Brewery Update #24

Written by: Alex
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Ok, so the updates regarding the brewery haven't been coming thick and fast. I'm finding that a lot of tasks are now taking way longer than I expected. Some of this is due to delays caused by me, other things are caused by other people and sometimes it's just the weather to blame. Still it's time for another update and list of tasks completed in no order of size or importance.

 

 

  • Air Conditioning installation for the cold room - This took way longer than expected. Just finding a time when tradesmen are free in the area to even come round and look at the job was challenging. Once I managed to book an air con installer it took three months with frequent cancellations to get the item installed. A lot of modern refrigeration equipment isn't made very well and frequent failures of this equipment is keeping the air con guys busy. Great for them, not so great for me. There was a bit of associated work involved cutting a hole in an external vent to allow pipework to exit the building. I also had to build a plinth on which to place the external cooling unit.
  • Creation of a non return air valve system for the cold room drain - Now that we can control the temperature in the cold room there is the matter of the large hole where the water drains out. This lets out quite a bit of the cold air so I wanted a system to open to allow water to escape but close to stop the cold air also doing so. I created a system with a counter- weighted flap that opens under the influence of water, but swings shut when no water is flowing and seals the gap. I'll be doing some more testing with this as I go forward
  • Added tool racks to 'storage room' to keep all the tools tidy and safe. I've racked up a lot of tools over the years, not to mention all the consumables like screws and bolts. I created a 3D printed storage system to keep them out of the way and now everything is much tidier.
  • Added Wireless switches to all brewery lights - The main room of the brewery is quite large and in order to keep it well lit for safe operations I used 9 50W LED floodlights to illuminate everything. This replaces the old florescent tubes that used to hang from the ceiling. The old system used almost 1200W just to power the lights and I've made some savings in energy costs there. I however want to have individual control over when each light is used to save even more power. I've hooked up each light to a Sonoff smart switch running my own custom firmware. This allows me to toggle each light using my phone which is handy.
  • Added new feet to the weighing table. This allows the table to be flush with the wall and to be level which stops things rolling off it.
  • Replace window units in the office. These had blown and weren't providing much insulation.
  • Installed new items into the staff toilet - Including a new toilet seat, hygienic pull-cord, toilet roll holder and hand towel holder. We're going to be using bamboo hand towels so we can compost them on site to reduce the waste produced by the company.
  • Finally moved the company into the building - My business was registered at my accountants, now we have finally moved in. This makes all paperwork much easier going forward
  • Fit a waterbutt to the front of the brewery - To collect water and direct rain away from the walls at the front to reduce moisture
  • Added a surround to the front floor drain to stop this flooding during downpours - This was causing damp and may have caused issues if not fixed.
  • Performed first tests of the electrical control panel for the brewery equipment - Unfortunately there was an accident and I ended up blowing some components in the box. Replacement components were ordered from China but took a month to arrive.
  • Fitted Double Check Valves to Brewery and Toilet buildings - These are to stop any backflow of substances returning up the pipes and entering the water supply.
  • Rewired temperature probes for brewery control box - As these had never been tested I didn't know I'd wired these up incorrectly.
  • Complete redesign of internal cold room ceiling - The ceiling tiles I used were starting to warp do to them not being well supported in my previous design. Wood was incredibly expensive at the time I put the ceiling up due to some sort of trade issue with Canada back in the day. The entire internal ceiling surface was reinforced and now all the tiles are nice and straight. This also has the benefit of increasing insulation values.
  • Design of posts and poles to separate visitor and non visitor sections of the playground - I need to mark off areas for customer parking. There are sections of the playground that I'd prefer customers to use. I wanted to construct a divider or fence to indicate which areas are 'out of bounds'. I ended up going with a design based around a 25kg dense concrete block for the based and pvc pipe for the posts. I had considered traffic cones but I didn't believe they could handle the storms we are getting now. The posts are linked with high visibility rope and so far have withstood all the punishment of a welsh winter without moving and inch. I also needed to learn rope whipping and bought my first sailmaking needles in order to complete this project!
  • Setup gas lines in the cold room - I've now got Gas lines running to allow three fermentation vessels to be connected. These all are routed via non-return values to ensure the CO2 moves out of the building.
  • Purchased Chest Freezer for Hop Storage - We can now keep our hops nice and cold when we buy them in bulk to avoid loss of hop oils.
  • Moved Fermentation controller to a new box - The existing metal box was too heavy to mount in the cold room so I've transferred some of the components to a new ABS enclosure. I've reduced the capabilities of the controller from control of 12 simultaneous fermentation vessels to 4. This makes the internal cabling much easier.
  • Improvements to Fermentation Controller algorithms - The controller will be handling the job of keeping the beer at the correct temperature whilst it is fermenting. I've been doing a lot of work to try and accurately control the temperature but this subject probably requires an entire blog post of it's own.
  • Moving to Linux as the only operating system for the business - Window is unfortunately too unreliable and slow for my business needs. Windows updates often cause more problems than they solve and can take 4hrs to complete giving me no choice to abort. I need my machines to perform the way I want so I've decided to move over to Linux. This shouldn't be much of an issues as most software is Web or cloud based nowadays.
  • Brewery Management Software & Till Software moved to Linux - This has taken the best part of two months, but I've been able to do this whilst the winter months have brought freezing temperatures, wind and rain that makes working on the remaining tasks in the brewery very uncomfortable or not possible. 
  • New Heater installed in the office - This will be appreciated by both me and my future customers :)
  • New Office furniture - Including a nice pair of chairs for customers to use.
  • Working to repair a collapsed wall in the playground - The unexpected collapse has given a lot of work. Lime mortar takes ages to dry and the weather hasn't been great especially with the amount of heavy rain we've had during the late part of 2025.

