensely with cleanliness...

Full time aircon to pressurise the brewery and prevent dust, a corner coolroom and insulation and lining and a few other things would be on my dreaming list....

 

[bconnery]

I don't know what you do at home / for a living but if it was me I'd consider swapping the two sides

That aside, I find a sink big enough to wash out all the bits of the brewery, including my pot I find very useful...
Perhaps an extrator fan above your boil?
Mains gas for your burners? (unless you are electric of course)
Drainage somewhere near the brewery...

Power points. That sounds obvious but the people who built the garage in my house didn't see fit to put any in...

 

[wakkatoo]

I would want running water, hot and cold if i could get it. Benches at the right height along one wall and shelves along the other, insulated walls and ceiling and possibly a small aircon if it gets hot (most sheds do).

Yep, running water will be there. F-I-L is an industrial plumber originally and now runs a small house construction business (can you guess whose building our house?). The walls and roof are going to be insulated. Benches will be more than likely courtesy of Gray's Auctions.

If you haven't poured the slab yet, I'd seriously consider sloping the floor in the bay for the brewery towards a common drain point, or a long drain right down the centre. And starting with brand new concrete for a brewery gives you the perfect opportunity to go to someone like Parbury and get a food friendly surface coating to apply over the top that will help immensely with cleanliness...

Full time aircon to pressurise the brewery and prevent dust, a corner coolroom and insulation and lining and a few other things would be on my dreaming list....

Hadn't thought about sloping the slab. Like the idea of the drain down the middle, I can see the face of the concreter now :lol: . Dunno about the full time aircon, not sure the wallet will stretch that far. The coolroom is definately something down the track, not sure if I have the room tho.

I don't know what you do at home / for a living but if it was me I'd consider swapping the two sides

That aside, I find a sink big enough to wash out all the bits of the brewery, including my pot I find very useful...
Perhaps an extrator fan above your boil?
Mains gas for your burners? (unless you are electric of course)
Drainage somewhere near the brewery...

Power points. That sounds obvious but the people who built the garage in my house didn't see fit to put any in...

Can't swap the sides around, just got too much stuff needing storage in a decent shed area. Don't think I'd get away with it either. A big sink is a good idea, will keep an eye on Grays.
I do have the option of mains gas, and have asked for it to be included if the budget allows (bit of give and take with what goes in the house). I'm of the same opinion with power points, you just can't have enough of them.

Water is a big issue where we are building so I'm going no-chill until the tank is installed then I'll chill with a closed system returning the water back to the tank. Any other water 'wasted' will be gravity fed off to the garden.

Some great ideas. Not sure all will be used, but its got the ol' grey matter ticking over!

Keep them coming..

 

[Doogiechap]

+1 for the slope to the drain.
Get at least a 20 amp circuit to the shed. More is better even if you do run gas you will appreciate it
Sink a decent separate conduit between the house and shed to run Cat 5, Cat 6, hell in the future Cat 7, speaker wires for the garden music system etc. If you don't have it there you will kick your self (I regret my lack of foresight).
Whirlygig or extraction fan in the roof. Your boil evap will come dripping back down on you
Lots of light !!
Have fun :super: .

 

[Sully]

Half your luck wakkatoo :beerbang:

My suggestion FWIW would be divide your 'brewery' area into 3 zones - wet/dry/controlled.

Seperate the zones using a half height walls (900mm high), which can also double as a shelf and stubbie rest, but also easier to contain spills in the unfortunate event.

Wet zone for mashing, boiling & cleaning. Install a janitors sink (same size as a l'dry tub but lower to the ground so you dont have to lift a full pot of liquid to bench height, and the tap is mounted at bench height so there is enough clearance to get pots underneath) and taps that can take hose fittings. Floor waste would be an advantage to hose down spills. Either tile or spray-on coating on the floor but tile up the wall about 200mm (like in the loo). As this area is the brewing area keep it relatively clear of fixtures etc.

Dry zone for preperation and storage. Plenty of cup'd and bench space. The cavity between head height (about 2.1m) and the roof can be utilised as overhead storage also. Keep an eye on demo yards as they sometimes have 2nd hand kitchens come up from time to time, or check the local rag.

