Hey all! It has been a while since I've really been around, but I'm getting back into brewing.
After 2 moves and picking up an expensive offroad Jeep hobby it's time to get brewing. The Jeep group I now belong to is called The Drunken Beavers and they are eagerly awaiting me to get brewing also.
I have completed the exterior construction of my new 12x8 brew shed and need to plan out the interior.
My plan has been to go the Ebiab route for the brew shed. I like the idea of the control you can get with electricity and the ability to brew indoors.
I have been looking around at a number of different controllers and setups and could use some input and advice from current brewers.
The shed at the moment is a blank slate and I should be able to run a 240V line if I need to as well as a 120V.
So any thoughts? Let's hear them!

So you are going ebiab and looking for current thoughts....
Ha, Ha, I get it

but seriously, you have an awesome shed dedicated to brewing there. Congratulations.

ShorePoints wrote: ↑

5 years ago

So you are going ebiab and looking for current thoughts....
Ha, Ha, I get it

but seriously, you have an awesome shed dedicated to brewing there. Congratulations.

Bahahaha! I didn't notice that!

Will you be able to get a water supply & drain to it as well?

I was thinnking of moving from the garage to a shed. Bought one of these (not my pic).
Just realised I don't know how to add images

In the end I never moved because I realised the cost of kitting it out better than the garage was just not worth it.
Junk from the garage went to the shed, [shed is now full], now more junk has filled up the garage again

Good luck though.
My advice is to be careful with the choice of elements in your rig. Mine are not low watt density elements so get scorching easy (and burnt beer to boot)!

I am planning on running a hose to the shed and being able to reel it up and store it indoors to keep it from freezing in the winter. For drainage I am planning on burying 2 plastic drums with holes drilled in them. When they built the neighborhood they removed all the topsoil and put down a few inches of gravel. I will drain into the barrel and it will leach into the gravel. I will never use non food grade chemicals and also plan on really trying to minimize water consumption.
In our house I really don't have anywhere I could set up a brewery, so I have to do whatever it takes to get the shed useable.
As for the element I am going to use a Blichmann boil coil. They are rated below ultra low watt.

Looks good Ron! I like a good comeback story...

I'm concerned with your motorized vehicle club name. Love you man, drive responsibility or drink responsibility depending on what your doing at the time.

We are actually quite responsible. With windshield banners, decals and clothing we draw some attention to our name. With these targets on us we have to behave and definitively don't want to be the person embarrasses the group. The group motto is "wheel, beer,repeat." We wheel during the day and party at night and don't do both at the same time.

How is your ebiab running? I was looking at the pics of your controller and it looks awesome.

I haven't brewed in 14 months. I think that I lost interest in the hobby. I shifted interest in restoring two commercial grade espresso machines, one is slowly being restored now from a complete breakdown and descaling.

You'll be back MS. You will need something to smooth out your nerves after all the espresso caffeine! It's good to take a break for a bit. I'm feeling more anxious and excited about being able to brew again than I was after my last couple of batches.

Unfortunately that link seems to be about adding attachments and them not showing up, whereas I had no way of adding attachments

Fortunately, when I went to edit my last post the attachments tab had appeared so I think all seems OK now.

Sorry for the off topic lumpy, but good luck with the eBIAB, seems like you have everything covered.

@Pat Thanks, great to be seen!
@mally No worries. There really is no off topic, just the normal ebb and flow of conversation.

Nice looking shed. If you can sort out water supply and drainage before anything you’ll be way ahead. My closest to both is about 30 metres away from where I brew so it’s all extra effort.
Good to hear about another electric convert too.

Interesting post [mention]Lumpy5oh[/mention]! Nice to hear from the Old Timers... Not sure why but I didn’t see post until just now. I have thoughts through the lens of my own situation.

My wife wants me to set up a separate brew room “in our next house...” It’s easy to spill water on the floor when cleaning brew equipment in the kitchen. And one time some cleaning supplies spilled on dish washer face apparently stained it. (?). Oops. So maybe the issue is cleaning of brew supplies...

My current “brew room” is on the covered back patio, just off the kitchen / dining room. Propane burner but could understand the allure of electric if going totally inside. I have to set up /reconfigure the “brew room” both before and after. Doesn’t take too much time, maybe 15 minutes before and after... I don’t brew enough to want to dedicate that much permanent space that can’t be used for other things. Maybe have a large sink with some counter space in garage for brewing in an adjoining area in the garage (+?). Multi-purpose. Don’t have room for large sink and counter in garage of my current home.

I’ve had at least one time that where it was extremely cold, 5 to 10 deg F / -12 to -15 deg C, and that was miserable... Use water from a garden hose outside that connects to a spigot / hose bib on the exterior wall. It froze up and I had to create a small “tent” out of a plastic tarp and ever so carefully use an electric heater to thaw things enough to use them. Have had a couple times it was raining sideways and had to get creative...

[mention]Lumpy5oh[/mention], you certainly have some issues you have to deal with in Canada that I don’t. But like [mention]Muggy Dawson[/mention] says, figuring out water in and drain out would be a big issue. How would a hose with water not freeze up? If cold, that could be an issue, so I would want to have buried lines. For drainage, seems like you would need to add some sort of leech lines with gravel and drain pipe off your buried containers, if you couldn’t tie into your home’s waste water drain system. And I would also be thinking insulation, heating, possible air conditioning if it gets hot, and a large ventilation fan... I would be thinking probably the plastic covered walls (4’x8’) sheets like restaurants sometimes have in kitchen, and linoleum type plastic floors set up so that water isn’t such an issue.

These are my thoughts...and perhaps not realistic for your situation. But they are worth at least what you’ve paid for them.

Thanks for the reply @[mention]Scott[/mention].
Definitely some things to think about and some things I have begun to think on.
The local HomeDepot carries the sheets of plastic and I am going to use it as well as vinyl flooring.
I am second guessing the drain barrels and am leaning towards running a drain into the house. It won't be very deep underground but as long as it is sloped enough water shouldn't sit in it to freeze.
To keep a water line from freezing I would have to bury it 4 feet underground. I hope I can use the hose on brewday without it freezing and roll it up and store it indoors. They do sell hose with a heater coil wrapped around it so I may have to use that.
I have recently been informed that a couple of chef friends are going to be opening a Pub in a plaza that will be near our houses. They have given me 2 years to develop some beers to brew on site. So I guess getting used to brewing electric will come in handy.

Cool deal!

Wow, 4’ under ground... Just 2’ is required here. Honestly, if you don’t bury the incoming water line and be done with it...will you kick yourself later? Especially with the plan of going ahead and connecting the sewer out line... (I’m certainly not a pro on this kind of thing, have never dealt with waste water plumbing but have ran plenty of buried PVC water line as a homeowner).

Where I brew, often have to use water at end of brew as well, immersion chiller, washing off messes, etc. if water were still connected with garden hose, and it was your kind of winter cold - with water in a garden hose over the snow, it would likely freeze.

For sure, best of luck on this project. We are all invested in your success. Let us know how it goes.

2 years of fine tuning. What a great opportunity.
Sounds as though you guys have lots more issues to contend with in your plumbing design than I do.

If you've already got this covered, then please excuse me, LumpySoh.
What will consume the indoor height of your shed? The kettle and whatever it sits upon, and the bag when pulled, of course. Stirrer and any immersion coils have to fit into the open kettle from above, too. Will you want an overhead pulley to help lift the bag? Where will that pulley be attached to work best?