After two years of an utterly miserable house construction project and a year to build the backyard brewery, I am finally back at it. First off, many thanks to my wife for letting me put in countless hours building this brewery as I know it was hard at times wrangling the boys without me. I also want to thank my dad for helping with the construction of the space, also sacrificing some weekend days to help me build the stricture during the winter. The brewery now sits in an approximately 12 x 12 space that is set up as a full wash-down area. It is great to have everything I need in one spot. I just hope that after 3 years, I still enjoy brewing as much as I did previously :) We will also be finding other uses for the space when I am not brewing, but more on that later. So without further ado, here is the new brewery!
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| Yeast Starter fermenting in preparation for the brew day |
As you can see from the photo above, the stainless cladding on the walls helps with durability as well as cleanibility in the brewery. I also finished the floors with a chemical-resistant epoxy that should preserve the concrete floors.
The brewhouse itself did not change too much, besides changing out some electrical fittings and installing a new oxygen aeration system with a bigger oxygen tank.
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| Brewery control system and prep table/sink |
I added a stainless sink at the end of the prep table as well. The sink was very nice to have on brewday for cleaning purposes as well as general supply. There is a 12" exhaust fan mounted in the wall that you cannot see, which takes the steam and heat out of the brewery.
I did have a chance to upgrade my fermentors during the lull and I also had to upgrade the temperature control as well. I have the same cooler in which the 2 fermentors sit in (again many thanks to friends and family that helped me move all of this out of storage!).
All and all, the brew day went well. It took much longer than I planned, but I was a little rusty getting back to it after 3 years! Also, I had to clean nine kegs, some with three year old beer :) I bet I could have sold that sour concoction in the kegs for a pretty penny. Right now, I have a saison and pale ale bubbling away in the fermentors. I need to start getting the keezer ready to serve this beer, which may be a whole other issue...hopefully one that doesn't take me a year to resolve.
