A photo story - Colorado Basement Brewery

[Brewsit]

Got the power panel up, sink plumbed and started some troubleshooting. Oh, and I installed the dishwasher while I was at it.

 

[Brewsit]

Looking a little more finished.

 

[Brewsit]

A day of system testing, cleaning and ingredients purchased for the first brew, set for next weekend... doing a mash tomorrow with some old grain for starter wort and dialing in of some processes.

 

[Brewsit]

First brew day was a success. It wasn’t without hiccups and splashed wort in various places, but it’s in the fermentor and chilling to pitching temp. Works amazingly! There probably won’t be much to post until I start getting the cabinets finished and everything else put together... mostly just some tweaking to do with the system to make it run smoother. Start to finish in about 6 hours, including cleanup. I think I can get it down to 4 or 5.

 

[CanAm]

Nicely done!

 

[Calaeb]

Awesome build! Would love to have something like that. Curious though as you seem very meticulous in the things you do, what are you planning for wire management for all the sensor on the control panel?

 

[Brewsit]

Awesome build! Would love to have something like that. Curious though as you seem very meticulous in the things you do, what are you planning for wire management for all the sensor on the control panel?

Thanks! Yea the wires are a jumbled mess right now. I plan on shortening some and moving things around so they are tucked behind the kettles. I’m going to tuck the fermentor wires up under the cabinets so they are out of the way too. The RIMS will eventually get mounted to the face of the cabinet and that wire will run behind the kettles too. The hoses are probably a bigger mess, so I have to figure something out for that as well.

 

[TKWoody]

Wow, can you let us know what your taproom hours are?

 

[Brewsit]

24/7

 

[Desert_Sky]

Hi! , Its me...... your neighbor in Colorado. Let me know when the tours start

 

[Brewsit]

I’m actually thinking of putting on all grain brewing classes once it’s presentable... or maybe get linked to a Homebrew club and split some batches. 15-20 gallons gets pretty big when you’re alone.

 

[GiavaBear]

I've been looking for a hb club here in Ft Collins. I'd be interested in classes and splitting batches for sure! I'm in southeast FoCo.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

I miss Fort Collins... my wife got her undergrad from CSU. This adds to things to miss about Fort Fun!

 

[KTbrew]

Very cool. I really hope to see it finished.

 

[Jaroslaw Wlodarczyk]

Great work

 

[universalfrost]

awesome work.

when youre done feel free to come over and remodel my downstairs!

lol..

keep it up and that counter top gave me ideas! ive got some white oak i cut down that would be perfect to section like that for counter top.

 

[timcress10]

Looks great! It's definitely giving me some ideas for my future brew room in a yet-to-be built garage, especially the big clean out tub!

Similar to you, I'm hoping to set up a wood shop adjacent to the brewing space. What are you doing in terms of dust extraction on the wood shop and just generally sealing off the brewing area from the wood working? I know those little specks of sawdust can find their way through any little crack or crevice. Looking forward to further progress pics!

 

[wyowolf]

you did a pretty good job of unbending that AC line, mine had a big U in it i couldnt get the U part flattened out... didnt want to risk breaking it...

I installed the faucet for the wash station and hooked up a carbon filter behind the pot filler that will hover over the HLT.
View attachment 557927 View attachment 557928

I sanded the concrete some and then used a slurry over it to fill in some of the cracks and imperfections of that front edge, and a few pinholes. A cool unintended effect was it created some interesting brownish accents that made the concrete even more interesting looking. This is after the first layer of epoxy. The epoxy is some pricy stuff, intended for high temperature kitchen applications up to 500 degrees. It's also highly impact and scratch resistant, and can be refinished.
View attachment 557933
View attachment 557932 View attachment 557931 View attachment 557930

I also got working on the glycol chiller. I went through not one... not two... but three window air conditioners before I successfully got it set up. Apparently, any stress on any of the brazed connections mean an instant refrigerant leak. So that sucked, but I got it working.

Practice AC one...
View attachment 557924

View attachment 557926

That AC didn't last much longer than this picture. The drum it is sitting on is now holding 50+ gallons of RV antifreeze, and with AC #3, it works great.


I then set up the new control panel. You don't want to see inside, it will just confuse you. It's about 98% ready in this picture.

View attachment 557934

The extra holes on the right were supposed to be for more sensors, but I ran out of things to sense. They will get plugged for now, but there's plenty of room for future expansion.

I got the controller ready as well. I switched from the BCS-460 to BruControl and set it up on a 23" touchscreen and mini computer mounted to the back. I built a bunch of scripts to walk you through the brew day and partially automate some processes, including fermentation.

View attachment 557929


The next steps are to finish the epoxy countertops, plumb out the glycol chiller, finish plumbing the sink, mount the power panel, finish brazing fittings on the kettles, and get everything ready for the first brew, hopefully in two weeks! I will finish the cabinets as I go, but I wanted to make sure we could brew by 1 March for an event at work. Stay tuned for more pictures soon...

 

[Brewsit]

you did a pretty good job of unbending that AC line, mine had a big U in it i couldnt get the U part flattened out... didnt want to risk breaking it...

Yea it took me until the 3rd unit before I didn’t screw it up... key was not putting any stress on the brazed joints. Flattening the U out was simple enough, just working it in my hand until it seemed like it would start to kink.

 

[Brewsit]

Looks great! It's definitely giving me some ideas for my future brew room in a yet-to-be built garage, especially the big clean out tub!

Similar to you, I'm hoping to set up a wood shop adjacent to the brewing space. What are you doing in terms of dust extraction on the wood shop and just generally sealing off the brewing area from the wood working? I know those little specks of sawdust can find their way through any little crack or crevice. Looking forward to further progress pics!

Thanks man, I have a big filter that circulates air in there and a big dust collector. And they are in different areas, around a corner that will be a hallway. So far dust doesn’t creep out even with it open.

The cleaning station has proven to be awesome, it works great for cleaning buckets, fermentors, kegs. Only thing that would be nice is a floor drain, but the work for that would have been too much excavation.

On another note, the exhaust vent has proven to be more than adequate, don’t let anyone say you need a hood. We did three back to back batches and never had one drop of ceiling condensation.

 

[Desert_Sky]

Only thing that would be nice is a floor drain, but the work for that would have been too much excavation.

I would kill for a nice trench drain inside a room like yours. Cleaning after a session would be too easy

 

[Brewsit]

No joke. It works pretty well though, I just run things on the floor and mop it up.

 

[Dland]

hopefully you sealed the floor, I'd have painted it green.

That is one very nice brew room and an inspiration.

 

[Beerfly]

Absolutely beautiful workmanship but wow overkill. You could have a sprinkler system go off in there with no damage.

 

[Mitch S]

That is awesome! Makes me almost wish to be back in Fort Collins instead of DFW. Almost...

I highly recommend going over to the CSU student center and checking out the bar and teaching brewery they have set up. Not sure if they give tours, but I do believe they have student produced craft beer on tap.

 

[NewJersey]

wow.I find builds like this more interesting than the beers they produce.
I, personally, am currently wanting to regress from a 3V system to an eBIAB. I can definitley still appreciate the design and fabrication here.
The wires and hoses look like a bit much to handle.
Have you considered hardpiping everything? Seems unnecessary to me, but it's really solid and nice to look at.