I'm hoping that once the cold, rainy depressing weather is over I'll be able to finish up the last remaining tasks and hopefully apply for my licenses in the next couple of months. The remaining tasks include:-

  • Sorting out car parking - It's too cold to paint car parking lines using line marking paint at the present. Clearly marked car parking spaces is part of my planning permission conditions.
  • Repair of the collapsed wall - I'm working on this weather permitting.
  • Fire compliance - This is the next job on my list - This includes fire alarms, extinguishers etc.

Until next time!

 

Brewery Update #23 - July to December 2024

Written by: Alex
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Now that all the big jobs in the brewery are complete I'm left with lots of little fiddly tasks that don't really merit their own blog post. I've decided to switch to a summary covering multiple months moving forward unless there is something interesting to talk about. 

The following tasks have been completed between July and December 2024

 

 

  • 2500L MDPE drainage tank bought and moved into place - Using some old Egyptian technology (broom handles) it was possible to move the tank around the side of the brewery. This tank will receive all waste liquids that cannot be handled by the on-site septic tank and will be emptied by a waste contractor when filled.
  • Outside drainage pipework completed - MDPE pipework installed allowing the inside pump to move waste liquid into the outside tank. Drain-down pipe added to ensure no liquid in the pipes during cold weather.
  • Brewery control box secured to the wall - I wanted the ability to mount/demount the box by myself using some sort of sliding system. I couldn't find anything heavy duty enough so finally decided on Unistrut. Had a few misgivings about the solidity of the wall but I must have chosen a good patch and the whole thing seems very solid.
  • Rechecked internal wiring inside control panel - Finished the incomplete wiring and upgraded some amateurish work I'd previously done. Did a full continuity check of all cables (especially earth).
  • Bought H07RN rubber cables and wired up pumps and heating elements on brewery kit - Still have temperature sensor cables to do but I should be able to test the equipment once I've got the electrician back to connect everything up.
  • Extensive research into grades of stainless steel and suitability for brewing - Turns out that most catering suppliers don't list the grade of stainless and most just list "high quality stainless steel". Most is 430 grade that will rust if exposed to water. 201 grade is better but is not as good as 304 in terms of chemical resistance.
  • Bought a table made of purely 304 to act as my main preparation table. Very expensive but should last forever.
  • Bought a 201 table for dry goods weighing - it should be fine due to lack of exposure to moisture / acid
  • Bought a wooden workshop table to act as a bottling table - The wood core is stronger and thicker than a stainless sheet (1.2mm) so will allow me to bolt a manual bottling machine through the table surface. I purchased a 304 stainless steel sheet and attached it to the table surface to improve hygiene and cleaning
  • Constructed a hatch cover to close the hole in the back of the cold room where the planned HVAC tubes should go - Made it out of PVC and tile backing board which makes it waterproof. rubber sealing strips attached to the edge to seal.
  • Bought and installed 10m of gas pipe to act as the CO2 exhaust for the cold room - Fermenters will direct all produced CO2 via non return John Guest valves to direct CO2 out of the building
  • Built a under desk unit out of spare wood - Will hold the shop PC and till drawer and saves £££ compared to buying a pre-made unit
  • Preparation of manual handling assessment document for Health and Safety - Details the lifting and carrying operations that will occur in the brewery and the steps taken to avoid injury to staff.
  • Started Brewery Operations Manual - Explains all brewery procedures and can be used to train new staff
  • Preparation of COSHH risk assessments - Chemical handling procedures for Health and Safety
  • Preparation of business risk assessment documentation - Review of all possible risks to staff and customers and steps taken to minimise them.
  • Conversion of outside toilet to brewery staff toilet - installation of a sink and associated plumbing (a curse on sink wastes). Replumbing of cold water, installation of hot water heater and tube heater to keep the pipes from freezing in winter. Some trouble with faulty valve in hot water heater which took a while to sort out.
  • Painting of walls, ceiling and floor in toilet - Walls painted with clay paint as lime plaster and then glazed to allow washing and cleaning. Ceiling painted with anti-mould paint. Floor painted with anti-slip paint
  • Repointed the stonework outside the toilet to reduce moisture ingress - 
  • Bought a router and made my own router table - so that I could make a new custom sized door for the toilet - Existing one is rotten, unable to get tongue and groove floorboards of sufficient quality locally so forced to make my own
  • Constructed custom door for toilet - Made my own lap-joints using a router - new skill obtained!
  • Bought shelving unit for front room in industrial style.
  • Bought and set up CCTV camera for front room. Research and set up of open source NVR software to record motion
  • Conversion of brewing software to cross platform status - Looking to ditch Windows if possible due to the amount of disruption it could cause to the business and the direction the software is heading.
  • Replaced the old rubber threshold on the brewery front door with a new one - Since the rubber had perished there was a constant draught under the door. The new threshold is a lot more snug and helps with keeping the room warm but will need some tinkering to allow the door to open and close smoothly.

