New brewshed build

[JamesF]

I've been a member here for almost three years, but ended up being pretty quiet so far (and sadly in fact doing very little brewing) as life has had other plans. However, thanks to my wife wanting all my brewing gear out of the house I've recently started work on a new brewshed (or "The Beer Shack", as my son insists it must be called).

So far I've shifted the materials (twice) to lay five tonnes of concrete for the base, built a single block dwarf wall to keep the woodwork out of the damp and got most of the structure done. I'm waiting for a dry, relatively wind-free day so I can finish the roof off and as soon as I can I'll be doing the electrics and insulating and cladding the walls, after which I can start on actually kitting the place out. My intention is to completely replace my plastic boiler (which has a dead thermostat anyhow) and mash tun with separate stainless water heater, mash tun and boiler and make my own counterflow heat exchanger, though for the moment I'll probably continue using my 25l plastic fermenters and bottle the finished beer. I've done 25l all-grain mashes for twenty-odd years, so I'm now thinking about moving up in size and "doing it properly" One of the things I would definitely like to do is to add some temperature sensors and suchlike so I can monitor progress from my office (I work from home).

The brewery will also house three 275 litre cider fermenters (I have an orchard with a mix of about two dozen cider apple trees) as well as my apple mill and press.

Now I just need to catch up on what kit is available and finalise the layout so I can start putting it all together. The brewery part of the shed is just under 2.5m x 4m. It was going to be a little bigger, but I'm not as young as I once was and shovelling all that ballast and bags of cement nearly killed me

I'm open to suggestions regarding things I should consider including. And whilst it's perhaps a little off-topic for this forum, if anyone has some examples of any additional kit required for mashing traditional lagers (eg. double decoction type mashes) I'd be interested in seeing them.

Anyhow, here's some photos of the progress so far:







James

[lord groan]

that is a beautiful thing, I am beyond envy! I'd love to have that much space for brewing
Keep us posted with more pics as things progress please

[6470zzy]

Very nice indeed, well done Keep us updated on the progress as you finish off the project.

[Hogarth]

Looking good already.

At this stage it might be worth thinking about steam extraction?

[JamesF]

I was thinking about a kitchen hob type extractor over the boiler for steam extraction as I've seen a few people do that. If that's insufficient I might have to fit an extractor fan, but I'm hoping it will be ok.

James

[hazelbrew]

Envious --- yes..


but did I read correctly : "three 275 litre cider fermenters"..

Three?!

275 litres?

the mind boggles.

That's 825 litres, or more than 2 litres a day? is this for intravenous use?

[BenB]

Looks nice! Admittedly my own brew shed pales into comparison- when I tried to find a cat to swing in mine I was accused by the UN of putting a domestic moggy into solitary confinement...

However from my experience I wouldn't spend so much on insulating the shed and spent the money on insulating the FVs My shed is nice and toasty due to all the insulation but when I'm brewing a little less would be good (IE it's blooming hot) and when I'm not it doesn't really matter- the only thing that matters is the fermentation temperature....

For remotely monitoring temperatures it's worth looking at the devices from http://www.filesthrutheair.com/ . I seem to recall they have a high accuracy probe version which is pretty much the dogs danglies (0.1degC accuracy- or is it 0.5?). It's worth being aware however that they work via Wifi B which doesn't have the strength to pull the dick of a chocolate mouse (not sure who infested my mind with that phrase!). I've got one of the poverty spec +/- 1 degree no probe models in my fermentation chamber but I did have to put the network extender right next to the chamber- the wifi network from the house just made it to the extender and then the extender made it (via B) to the chamber. Really not sure why they went with wifi B when it's so ancient and has such poor range.....

Then again, although I have the wifi thermometer option (and the option of sending results to the cloud and automatic e-mail alerts if it goes out of a preset range) I tend to mostly just use my wifi IP camera pointed at a in/out therometer measuring temperatures in the chamber! What's quicker? Switching on the wifi thermometer software and downloading the latest results or just connecting to an IP camera to have a real-time update? It's also quite nice to have the camera in the brewshed as I can pan around the shed to ensure the local alcoholic burglars haven't made themselves known...

