Time to start the Brew Stand. I decided to build it out of wood and liked what Kal did on www.theelectricbrewery.com so I followed his design but enlarged it a bit. I still kept with the 36" tall but went with 3' deep and 6' long. Here is what I did to date.......

Here was my shopping list:

1.      (Qty:3) 12 foot long piece of 2x6"

2.      (Qty: 1) 8 foot long piece of 2x6"

3.      (Qty: 4) 8 foot long piece of 2x4"

4.      (Qty: 14) 10 foot long piece of 1x4"

5.      (Qty: 24) 3/8-16 x 5" hex bolt 

6.      (Qty: 24) 3/8"-16 hex nut

7.      (Qty: 52) 3/8" flat washer

8.      (Qty: 4) 3/8" x 5" hex lag screw

9.       (Qty: 8) 2.5" deck screw

10.   (Qty: 76) #8 x 1.5" flat head wood screw

11.  6" long 3/8" softwood drill bit

12.  6" long 9/32" softwood drill bit

13.  7/64" softwood drill bit

14.  946mL can of MinWax pre-stain wood conditioner

15.  946mL can of MinWax Gunstock water-based wood stain

16.  946mL can of MinWax polyurethane clear semi-gloss

17.  3-4 disposable foam brushes

Have the store cut the 12 foot 2x6" lumber in half to make six 6 foot long pieces.

When you get home trim 5 of the six foot long 2x6" pieces to 69". Cut the other 6 foot long piece in half to make two 36" long pieces.

Also cut the one 8 foot 2x6" piece into two 3 foot pieces. These will be used as the sides and a top center brace.

Cut the 2x4" lumber into eight 34" pieces. These will be screwed together in sets of two to create the 4x4" legs.

Cut the 1x4" lumber into forty-two 36" pieces to be used for the shelf tops.

You should end up with the following pieces ready to be bolted & screwed together:

(Qty: 5)   2x6x69" 

(Qty: 4)   2x6x36"

(Qty: 8)   2x4x34"

(Qty: 42) 1x4x36"

Time to do some cutting.......

I took and cut the 2x4's and screwed two together to make the legs.......

I cut the 1x4 to 36 inches long. Yes all 42 of them.......

I cut 5 of the 2x6's to 69 inches long for the front and back rails for both the top and bottom as well the upper support rail. I also cut the four of the 2x6's to 36 inches long for the side rails for both the top and bottom.......

Now for drilling holes and bolting all this wood together.......

Had to counter-sink the back of the 2x4's as my 5 inch long bolts were about an 1/2 inch to short. No biggie as it worked out just fine.......

Laid some of the 1x4's on top to see what it will look like but had to call it an evening for now.......

I will lay the 1x4's across the bottom first and screw them down then do the top. Then will come time to stain and seal the brew stand and let it dry before the next step. Hope to get to this within the next couple of days.

I wanted to go ahead and build the Brew Stand and sit the kettles on it to get a feel of what the space would be like and give me a better idea as to where to install the exhaust fan's as well as the control panel and so forth. 

More later.......

~*~GREAT NEWS~*~

After a long wait since the first part of August the KETTLES have now arrived. I have to say that the quality and workmanship is awesome and well worth the wait. Many thanks to John at Stout Tanks & Kettles for such an awesome 20gal. set-up.......

Mash Tun with false bottom.......

Hot Liquor Tank with stainless HERMS coil....... 

Very excited, even with still so much work to be done, it is nice to have the kettles as it will help push me to completion. 

More later.......

Got the wire pulled, panel mounted, and hooked-up. Framed in and mounted the AC/Heater unit and put up a cheap shop light for the time being.......

More later.......

Having a four day weekend was nice as I had time to get a few things done. I dug a trench to lay pipe for the 100 amp sub-panel to feed my brewery.......

First it is advisable to call 811 before you dig to have all of your utilities marked.

The white line is where I suppose to dig. The red line is the electrical feed from the power company and the orange is the phone line.

I used a Mantis electric tiller which I have to say is awesome. I have owned two of these in my life time and both did a great job. This one will clean up nicely and will be with me for many years to come to help in landscaping and gardening. Again I cannot speak highly enough about this tiller as it has lots of strength and is a whole lot quieter than a two-cycle gas one.......

I used this tiller to break ground in helping break up the top layers of the grass and then on to the hard-pack. Once loosened up I shoveled it out and used a pick-ax to take care of the really hard stuff such as rocks and the like.......

As you can see to the upper left of the last photo that one should expect a little dirt left over as to compaction displacement of the dirt you remove as well as to the added volume of the pipe.

Now for getting the wire pulled in and hooked up.

I just received confirmation that the kettles are being shipped tomorrow. I can hardly wait. Still lots of work yet to be done.......

More later.......

Now on to the more important stuff.

The control panel has came along right nicely. I was able to drill, cut, as well as paint the panel plates as well as the panel box and then proceeded to mount all of the devices and instruments on the exterior of the panel.......

I heard from John from Stout Tanks and Kettles last week and was told that the kettles should be ready to ship within the next couple of weeks. Hooray!!!!!!! 

Can't wait.

More later.......

BUT! The city inspection didn't go off so well. I went to the city inspections office to pay my $30 for a permit and asked them then what all I needed to do to be within compliance. Instead of showing me a booklet, or a link online, to read all their criteria and ordinances specific to one building in their backyard, they rather only said to keep the building 5' off the property line and the building can be no taller than 12'. I told them that the building is 11 1/2' from the ground to the tip top but it would need be set on top of blocks which their reply was not to worry about that. So I commenced building plans with only that knowledge. When all was said and done I had a note to call the city inspections office and was asked if I was planning to keep my other shed which my reply was yes. They proceeded to tell me that there was a 10' clearance issue and that I had 30 days to correct or be fined $100 a day until it was resolved. You all can only imagine how frustrated I was even after going there in person and asking for all I needed to do to be in compliance. I explained to them that if I had only had that knowledge prior to building the new building that I would have built it 10' away from the other but since they failed to offer that tid-bit of info I had no idea of such an ordinance.  They wouldn't hear of it and wouldn't budge or cut any slack even though they knew I had complied with all I was first told. Needless to say I was just able to find just enough room for the older shed to be placed on the other side of the new one so instead of paying an additional $350 for the filing fee for a variance that would have to go before the city council for approval, which by no means guarantees said approval, I decided to move the smaller shed myself. I used the old tried and true Hebrew approach. I went and purchased ten 2" PVC conduits and jacked that puppy up and down onto the conduits and rolled it into place.......

I then built a new ramp as the old one was shot.......

We now have to change the idea a bit as to how we want the backyard to look in the end but all in all this turned out o.k. all considering. it cost me an additional $150 just for the materials to move the shed but far better than it would have costed to hire it out. Gotta love living in the city.

More later.......

It has been a month since my last post and much has been accomplished but much more yet to do but here is what has occurred since my last update.

The building was finally finished and with a little hiccup between the builder and the Building Inspector which was resolved after a week or so I finally got my building inspections finaled with the county. One thing I did have to build myself was steps to enter the building. Don't laugh as I am not a carpenter and the steps are by far not perfect. I still haven't decided on just leaving steps or building a deck for a seating area for a couple of small tables and chairs. In any case here is the steps I built.......

More later.......