Building a Brew Shed

[lancsSteve]

Not a brewday - yet - but have had 4 days of brewing related activity that was top fun.

Friday was a trip to Blackpool to meet Aleman and relieve him of his old brewery - see the for sale thread for full details: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39516

Part of the 'pitch' to allow me to buy this when my brewery (for sale by the way - see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40142 ) was doing well was that I would not have to lug it in and out of the cellar and that it would be shorter brewdays and more contained/less hazardous in the yard than botching together three tiers with ladders, precarious shelving and workbenches and having to lift 29 litre boilers full of hot wort etc. etc.

Anyway - I was allowed by SWMBO to convert the bike shed I built a few yeasr ago into a brewshed - as long as I built a new bikeshed.

So that was first stage - building a B&Q bikeshed. Aleman was kind enough to live near a big B&Q though which helped combine brewery pickup with bike shed.

So - here's the brewery in the van coming home:


Building the bike shed

and putting the bikes in it:


Brewshed now emptied but in need of some major adaptations to make it a practical place - mainly replacing the roof with something more suitable. Suitable meant:

Movable out of the way, won;t have condensation pouring over kit, won't rot or be affected by steam. I toyed with the idea of a removable roof but also wanted to try and stop all the steam blowing into neighbours back door if they had it open - getting on with neighbours makes life a lot easier!

So thinking cap on and a hinged lid became the plan...

[lancsSteve]

I took apart some old metal shelving I;d taken from garden shed to cellar and now seemed ideal to host the rest of this brewery and create both tiers for HLT and mashtun but also safe storage for gas away from burners.

Reconfiguring and cutting shelving:


The kit in place and all looking set to fit nicely:



Now time to address the building and roof issue!

[lancsSteve]

So the old plywood and felt roof came off with a few screws and I assembled a metal frame:



Then put hinges along the back:


And bolted on some polycarbonate sheeting:


Added some side struts so that the roof could get bolted down and not blown up by a gust of wind:


Or opened up - again with bolts to hold it up rather than just propping so the wind can't blow it back on itself:


Varnished the inside with a thick coat of waterproof interior/exterior varnish, and moved it all in place:

[lancsSteve]

All looks SOOO inviting - can't wait for first brewday but have a few more things to sort out - like a recicrulator and flow control setup on the pump like the one Aleman showed me he uses on his:



Then there's working out all the silicone tubbing needed and cutting it to length + getting the right attachments to come off of the 28mm (?) taps on the boiler kegs and from/too each bit - will be needed quite a few compression fittings and brass hose connectors I think!

Ideas and suggestions on best fittings and how to set them up for each stage most welcomed!

[Aleman]

Put something heat resistant between the burners and the wood of that shed!!

[lancsSteve]

Put something heat resistant between the burners and the wood of that shed!!

I feared you say that... was hoping that with the heat shields around the burners and frame in place it'd be OK... maybe not though

[boingy]

Heheh. It almost became the Effin Gone Brewery....

[lancsSteve]

So - stapling a layer of thermawrap around the inside of the wooden frame leaving a gap behind it of 2" should hopefully be OK? According to http://www.thermafiber.com/images/uploads/pdf/tf880.pdf , has a class 1 spread of flame (so flame resistant) and it's good for application to surfaces up to 1000F and should both reflect and insulate from the heat...

Or would plastic melt too? In which case a fire blanket maybe?

Or is it going to turn into a molten mass attached to a burnt out brewery with only a flood of tears to put it out?

[Trunky]

[lancsSteve]

Thanks Trunky - top tip, will now try and find somewhere that doesn't fleece you for delivery but there's a lot of wood burning fuel installer type places around here so might have to go back to doing things in the old way - yellow pages and phone rather than google as I'm getting little joy from the modern approach!

[Manx Guy]

Heheh. It almost became the Effin Gone Brewery....

nice one Boingy... But that would be a real shame.. defo get some sort of heat sheild on the wood !

Looks like a great plan though, got me thinking....

Guy

[Aleman]

A couple of paving slabs will do it . . . You only want to go up to the level of the stand . . . When you have it running you will understand what I mean. . . . That little demo I did on Saturday gave you some idea of the heat output.

[lancsSteve]

Cool that sounds MUCH cheaper - would roof tiles work? Got a load of those and they're perfect height:


Paving slabs nice and cheap and easy to get though - will see what i can pick up when next out in't van (which will probably be going to screwfix to get the plumbing bits)

Will still need to pick your brains on some of the plumbing Aleman - but got to get some more bits setup first and then get head round the extras required and how much I want to be flexi silicon hose and how much copper pipe...

[Trunky]

[GARYSMIFF]

good work keep the pics coming did I miss the new name for you set up?