Building an outdoor kichen/brew shed

[MaryB]

My house ale only takes 7-10 days then can be bottled. 2-3 weeks lets it clear a bit more but cloudy beer doesn't bug me, I am not entering contests! A PID controlled fridge works well too for fermenting in. Mine was set at 62 and the fermenting wort might reach 68 which is fine for the yeast I use. IPA's are also fast fermenters unless it is an IIPA(ABV over 7%...) and can often be bottled at 7 days if you are not dry hopping in the fermenter.

[MaryB]

Got a partial CO2 fill today, his tank was half empty so didn't have the pressure to do more than 1/4 full in mine. Hooked everything up and leak tested things. Next step is clean all the lines then flush with sanitizer. I won't get beer into kegs for at least 2 weeks(brewing this weekend).

[Lance Boyle]

Huh. I must be under false impressions. My buddy used to make his and the bottled product would sit in the dark closet for a time period. My boss last year did a batch for
his son for him coming home from the Marines. I thought he said it was in the bottle
to age for 4-6 weeks. I drank the test beer before he got home and gave it my approval. A good malty taste.

I like wheat beers so a bit a cloudiness is normal.


As you you can gather I've never done it myself.

[MaryB]

Aging is needed for the high alcohol beers, under 6% you can get away with shorter time in the bottle. And dark beers usually need aging as do lagers. But simple English ales and IPA's are very good drank fresh. I am not awheat beer fan so not sure on aging for them... a good way to start is buy a kit. Northernbrewer.com makes very good kit beers. This kit says 4 weeks, probably 2 in fermenter then 2 in the bottle to carbonate http://www.northernbrewer.com/americ...er-extract-kit

[Lance Boyle]

Thank you!

[MaryB]

Little more work on the keg fridge, thanks to a member here I sourced some dummy rounds without primers that I drilled out and tapped 3/8-16 to fit the beer faucets. Still need to sand and paint the fridge(it has grease stains etc from being a garage then porch fridge) but I had to test fit them. Not mounted is the 338 lapua, that faucet is backordered into next month, then it is a M8 50 cal spotter round, then a 50 BMG. Can't decide on a color for the fridge... might go black...

[MaryB]

Added a shelf over the compressor hump to hold 2 kegs with space for 2 more in front. And I can have all the shelves in the door for holding bottled beer as needed. Need to add third tap and make up 1 more gas and beer line. And find the extremely slow leak I have grrrr

[MaryB]

Ceiling joists cut and in place except over the roll up door(it has to be taken out before I can place 2 of them), and I started on the new floor deck because the old one was pretty chewed up from 25 years use. Going to add 2x3 furring to the walls to take them to 6" so I can use R19 insulation. The big blue roll is 8" thick fiberglass leftover from the garage build so going to cut and fit that in the ceiling and put any leftover up on top of it.

[Lance Boyle]

25 years in that floor. It served its time well.

I could go for one of your beers. I mowed 3 acres of yard, burned one truck size brush pile and have chain sawed up a similar amount of brush and am burning the green stuff on the hot fire. Got more to do but for some strange reason my foot is going numb. Water break time! It'll have to do.

[MaryB]

Slow project, I work on it as my back pain allows. Cut all the 2x4s to frame in the new entrance door today. Will try to get them all nailed together tomorrow if I don't brew a batch of beer! Need to get that done too! Last full keg is in the fridge so I am going to be buying some beer... 2 weeks is about the minimum to have it drinkable.

[MaryB]

Door framed in and installed, 2/3 of the floor is done. Ready to start on furring out the wall studs then insulating. Need to cut insulation for the ceiling and get that up too.



Floor height is perfect, BBQ pit rolls right over the door sill





Finish cutting floor Monday when I have help for an hour, 3/4 ply is to much for my spine to lift anymore. Brew day tomorrow so that will be all I get done.

[MaryB]

Moved brew day to Monday, way to windy to have the overhead door of the garage open making it hard to control burner heat. So more work on the brew shed, furred out just under half of it, insulated 1/3. Friend is coming for the rest of the roll up door tomorrow sometime. We got the tracks out of the way so I could put new floor down anyway! Thing weighs 150 pounds so need some big muscles!

[MaryB]

Last of the flooring cut and laid in place. I need to get it screwed down still. Then continue insulating!

[MaryB]

Floor is all in, all but 12 of the furring installed(ran out need to make a trip to town Friday or Monday(I refuse to shop on weekends! I hate crowds!). Need to get insulation up, start putting the girts up then I can start on steel which is going to be a slow project as I can afford to buy it.

[MaryB]

Soon as I find a new photo hosting site I will update the pic links. If you have stuff on photobucket you may want to get it pulled off because they are going to go all pay. They got a rather rude message from me telling them where to stick their service!

[Lance Boyle]

Lol,
I did that on the fifth. I just slammed about 300 photos into a folder on my laptop. I may or may not have already had most of them somewhere else. Any that I take with the cell phone camera come back even when I delete them due to some goofy backup software. It does the same with my contact list every so often.

I deleted every photo from photobucket except a download of Stephen Segal dressed as a cook from that movie on the battleship. They can have it. I didn't delete the account either. Just abandoned it.

[Lance Boyle]

Imagur I think is a go to hosting site. I expect they'll all go to a pay basis. Photobucket was ruined by them anyhow. Horrible 'upgraded' software. Slow and difficult so they get more ad potential. I needed to phexit several years ago.

[Smoke4320]

Pics or it didn't happen

[MaryB]

I may go back and just upload pics off my cell camera to the forum... skip the third party garbage.

[Wayne Smith]

Mary, that's what I've always done. Pics on the computer and uploaded here.