 

Brewery Update #22 - Completing the drainage

Written by: Alex
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Next on my list of tasks was to complete the drainage system in and under the brewery floor. I've already put in my trench drain and connected it to some stainless steel pipe to route it into the lower floor area of the brewery that's accessible via the ladder. The last stage is to pump it out of the internal tank and into an external tank outside. This tank will be periodically emptied each time it gets full, but should last me a while as it only needs to contain substances that cannot be disposed of via the septic tank on site. The law also states that waste considered hazardous cannot be stored in the same container as nonhazardous waste so I'll need to think carefully as to the types of chemicals I want to use.

I started by installing a filter in the top of my internal tank. This is a sheet of fine stainless steel mesh cut to size and supported around the edge by stainless bolts sticking out of the sides of the tank. I drilled holes around the perimeter and threaded the bolts through making sure I added a neoprene washer to stop any leaks. To protect my hands from cuts caused by the sharp edges of the mesh I glued a length of rubber edging strip around the sides. I also made sure to cut a square out of one of the edges of the mesh to allow space for the pump pipe and the power cable.

The pump I've bought has a 1.25inch outlet which roughly translates to a 32 inch metric pipe. It's a little big and doesn't match the standard 25mm MDPE pipe I'm planning to use so I managed to find a 1" adapter to use instead. MDPE is very stiff, so to make things easier I decided to use a flexible PVC pond pipe with a 32mm outer diameter and 25mm internal diameter. This fit rather snugly on my new adapter but a stainless steel jubilee clip now holds everything tightly. The flexible pipe feeds into a philmac variable connector which is always handy for joining pipes of differing sizes together. The rest of the run through the wall and outside to the tank is 25mm MDPE. I added some insulation to the outside pipes but I guess there really isn't much I can do to stop the external pipes freezing if we get another -7C winter. I'll just have to ensure the system is drained down ahead of any bad weather.

Next we order the tank and move it into place!

 

Brewery Update #21 - Electrics and WiFi

Written by: Alex
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Once I was suitably recovered from my accident it was time to resume work on getting the Brewery's electrics updated. I was in the process of preparing for this when I fell off the ladder. I decided to try and save time and therefore money by installing the various lengths of trunking and conduit that would be needed to house all the required cables. There are a lot of places in the brewery where the plaster is less than cooperative once disturbed and putting me in charge of installing trunking reduced the amount of re-plastering and painting that needed to be done. It turns out that trunking is quite expensive so I couldn't use my normal philosophy of "when in ignorance go big" everywhere. In places where there would be a lot of cables i chose to use 100x50mm trunking and dropped to 50x50mm everywhere else. 25mm conduit was used to bring cables down to sockets and lights.

