The Birth of a Brewery

Brett is a home-brewer and has wanted to do all-grain brewing for some time.  The old system of a pot on the kitchen stove wasn't practical for all-grain so what was he to do? The solution was to build a brewery!  

Here's how it unfolded:

Future location of Binnshire Brewing - back left corner of the barn, under the stairs.

The floor being framed.
We started with a layer of heavy plastic to act as a vapor barrier,
then used pressure treated 2x4s with foam board insulation between them.

The flooring in place.

Framing the walls  

 

Entry door framing

This wall will have plumbing in it so we insulated the existing barn wall and
built another wall inside it.  Hopefully that will keep the pipes from freezing.

The closet framing.  You can see the supports for the ceiling joists in the upper left.

 

Here's a view from the outside.
The exterior wall sheathing is in place, but no ceiling yet.

 

Some of the ceiling joists in place

 

Ceiling joist installation complete.

Finished running the wires and starting insulation for the walls.

Entry door installed.  With the door in place and the ceiling insulated,
we were able to heat the space with a small electric space heater.

Having heat means we could paint!  We used porch paint for the
floors and regular semi-gloss latex for the walls.

Ceiling completed - it is tongue and groove pine.
The blue foam block near the ceiling is plugging the exhaust fan pipe.  

The hood installation is complete.  Trim is in place. Light installation is beginning.
The sink will move once the lights are installed.

Lights and sink installed.  On the lower right is the heat source.
We installed a kick-space heater with a blower in the wall.  

The brewery is ready for occupancy!
Brett finally got to hang the sign I made him for Christmas.

With the equipment installed.

Storage.  The closet will eventually get a door and
will be used to store household things that can't freeze.

Drying rack for hoses

Kitchen cart.  We ordered this from Amazon.  We did have to assemble it and
modify the drawers so they would fit.  That almost counts as building it ourselves.

Shelf for holding the Hot Liquor Tank (HLT).  When not in use, it folds up
 against the wall so we have full access to all three basins in the sink.

Making the first batch!

The mashtun

The project took longer than we expected, but in some ways that was a good thing since it gave us something to do while we were snowed in.   We've brewed a couple of batches in the new system and that is all we have time for before heading out on our Canadian and Alaska adventure.  More to come on that soon...