[nateo]

Here is a mock-up of some changes I want to make to my shed for brewing. The exterior walls are preexisting, but the interior walls I'll need to build. Let me know what you think.

[dcbc]

I'm generally unqualified to comment on this sort of thing, but since you have had no responses in a month, I'll give it a go.

In your brewing room, I'd add a work table, maybe under or next to the shelving.

In a perfect world, your floor drain would be a trench with a sloped floor.  If you already have that in there and can't change it, you're still a step ahead of most since you HAVE a floor drain.  So good on you for that.  You might want to position your brewery so you can get behind it with a hose to spray things toward the drain.

Finally, in your cold storage, I see you have a bottle conditioning area.  If all of that is the same temp, it might be a bit cold for bottle conditioning.  You have fridges for hop and yeast storage, but if that cold storage bottle conditioning area is separate, I might use that for hop, yeast, and bottle cold storage and use the warmer storage for conditioning.  What about keg cold storage?  If you can split your cold storage between fermentation and beer storage, you might be happier in the long run if you have a lot of keg and bottle beer in reserves.

Envious of the space for sure.

[nateo]

I thought about a worktable or counter. I thought about a portable card table, or a large step-stool or something. The only thing I can think of that I'd need it for would be to hold my hops, whirlfloc, etc. while I'm waiting to add them.

Here in Missouri, the summers get really, really hot. It was about 110* outside for a number of weeks last year. So my "cool storage" room is just going to have an air conditioner. I'm targeting like 70* in there. So it's only cold relative to 100*+.

I've actually never kegged before, but it's something I might look into.

I've put this brewshed project on hold for the time being while I look into getting licensed as a winery. If that goes through, that'll take up all the space I was going to use for brewing.

[bo]

I would consider moving that freezer out of your cold storage area. It generates heat and with your 110F days, it going to be difficult to keep it cool. How cool are you thinking it should be? Are you serving out of it as well?

[richardt]

Consider SIPs (Structurally Insulated Panels), or build your own to really maintain the cooler temps efficiently in the cold rooms.  Some use wall or window-mounted AC units to separately control temps for those rooms.

Grain mill (and grain storage) should be done in a different/adjacent room than the brewing room (higher temps and moisture, plus accidental spray during clean up may damage grain)--you want to minimize stray bacteria (including lactobacilli) found on grain dust entering your room.

Agree that brew space should have a counter for you to lay out your equipment (hydrometer, thermometer, pH meter, brew sheet log, various utensils, various chemicals, salts, etc.   Do you have pegs on the wall to hang up your transfer hoses to dry afterwards?  Plumb for hose for IC or plate chiller use.  Where will the water go?  Perhaps a "greywater" catchment system outside the shed for washing or irrigation of lawn/plant beds later.

Consider an overhead fan (to help keep you cool) in the brew room.  Make sure you have a vent to draw out the extra moisture you're producing during the brew day.  100 degrees + 100% humidity = no fun.

Agree with making the cooler space larger and with plans to accomodate kegs under the table top.  Perhaps even mount taps on the living space side of the cooler wall so kegs and CO2 tank (say 20 lb tank) and manifold and beer lines stay hidden in the cooler room.  Then you could do away with a few fridges (and save $$ over time not having to run 6 refrigerators).

Personally, I'd bottle in the cooler room to prevent excessive foaming.  Bottle conditioning after priming can take place inside or outside the cooler room (preference is outside the cooler room for 1-2 weeks, then back into cooler room).  Consider smaller sub-spaces with temp controllers that allow you to ferment ales at 64 degrees and lagers at 50 degrees, for example, while the main cooler remains at 45 degrees or lower for serving beers via the wall taps.

[dean]

Agree with richardt, move or separate the grain and mill giving the their own room.  Jealous otherwise!

[gmac]

How's this going?  I'm buying a place in October with a big garage and 1/2 is going to become the dedicated brewery so I'm just sort of following along to see what you do and make sure I do the right things.  I was only going to build one small room with a window shaker to try to get down to 50 for lagering (maybe not in the height of summer but we don't get Missouri hot here - last week was hell wasn't it???)
Hope you make this happen.

[nateo]

There was pretty extensive water and termite damage once I gutted it and got the rotten fiberglass out. Then it got really, really hot, so I'm putting the project on hold until it cools off again.