I'm assuming if your brew length is going that long you'll be working with gas so electricity isn't so much of an issue.

Still, v jealous....

[JamesF]

Envious --- yes..


but did I read correctly : "three 275 litre cider fermenters"..

Three?!

275 litres?

the mind boggles.

That's 825 litres, or more than 2 litres a day? is this for intravenous use?

Weeelll, some of my trees have already reached maturity, but when they all do I'd expect to be harvesting several tonnes of apples each year. Maybe even double figures of tonnes if I'm lucky.

Unlike homebrew beer, no licence is required to sell up to (I think) 5000 litres of cider "over the gate", which is about 8800 pints I believe. If I could sell that much even at pricing quite generous to the consumer it's a nice little earner. So I feel somewhat compelled to get a bit of practice in and give it a proper go to see if I can make anything drinkable on a reasonable scale. And I can't really justify letting the apples go to waste. Some cider apples are edible or can be pressed for raw juice, but many are totally unpalatable.

And of course it's rather different from brewing beer in that you really only get one pop at it per year, so you have to go at it hammer and tongs for a couple of months at the end of the summer and that's it.

James

[hazelbrew]

Envious --- yes..


but did I read correctly : "three 275 litre cider fermenters"..


That's 825 litres, or more than 2 litres a day? is this for intravenous use?

Weeelll, some of my trees have already reached maturity, but when they all do I'd expect to be harvesting several tonnes of apples each year. Maybe even double figures of tonnes if I'm lucky.

Unlike homebrew beer, no licence is required to sell up to (I think) 5000 litres of cider "over the gate", which is about 8800 pints I believe. If I could sell that much even at pricing quite generous to the consumer it's a nice little earner. So I feel somewhat compelled to get a bit of practice in and give it a proper go to see if I can make anything drinkable on a reasonable scale. And I can't really justify letting the apples go to waste. Some cider apples are edible or can be pressed for raw juice, but many are totally unpalatable.

And of course it's rather different from brewing beer in that you really only get one pop at it per year, so you have to go at it hammer and tongs for a couple of months at the end of the summer and that's it.

James

ahhhh ok.


cider is how I got back in to brewing. used to brew as a kid years ago. as in from 18 to about 21. beer, and wine. actually got started with scrumped apples to make home made apple wine...

then last year, 2013, our neighbours tree had what must have been 100+ kilos of apples on it, ours had 20+. there is only so much stewed apple you can put into the freezer...

so yes, i appreciate the problem you have with several tonnes of apples a year! good luck with it. that's no longer a hobby, that's a job.

[Fil]

sorry to contradict BenB but insulate the hell out of the Sun facing walls and roof as come summer thats where the heat captured in the shed will be comming from so stop it before it gets in..

[JamesF]

Looks nice! Admittedly my own brew shed pales into comparison- when I tried to find a cat to swing in mine I was accused by the UN of putting a domestic moggy into solitary confinement...

However from my experience I wouldn't spend so much on insulating the shed and spent the money on insulating the FVs My shed is nice and toasty due to all the insulation but when I'm brewing a little less would be good (IE it's blooming hot) and when I'm not it doesn't really matter- the only thing that matters is the fermentation temperature....

For remotely monitoring temperatures it's worth looking at the devices from http://www.filesthrutheair.com/ . I seem to recall they have a high accuracy probe version which is pretty much the dogs danglies (0.1degC accuracy- or is it 0.5?). It's worth being aware however that they work via Wifi B which doesn't have the strength to pull the dick of a chocolate mouse (not sure who infested my mind with that phrase!). I've got one of the poverty spec +/- 1 degree no probe models in my fermentation chamber but I did have to put the network extender right next to the chamber- the wifi network from the house just made it to the extender and then the extender made it (via B) to the chamber. Really not sure why they went with wifi B when it's so ancient and has such poor range.....

