Building a Brew Room

[czubak]

Thanks. I'm hauling all of my gear to the basement now and will build some shelving, eventually install a utility sink for cleaning and bottling. That will be a big improvement already. Then as time goes on and I find deals I'll consider having an open flame down there. It's no rush, and I do enjoy brewing outside still.


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[andrewmaixner]

Thanks for the reminder, Matt. I need to get a CO monitor for the new brew room, even though I don't have a ventilation problem (big open room, with an open door to upstairs and I have 2 windows that can be opened too, if needed. (My basement is a walkout.)

Regarding CO, I bought a CO alarm (not meter) for my garage, and with my blichman burner running all-out with propane, It did not go off when I had the doors closed. After about 20 minutes I opened a small window and small door to vent the humidity.

Next time I will swap the CO meter that has a digital readout from in the house to see what it registers, as I have no idea what the actual CO level was, just that it didn't trigger the alarm.

[bf514921]

Tony, have you had any issue with condensation build up? I was curious what the cfm on your exhaust hood is.

[tony b]

After only 1 brew session so far, I didn't think it was any worse than when I was brewing in the kitchen. You noticed that the humidity in the room was up, but not terribly so. But, that was back in early December before it got cold and I don't think that I had it going full throttle. Next session will be a better indication if I get any serious condensation on the window next to the burner.

The hood is a 24" Broan Model 46000 series, which is rated at 220 cfm at full flow.

[bf514921]

Thanks Tony, we moved in August to a new house, and I am in the process of resetting up the brewery, I had a 440Cfm vortex fan hooked up to a hood vented out a window in the last house ant it worked well, trying to figure out the brewery in the new house still

[Matt F]

This is a link to an article about building an indoor brewery from BYO November 2002. I used it when I was starting to plan mine. Touches on many of the areas you need to consider when moving indoors.
http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/916-indoor-brewery

[tony b]

Good stuff. I wholeheartedly subscribe to their main principal - "Hire Professionals," especially when dealing with indoor gas systems.

[Matt F]

Safety first. I did have the professionals run the gas to my brew room as part of building my house. I had to do the rest but did a lot of learning on the way to the finish line. It was easier to pass a building inspection calling it a potential second kitchen before actually finishing the brewery.

[bf514921]

M I would say you cook in there

[whitedj]

Is it really that much different than dealing with a gas stove? I understand some inherent safety features such as flashing is built into a gas stove top that are not present on a typical outdoor burner.

[Matt F]

The main thing is there is a proper cfm to btu ratio you need to work with. Most kitchen stoves don't have 70k btu off one burner let alone multiple. Many don't even get there with 4 burners. The outdoor burner thing, I ignored that. Pros basically say don't do it. I priced commercial ring burners rated for indoors and that quickly became not economically feasible. Shopped for used ones for a few years and were tough to find and still really expensive.

I did find and consider some reasonably priced used commercial stoves. They were around 25k btu for each burner which would be enough to do 5 gallon batches.

[tony b]

Brewed today. Ran the vent fan full throttle and didn't notice any condensation build up on the window. Humidity in the room didn't noticeably increase either. So, must be OK.

[bf514921]

Thanks tony