Eric's basement brewery/cooler/etc. build

foomench · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:26 pm Post subject:

Cooler version 1.0 is nearly complete. I added shelves and racking on the cold side, and mounted the gas manifold on the wall, which required running all new gas lines. I might tweak the controller software, and I need to trim the vinyl curtain slightly to account for the new shelves and racks I put in on the colder side. Oh, and I need to move the beer in there. The chilling unit was turned back on yesterday and the kegs have been getting cold. Now to add bottles of beer to the shelves.

foomench · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:39 pm Post subject:

And over the holidays I found all the remaining glassware.

**kal** · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:44 pm Post subject:

Nice! I love the lighting.

Kal

foomench · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 6:51 pm Post subject:

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

Nice.

I like the lights on the taps the best

Silverspoons

Kevin59 · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 8:40 pm Post subject:

Looks great! Congrats!

rstreck1 · Joined: 10 Oct 2013 Posts: 48

Ben58 · Joined: 14 Aug 2011 Posts: 409 Location: Hamilton, Ontario

Very nice! Thumbs Up

huaco · Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 1506 Location: Burleson Texas

I saw someone the other day that put LED rope lighting under the toe board in the bathrooms. Specifically their children's bath. The LED rope lights put out just enough light to use as a night Light and looked awesome at the same time.

foomench · Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:41 pm Post subject:

Changed my pump mounting this past weekend. I previously brewed with one pump with a polysulphone head. The head extended out from the stand, and out from the nifty stainless splash guard I made. (With the one pump, I gravity drained my wort into the BK until it was about half full, then lifted that onto the stand, and continued by filling a smaller brewpot and dumping into the BK until I was done with the sparge.)

With the move to the basement, I wanted to add the second pump, and I switched to the center-inlet stainless steel heads. With the tight space in the basement, I didn't want the fittings to extend beyond the brewstand, so that when not in use no one will run into them. This means moving the pump back, which combined with the top outlet on the stainless head, interferes with the old splash guard. So I decided to mount the pumps underneath the old location, upside down. Directly attaching them to the original mounting boards wouldn't work because the fittings would hit the stand cross-piece, and there wasn't room to operate the valves. So I made extension boxes underneath each of the original mounting boards. And when I was all done, I realized I could have just made a single box/shelf that was even lower, and mounted the pumps right-side up on that. Oh well, maybe that will be a future change.

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Kevin59 · Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:48 pm Post subject:

Looks good! And it makes me think I should do that with my pumps just to give myself some more storage space on the bottom shelf of my old workbench turned brew stand!

foomench · Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:03 pm Post subject:

Yes, two other reasons I did that: 1) storage space, 2) with the pumps lower, priming should be easier.

dunnry · Joined: 10 Oct 2012 Posts: 43 Location: Strongsville, OH

foomench · Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:16 pm Post subject:

foomench · Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 8:29 pm Post subject:

Basement passed final inspection a few weeks ago. I still haven't brewed, but I did my first real beer operation in the new space, blending and kegging a batch brewed last year. It was a little cramped with two of us in that area, but it was so nice having the big sink and floor drain. I thought the floor drain was just going to be for spills, but when you've got a 15 gallon vessel filled with liquid you want to discard, it is just too convenient.

Mdunlop4428 · Joined: 13 May 2014 Posts: 68

How did you address potential condensation in the wall where your taps are passing through?

foomench · Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 8:52 pm Post subject:

The walk-in cooler is insulated as per various guidelines on the web, from multiple wine cellar equipment vendors, to this one linked from the Coolbot site:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/aen/aen96/aen96.pdf
The primary answer to your question is a vapor barrier on the outside of the framing. The practical reality is that I live in Colorado where it is very dry. My chilling unit has a condensation drain port that I have yet to put a drip tray under (I have it in the garage) because I've yet to see anything drip from there. Are you concerned about the shanks themselves causing condensation? I would think there really isn't more moisture there in the wall than there is inside the cooler, although I guess if we consider the temperature differential across the wall thickness, it is slightly warmer near the faucet side, so maybe slightly more moisture there ... But if a drop condensed there, where would it go, and is there a fresh supply of moisture to cause more drops to form? Not really, I don't think.

Mdunlop4428 · Joined: 13 May 2014 Posts: 68

Yes the shank is my concern. Im considering doing something similar. When you drilled a hole in the wall for your shanks i would think the vapor barrier is broken.
My taps on my beer frig have condensation on them in the summer. They come through the side wall of the frig and bolt to the exterior.

foomench · Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 12:49 am Post subject:

While I put a hole in the vapor barrier, the hole is the size of the shank, with the plastic just about touching it all around. I won't claim it is airtight, but it isn't a gaping hole either. Come to think of it, the shank collar is pretty snug against that stainless steel sheet too. I haven't seen condensation on my faucets. (Note again I'm in a dry climate. I think our forecast today was 20 or 30% humidity, while the SE part of the state was going to have 5%!) Even if I did, that doesn't mean there is condensation in the wall, as the faucets are exposed to the outside air, which takes us back to the question of what the air in the wall is like.

A better solution, of course, is to fill the wall with a spray foam insulation. If you can insulate the entire cooler this way, that is great. If you can't, you could just fill that cavity where the shanks are with a can of expanding foam purchased at your big box retailer. I suppose if I were concerned, I could even retroactively do that. Another alternative would be to use a closed cell rigid foam board insulation in the wall.

foomench · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:50 pm Post subject:

I swapped out the 30A breaker in my panel for a 30A GFCI, and then hooked up my boil controller which is documented here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27316

With the 5500W heating element set at 90% power (gotta break it in, you know), 12 gallons of water went from 100 F to boil in 45 minutes. I was easily able to adjust the vigor of the boil with the dial on the controller, and the response was nearly immediate.

I ran my exhaust hood on the medium setting, and that seemed to be enough to evacuate all the steam--there was none going outside the hood. But then I noticed condensation on the screens of the hood:

I may have to run the hood on high, or consider just pulling out those screens.