What's In The Perfect Brewing Shed

[sqyre]

Do the best you can... with what you have, and what you can afford.
Its about having the room to brew.. and brew comfortably..
my sheds on the larger size but rarely used..
i need the room to do country stuff...like milk a cow. . . .or . . .something..... :blink:
maybe when its finished... :icon_cheers:

Sqyre...

 

[Zwickel]

nobody has mentioned: a camp bed

too many reasons for that :icon_chickcheers:

 

[Thunderlips]

Wi-fi so you can post to AHB while mashing!

Ah yes, that does come in handy.
I just moved my wireless internet radio out to the brew shed and was surprised to find that it still picks up my router behind all that tin.
No more commercial radio for me and with 10000 stations there's gotta be at least one or two good ones

 

[clean brewer]

Well, everyone should just make sure they get a Lotto entry in for the Superdraw this Saturday and who knows what sort of setup you could have if you won.......... :icon_chickcheers:

 

[Frank]

Also good lighting. I hate working in poor light, and shadows.

 

[InCider]

good locks on the outside and the inside.

 

[wakkatoo]

just asked the wife this - started rambling on about treadmills and weight sets. Woman's gone mad....


Definately go the plumbing for both water and gas.

You can never have enough powerpoints or shelving IMO B)

 

[Tony]

here is my garage as of 5 minuites ago.

I have a Red Ale boiling away, laptop on wireless in the backgound, fermentation fridge and keg fridge, grain storage on the left, the big wood box will hold 6 bags standing up and more on top.

lots of shelves for bottles and all the other crap that builds up in a garage/brewery.

Its usually tidier than this....... untill i start brewing and its all over the place

cheers

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Everything in the one place.

You say that your keggerator and other fridges are in the house. I'd make room for them in the brewery. Maybe the keggerator in the house, but everything else in the shed.

I have a small dedicated brewery, but dont have enough space in there for everything. The bane of my life is running up and down stairs and from one end of the house to the other to get the bits that aren't in there. If it was all in the one room... mmm I dream of that

Apart from that.

A big double sink - really big so you can fit your whole boiler in there, and one of those pull down commercial taps on a spring, like the dishwashers have in a pro kitchen.

Overhead power - the dedicated 20-40 amp circuit that people are talking about. But wired in so that it comes in high and things hang down. Then you dont have to worry about anything electrical being dripped on or lying in a pool of water

Floor drains - but not just floor drains. Build your shelving and anything else so that it has a 6 inch gap under it. Nothing should sit directly on the floor. That way you can simply hose under everything right up into the corners, and it all washes down the drain. You can also get in under everything with a scrubber/mop. Cleaning's the hardest bit of brewing, make that easy and life will be better

Good ventilation - so it doesn't get too hot to brew in summer. AC if you get excited.

Continuous hot water system - Instead of a HLT, one of the continuous gas hot water systems that has been tinkered with so you can dial it to give you mash temp water. Or at least so that you can flush/rinse/hose with hot water and you dont have to heat it all up with your kettle/HLT.

Thirsty

 

[Doc]

Some great responses in this topic.

For me (what I currently have):

1. Water
2. Power (15A and 10 A circuits)
3. Fermentation coolroom
4. Stereo
5. Wireless Internet
6. Temp monitoring with output to Website, RSS and WAP feeds
7. TV
8. Yeast fridge
9. Carbonation Keg Fridge
10. Cold conditioning Keg Fridge

and in my next shed upgrade MUST have

1. Floor drain
2. Biohazzard
3. Microscope
4. Back to base security

Doc

 

[clarkey7]

Thanks for all the replys and pickies guys. It really helps.

I'll take all your good advice and make a plan.

It's pretty obvious I need to get the slab, drainage and utilities right and build on that.

Cheers,

PB :icon_chickcheers: edit I can't spell my own name

 

[big d]

Tony,s first picture had an item there im quilty of not having and im sure quite a few of us could put our hand up for not having

A Fire Extinguisher.

All that gas and valuable stuff in the brew shed and if the unforeseeable should happen a fire extinguisher should be near by.
It is now at the top of my shopping list.

PS: Top brew shed Tony

Cheers
Big D

 

[Thommo]

Heaps of us have fire extinguishers Big D...we just use them in our keg set ups.

All jokes aside, it is a Good point.

 

[Tony]

Tony,s first picture had an item there im quilty of not having and im sure quite a few of us could put our hand up for not having

A Fire Extinguisher.

All that gas and valuable stuff in the brew shed and if the unforeseeable should happen a fire extinguisher should be near by.
It is now at the top of my shopping list.

PS: Top brew shed Tony

Cheers
Big D

Yeah. My house is a 2 story place. The roof of the garage/brewery is actually the timber floor of my lounge room/kitchen.

HEnce the fire extinguisher.

I mounted it at the enterence to the garage. If im out of there and a fire breaks out, i want it at hand strait away.

If you look at the pic closley there is a smaller one on the far left of the pic bolted to the work bench too. Small one for a spot fire, big messy one when all hell breaks loose and im retreating out the door.

Planning on getting my water purifier going soon and with a 50 liter capacity, a distilled water fire in the garage could mean no more house and family. hence the 9kg dry powder extinguisher.

cheers

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Gotta watch that distilled water Tony. Nasty flammable stuff !!!

My brewery is the former common laundry in our block of flats - if I burn it down - I burn down my house and the house of 8 other people at the same time.... so I have a fire extinguisher. Every brewday it is placed outside the door of the brewery (dont need to run through the fire to get it) and put back in the brewery only after all gas and power is turned off. Must get a bigger one actually.

A must have. Along with an RCD/safety switch somewhere in the electrical set-up.

Maybe also a carbon monoxide alarm??

 

[yardy]

while we're on safety, get a flashback arrestor for your gas setup :icon_cheers:

cheers

 

[Screwtop]

while we're on safety, get a flashback arrestor for your gas setup :icon_cheers:

cheers

Will that stop them?? not that I have them all that often when brewing :lol:

 

[wakkatoo]

forgot to mention getting your water plumbed in from the tank similar to Sqyre's setup where your chiller water is returned to the water tank, conserving water

 

[GMK]

Nice topic - all suggestions are good.

Here are some more ideas;
- build the biggest shed you possibly can.
- put a cellar or a concrete rain water tank under it - that gets converted to a cellar with a hole and a cement stair case in the middle - cost should be approx 1500.00 for this. - or put an insulated shipping container in the ground.
- depending on size and as you want to insulate it - a cheaper/better alternative might be to get 1 or 2 of those insulated shipping containers - then you dig out the ground and sink one and put the other one top - will have ready made insulated cellar under and a insulated brew shed on top. Will need to add a staircase and door to get down into the bottom one. Also, look at adding a blind waiter for carter fermenters/stuff between the 2.

Hope this helps.

 

[wakkatoo]

- depending on size and as you want to insulate it - a cheaper/better alternative might be to get 1 or 2 of those insulated shipping containers - then you dig out the ground and sink one and put the other one top - will have ready made insulated cellar under and a insulated brew shed on top. Will need to add a staircase and door to get down into the bottom one. Also, look at adding a blind waiter for carter fermenters/stuff between the 2.

Dude, get out of my head! :blink:


I have rough sketches of EXACTLY this sort of shed setup sitting in my HB folder!. Only extras I have is encapsulating the above ground container in rendered strawbale.
The one concern I had about the container being underground was rusting etc, hence why another sketch has a concrete tank underground.

Great minds think alike I 'spose (or fools never differ )

Would be awesome to have a dedicated cellar, it seems part and parcel of homes in the US but not something commonly done here.