Brewery finally ready for first batch

andrhamm · Joined: 28 Sep 2013 Posts: 35 Location: Hudson, MA

Well I started building this system almost 2 years, when I was living in an apartment. The panel took a year of tinkering when I found the time. Since then I bought a house and have a dedicated room in the basement that I've been slowly building out as a brewery. Now that the control panel is mounted, the room is finally to the point where it has the bare minimum to do my first ever batch on my Electric Brewery setup!

The ventilation system is still in pieces but I'm going to go with it for now so I can stop putting this off. Also, my quote on getting plumbing work done in the room was wayyy out of the ballpark, so I'll be using a garden hose hooked up to the faucet right outside the window. Pumping water OUT of the room will be more interesting but I'm sure I'll figure something out. The bathroom is right around the corner so worst case, I'll have hoses everywhere when cleaning up.

If the LHBS has all the necessary ingredients, I'm going to make Kal's SN Ruthless Rye clone recipe, as I have a lot of Chinook hops that I need to use up.

andrhamm · Joined: 28 Sep 2013 Posts: 35 Location: Hudson, MA

The ventilation system... going the "salad bowl" route for now, since SS vent hoods are way too damn expensive!

andrhamm · Joined: 28 Sep 2013 Posts: 35 Location: Hudson, MA

Oh, and tonight's pre-first-brew-session research!

foomench · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:36 pm Post subject:

Nice, with bonus points for creativity on the salad bowl ventilation hood.

andrhamm · Joined: 28 Sep 2013 Posts: 35 Location: Hudson, MA

Turns out the salad bowl ventilation is really ineffective, at least with the flexible ducting... it filled up with condensation so quickly that it had to be emptied out several times during the boil because it was causing a trap (p trap?) like the drain under a sink, causing the room to quickly fill with steam. So, back to the drawing board on this one.

Pictures of the brew session here: http://imgur.com/a/bitoe

silverspoons · Joined: 21 Dec 2010 Posts: 555 Location: Webster NY

is the condensation collecting in the flex pipe or the fan itself?

did you remember to drill a drainage hole in the fan casing as per Kal's instructions?

if its the flex pipe, just punch a small hole at the lowest point and put a small bowl under it or the fan housing to collect the moisture..

Silverspoons

James Edmonton · Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 8:02 pm Post subject:

Make sure you are getting enough airflow to the hood, if not you will get lots of steam but not enough airflow to move it outside. It is hard to tell from you pictures how you used the hood. In the earlier pics you posted it looks like the lid/bowl sits right on the pot - if this is how you had it set for boiling then you probably restricted your airflow too much. I would suggest you try raising it above the pot - and hang it somehow so you can easily get some good airflow and can carry the moisture away.