The controlled zone for fermenting depends on what extent you are going to for a controlled environment. If using fridges leave in open area as they need ventilation. If 'makeshift' coldroom have it fully enclosed from the other zones and insulate the seperating wall and install AC to this zone only. Or you maybe lucky enough to have a proper coldroom built.

A ceiling fan or wall mounted industrial fan is cheaper to run and install than AirCon, so install those in the working zones.

Line the wet zone with villaboard (wet area fibre cement sheeting) and the rest with normal fibre cement sheet as it can take a bit more of a knocking over plasterboard.

A skylight but not the full roofing sheet panel.

Insulate the walls and use Anticon blanket under the roof sheeting - you wont regret that, even in the workshop space put the Anticon at least.

20Amp circuit and point so you can run 2 electric elements if need be.

A small dedicated hotwater system (50L office/unit systems) that you can turn off when not in use to save on electricity - just remember to turn it on 24hrs before brewday. Dont get the house hot water plumbed to the shed, cost more than having the dedicated unit. I have often seen 2nd hand units come up on ebay reasonably priced or check the local rag.

Any reason you need the rollerdoor in the brewery area? If you need a large opening to move equipment, try double PA doors so at least you can insulate and seal them. Put the other R-A-D on the workshop side maybe. Or alternatively - have the access from the workshop area via Double Cavity Sliders, and where the RAD is put a window there and another on the RH wall (as looking at the plan) for ventilation. There is no point in insulating the area with the rollerdoor there as all benifits be lost.

My 2c FWIW - dunno if this helps any. I am in the process of designing our new house and trying to convice SWMBO to allow me to incorporate a celler for brewing in, or at least do something similar to what you are doing.

Cheers

Sully

 

[Jazman]

a mechanics pit could be good to store kegs ect and good ventaltion ....whirly birds,,gable louvered vents in the walls and also a ventalated ridge on the roof maybee a canopy on the flue pipe and flue vent where your kettle is going...

 

[technocat]

+1 for the slope to the drain.
Get at least a 20 amp circuit to the shed. More is better even if you do run gas you will appreciate it
Sink a decent separate conduit between the house and shed to run Cat 5, Cat 6, hell in the future Cat 7, speaker wires for the garden music system etc. If you don't have it there you will kick your self (I regret my lack of foresight).
Whirlygig or extraction fan in the roof. Your boil evap will come dripping back down on you
Lots of light !!
Have fun :super: .

No need for seperate conduit, go wireless for internet connection and phone or use mains cable as a transfer medium between house and shed. I assume you would have at least an old clunker for a computer, and printer to run out your brewsheets. Need to seal floor with epoxy paint or similar as sticky malt residue hard to get out of a raw concrete floor. I speak from experience. As far as wives are concerned you rarely see them in the workshop/brew shed as they find it either to noisy, to messy and don't like the smell of hops pervading the air. Actually it is rather a male retreat where one can dream and scheme new ventures and projects, but I digress.

 

[MarkBastard]

If I had a nice big area like that I'd try get a second hand commercial underbench fridge system. You know the big stainless steel ones that are a nice SS bench with fridges underneath? Some have sinks built into them. I'd use the underneath as fermenting fridges.

 

[fraser_john]

My brew shed is about 3mx9m:

• insulated
  interior walls
  sealed from dust
  electrics, including 20amp outlet

What I should have done but could'nt (darn council &/or lack of funds):

• Hot/Cold running water
  Large laundry trough for washing
  Exhaust fan
  Small A/C, it does get to about 25 in there in the 40 degree days and it retains the heat once its warmed up

I use wireless for internet whilst out there, signal strength is weak, but it works. Phone is a central 2.4Ghz receiver and a handset out in brew shed.

I wished I had not done the floor the way I have, but it was built to be converted into a cinema/entertainment area when we go to sell the place in 10 years or so.

John

 

[br33zy]

...

I use wireless for internet whilst out there, signal strength is weak, but it works. Phone is a central 2.4Ghz receiver and a handset out in brew shed.
...

John

Hi John,

Your 2.4Ghz phone may be the source of your weak wireless internet signal. They interfere with each other at that frequency apparently. Try a 5.8Ghz phone if you get a chance and see if you get any improvement.

