Building a dedicated brewing space in my garden...

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Ventilation has been my biggest challenge that I haven’t cracked yet in my new brew shed. You don’t appreciate how much steam you create when your doing a boil until your in a semi confined space. Especially one that’s mostly wood.......


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Thanks for the questions all.

Cost for the shed alone was about �£2400 delivered and erected (teehee).

Insulation is in my Wickes basket, just haven't pushed the button until the power is finished. I'm going with Rockwool for cost. That said, if you know of an eBay seller for ~70m2 for less than �£250 that'd be great to know.

Ventilation wise my current plan is to go for the biggest kitchen extractor fan I can find in Screwfix (around 270m2 per minute) and putting it in the ceiling directly above the 3 vessels. Ideally that'll do it, but if I have to put another one in as well and build some sort of hood then I will go down that route as an upgrade in the future. Got to rein in costs for now!


This may help....... but doesn’t necessarily give the answers......
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ventilation
 
All very useful, thanks. The issue I have is that a stainless commercial style hood is very much out of budget at the moment, so I'm going to have to get a little creative for now and create a setup that allows me to get hold of a stainless hood later to upgrade.

I'm thinking of something like this, and for now a wooden (with plenty of sealant) or plastic DIY hood. Not ideal, but to be honest I hadn't factored in such hefty ventilation in the original budget. Glad I've caught it now though, thanks for making me think harder about it everyone! That link was especially useful @Crysyal_Ball, I'm sure I must have read it at some point but still missed just how high the numbers were!
 
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Just pushed the button on a similar fan to the one in my last post, as well as enough plastic and various ducting bits to make it happen. Also just pushed go on the insulation and OSB to get the place ready for paint and the like. Exciting!
 
You could go for this style of non corrosive hood:whistle:
air-extractor.jpg
 
Just pushed the button on a similar fan to the one in my last post, as well as enough plastic and various ducting bits to make it happen. Also just pushed go on the insulation and OSB to get the place ready for paint and the like. Exciting!

Will be very interested to see/hear how well this extraction works as I’d like to move out of the kitchen when brewing.
 
Brilliant!

My advice is to get that OSB sealed with a paint or varnish as soon as you can in order to reduce the potential for dust and prevent a repeat of yesterday when a splinter ran itself under my fingernail as I reached out to pick up a small section of OSB. :blush:Oh how I laughed, especially when I had to use a pair of tweezers and magnifying specs to get hold of the end and pull it out!:gulp:
 
Brilliant!

My advice is to get that OSB sealed with a paint or varnish as soon as you can in order to reduce the potential for dust and prevent a repeat of yesterday when a splinter ran itself under my fingernail as I reached out to pick up a small section of OSB. :blush:Oh how I laughed, especially when I had to use a pair of tweezers and magnifying specs to get hold of the end and pull it out!:gulp:

I feel your pain! I did some more boarding up on Sunday and I'm still pulling out splinters now! Just got to put the ceiling up in the brewery now and then I'll be getting some kitchen/bathroom paint on to seal it. Then one episode can be about paint drying, yay!
 
I'd go for matt white. It's easier to spot and clean off marks and to see the cobwebs!
I was thinking more about the water resistance of kitchen/bathroom paint, but that’s just gut feeling. I prefer a matt look, but I’m just conscious of it being a wooden building full of steam.
 
I was thinking more about the water resistance of kitchen/bathroom paint, but that’s just gut feeling. I prefer a matt look, but I’m just conscious of it being a wooden building full of steam.

Brew shed is looking good. I knocked up a shed myself last summer - there's something quite satisfying about building things from wood.

Not that you're specifically asking for paint recommendations but I would suggest taking a look at this: http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/perma-white-interior/

I used this in my bathroom which was horrendous for damp and mould. The normal Dulux paints just weren't cutting it and kept flaking off. This stuff was amazing. I think it has a high resin content so is a little strange to apply but once it's on, it's on. Also self-priming which you might need for bare wood. I used the satin which obviously had a sheen to it, but see they do a matt version too. They're a UK company and you can just call them for advice. Brewers stock the stuff.

Not sure what the plans are for the ceiling in general but would suggest you allow for some air flow into the shed and don't close those "vents" off around the top entirely. A shed with a black roof will become very sweaty in the summer and potentially condensate quite quickly.
 
On the other hand dark grey would make those cobwebs and patches of mould simply disappear.

I like the idea of grey. Channelling a bit of Counting Crows, but it's probably my favourite colour...

Brew shed is looking good. I knocked up a shed myself last summer - there's something quite satisfying about building things from wood.

Not that you're specifically asking for paint recommendations but I would suggest taking a look at this: http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/perma-white-interior/

I used this in my bathroom which was horrendous for damp and mould. The normal Dulux paints just weren't cutting it and kept flaking off. This stuff was amazing. I think it has a high resin content so is a little strange to apply but once it's on, it's on. Also self-priming which you might need for bare wood. I used the satin which obviously had a sheen to it, but see they do a matt version too. They're a UK company and you can just call them for advice. Brewers stock the stuff.

Not sure what the plans are for the ceiling in general but would suggest you allow for some air flow into the shed and don't close those "vents" off around the top entirely. A shed with a black roof will become very sweaty in the summer and potentially condensate quite quickly.

Appreciate the recommendation – not sure I'll stretch to the extra expense of that stuff but I'll definitely have a good think about it. In terms of the vents, I'm closing them for now, but I've done it in such a way I should just be able to drill a few holes if it does become a problem. As part of the extraction I've got to have a nice big inlet hole too so hopefully that'll be enough.
 
A little longer than I'd planned this to be out, but here's part three:

[EDIT: ORIGINAL VIDEO DELETED, UPDATED BELOW]

Motivation please!
 
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Don't be despondent, but experience tells me that on any project 80% of the work is finished in 20% of the time.:thumb:How far along do you think you are at the moment; bearing in mind that you still have to do the ceiling, the electrics, the plumbing, the internal fitting and the painting?

For me, the only motivation I ever gave myself for a project was to write down an "Event Calendar" with dates set for the various events including a Completion Date for when it would be finished.

If you make the Event Calendar realistic and tell everyone about it they will be more likely to help you stick to the plan; and the fear that you may fail yourself is real motivation.

It's looking good so persevere.:gulp:
 

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