Then again, although I have the wifi thermometer option (and the option of sending results to the cloud and automatic e-mail alerts if it goes out of a preset range) I tend to mostly just use my wifi IP camera pointed at a in/out therometer measuring temperatures in the chamber! What's quicker? Switching on the wifi thermometer software and downloading the latest results or just connecting to an IP camera to have a real-time update? It's also quite nice to have the camera in the brewshed as I can pan around the shed to ensure the local alcoholic burglars haven't made themselves known...

I'm assuming if your brew length is going that long you'll be working with gas so electricity isn't so much of an issue.

Still, v jealous....

Thus far I've been thinking of using 1-wire temperature sensors wired into a 1-wire-to-USB converter and connected to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, but thanks for the alternative ideas. A few years back we had our chimneys rebuilt and whilst the scaffolding was up I installed an outdoor wifi aerial, so using wifi-connected sensors is quite possible. Using cameras is a good idea too, particularly as in another hobby life I'm writing some software for managing cameras for capturing images of the planets. Fortunately theft isn't much of a problem. I'm fairly sure that out here on the edge of Exmoor shooting burglars is only really frowned upon if you leave the bodies out where they might cause distress to the wildlife.

I've been dithering over gas vs. electric to be honest and I'm struggling to come to a conclusion. I can easily get enough power to the shed from the adjacent barn to be able to run a couple of 2kW or so elements at the same time and running a suitably-sized armoured cable out to carry sufficient power for more wouldn't really be that big a deal. I like electricity from the point of view of controlling the process in a HERMS setup (which I am not going to go for immediately) too. But on the other hand we already get 45kg gas bottles delivered for the kitchen hob and it would be no big deal to get a couple of smaller bottles with an auto-changeover valve and pipe gas to some burners. I'm quite tempted to go for electric to start with and restrict myself to shorter length brews until I've got everything bedded in and then consider switching to gas, but I still have to come to some decision about whether I have a bottom-emptying HLT and boiler (which I like, but wouldn't really work with gas) or side-emptying. I guess for an HLT it doesn't really matter, but I don't like wasting any wort

I have a dead six foot upright freezer that I plan to convert to use with a greenhouse heater for keeping the FVs at the right temperature, but the wall insulation is really more to take the edge off the chill for me. Much of the cider work is done during the colder months and whilst British beers are probably my mainstay, I am determined to get to the point where I can make a decent proper lager which is something I have never managed to my own satisfaction yet, so just taking the edge off the cold when I'm working in there will be nice.

James

[JamesF]

so yes, i appreciate the problem you have with several tonnes of apples a year! good luck with it. that's no longer a hobby, that's a job.

That possibility certainly exists, but I can think of an awful lot of jobs that it's preferable to

James

[byronb]

Thus far I've been thinking of using 1-wire temperature sensors wired into a 1-wire-to-USB converter and connected to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, but thanks for the alternative ideas.

If you use the Raspberry Pi you can use 1-wire temperature sensors directly, no need for the USB converter.

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-ra ... re-sensing

At the moment I have a combination of STC-1000 and RasPi with 1-wire sensors but I'm considering moving to a BrewPi Spark when it gets released.

http://www.brewpi.com/introducing-brewpi-spark/

[themadhippy]

Thus far I've been thinking of using 1-wire temperature sensors wired into a 1-wire-to-USB converter and connected to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino,

Why complicate things going usb,the one wire devices will talk straight to the arduino

[JamesF]

Thus far I've been thinking of using 1-wire temperature sensors wired into a 1-wire-to-USB converter and connected to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino,

Why complicate things going usb,the one wire devices will talk straight to the arduino

Ah, yes, that's true. I'd forgotten that. I have a load of 1-wire stuff set up for a weather station that connects to a PC via USB and was being unconsciously dragged down the same route.

James