As for a sloping floor. Our brew space serendipitously has one and its just brilliant being able to hose the floor down and have it all run away nicely. Especially when you don't intend to be hosing (exploding connectors and the like).

Cheers

Breezy

 

[Cortez The Killer]

You may be able to draw some inspiration from here

http://www.jrbrewing.com/brewshed/

Cheers

 

[Hoyt]

If i had a brew shed like that i would end up living there!!!

 

[Doogiechap]

No need for seperate conduit, go wireless for internet connection and phone or use mains cable as a transfer medium between house and shed. I assume you would have at least an old clunker for a computer, and printer to run out your brewsheets. Need to seal floor with epoxy paint or similar as sticky malt residue hard to get out of a raw concrete floor. I speak from experience. As far as wives are concerned you rarely see them in the workshop/brew shed as they find it either to noisy, to messy and don't like the smell of hops pervading the air. Actually it is rather a male retreat where one can dream and scheme new ventures and projects, but I digress.

Different horses for different courses. In my experience I wish I had the separate conduit. If I have my shed door closed I have no wireless access and thus have an external wireless antenna for my shed mac. If I now had the opportunity to be able to hardwire I would.
I would also have an audio feed to the main stereo so I could distribute the same music feed throughout the house for those rare moments when my taste in music correlates with the rest of my family
I've also appreciated having a decent skylight/ fibreglass roof sheeting, allowing good natural light in.

 

[wakkatoo]

Sully, you are a bloody genius. Thanks for putting in the time to write such a detailed response. Have printed it off and is sitting on the table for further consideration :icon_cheers:

Any reason you need the rollerdoor in the brewery area? If you need a large opening to move equipment, try double PA doors so at least you can insulate and seal them. Put the other R-A-D on the workshop side maybe. Or alternatively - have the access from the workshop area via Double Cavity Sliders, and where the RAD is put a window there and another on the RH wall (as looking at the plan) for ventilation. There is no point in insulating the area with the rollerdoor there as all benifits be lost.

Me being the dumbass that I am had completely forgot about the (non) insulative properties of a R-A-D. The one thing that is pretty much set is the footprint of the shed. Where doors go etc can all be altered really easily. I want easy access to all parts of the shed, with the minimum amount of R-A-D's as they are relatively expensive, and the diff between a new R-A-D and a nice 2nd hand 'double door' set up could be better spent elsewhere in the shed.

Might have a play with the door locations and put a revised plan up..

Cheers all, hope this is helping others who are thinking about building a dedicated shed.

*edit - spelling

 

[Fents]

i'd kill for a real shed. one day grasshopper, one day.

 

[Doc]

My rule of thumb is if you are putting in a power point, make it a double. Putting in a double, make it a quad.
If you are running power to it, then also run ethernet. You then can add an access point at the end of it and have both wired and wireless.
Ethernet over power is ok, but I have found some limitations (eg. different circuits/phases).
Run both a 10 and 15amp circuit to the shed. That way you can run an air cond on one, or even two high powered electric devices (two separate circuits).
Insulate it.
Splash backs along the bottom of the walls, and as others suggested a floor drain.

Good luck with and would love to see the piccies as it comes together.

Doc

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Your shed is to small..

You are a MAN, and your shed is to SMALL....trust me on this...


The biggest shed in the world would not be big enough... :lol:

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

My rule of thumb is if you are putting in a power point, make it a double. Putting in a double, make it a quad.
If you are running power to it, then also run ethernet. You then can add an access point at the end of it and have both wired and wireless.
Ethernet over power is ok, but I have found some limitations (eg. different circuits/phases).
Run both a 10 and 15amp circuit to the shed. That way you can run an air cond on one, or even two high powered electric devices (two separate circuits).
Insulate it.
Splash backs along the bottom of the walls, and as others suggested a floor drain.

Good luck with and would love to see the piccies as it comes together.

Doc

Yes..also run Phone and Data cable to your shed..put in a 10pr phone cable, that way you will heave enough for speaker etc..

With power run 1 sub-mains to the shed ( from your main house switchboard )using cable big enough to handle 32Amp, that way you can hook up whatever you like, ie air-con, welders, power , light etc. Dont bother running a 10 & 15Amp circuit. Much better, easier and cheaper the 2 smaller circuits...