It seems that Electricians are really busy nowadays. COVID seems to have killed off a number of smaller one-man businesses that I used to know and others have retired in the 8 years since I last needed an electrician. I finally managed to engage the services of a super local company - Merlin Electrical who were excellent and come highly recommended. 

Now that electricity is available again on the premises I'm able to start implementing a number of my projects that I've had in various levels of completion over the years. The first step towards getting these up and running is to get a network and Wifi installed so that various machines can communicate with each other. The first hurdle however was how to get the existing internet and network connected from the house to the brewery building. Option one was to run an outdoor cable through both walls and across the intervening space. This could be achieved either by digging a trench for the cable, or running a wire between facing walls ( called a cation i believe ) and using this to suspend the same cable through the air. Burying the cable would have been a great deal of work considering the school playground has a few levels of elevation and I'd also have to avoid the drainage runs buried there. We do already have a cation running between both buildings but i must admit that I'm a bit wary working at heights after my fall. It's lucky that we now have technology available to give another option, that of line of sight radio transmission. 

I've always been rather disappointed with wireless transmissions within a house. It's difficult to get a clean stable signal, especially when there are thick walls involved and the speeds are much slower than simply running a network cable. Technology has moved on and I was willing to try a couple of outdoor access points with which others have had good success. The units that I purchased supposedly have a range of 9km but i only needed to set them up at a distance of less than 5m apart through conveniently facing windows. The link seems to be very strong and they can be powered via Power-over-Ethernet at both ends.

The next stage was to buy a nice big plastic enclosure to hold all the network equipment. It needed to be big enough to hold the router, all the network cables that would be plugged into the router as well as a two plug extension cable and the power supplies involved. I think i managed a fairly neat installation and all that was left was to run all the various network cables to the machines in the building. The hardest cable to run seemed to be the one linking the outdoor access point to the router as this needed to travel through a solid stone wall. Despite all appearances the existing hole wasn't very straight and it took me almost and hour to get the cable to behave and find it's way to the other side without bending and running down inside the wall in bizarre ways.

There seems to be a lot of debate about whether network cables can be run near to electrical cables. Some sources say that this is ok and they've buried a power and network cable in their back garden and never had any issues, other say to never run the two types within 4 inches of each other. I've done my best to mechanical separate the two cables in all my runs, making sure to secure the cables to the wall using 18th edition compliant fire rated clips. Once all the WiFi equipment was installed I was pleased to measure 97-98% signal strength in the main room and cold room and 75-80% in the front room due to the thick stone internal wall. This should suit my needs perfectly!

 

Brewery Update #20 - On the mend

Written by: Alex
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It's been a long road of recovery for me these last four months. The injuries to my ankle were quite severe and may change the way I have to work in the future. Getting around with two crutches was quite daunting in the beginning. I was told that I couldn't put my foot on the ground for six weeks and this made most tasks around the house quite challenging. I am now very good at hopping and standing on one leg for a long time. I'm sure that anyone who has broken a bone shares the pain of having to put the damaged limb in a black bag each time you go in the shower. Luckily my house is already quite well adapted for one-legged living so not much had to be done apart from buying a shower stool and another stool (that I plan to use as a lab chair in the brewery) for the kitchen. I had periodic visits back to the hospital to change my plaster but most of the six weeks were spent laying on my bed watching films as there wasn't much else for me to do. Getting up and down the stairs was an exercise in hopping and it was always annoying when you realised you'd left something you needed downstairs. The backpack became my constant friend as I had no hands free to carry anything.

The plaster was finally removed just before Xmas and I was given a boot with velcro straps. This immediately made everything so much better as I was able to put my foot down on the floor. I was told to continue using both crutches for locomotion for two weeks, switch to a single crutch for the next two weeks and then try and become crutch-less for the last two weeks of the term. It took a while to build strength to be able to put my full weight on the ankle and I'd lost a lot of muscle mass from my left leg due to inactivity. After five weeks I made my first solo shopping trip on the bus into town and just made it to the shops and back without fully collapsing. I've now been signed off by the doctors and I'm wearing my normal footwear again. The lack of support from the boot means that walking around is very painful as I'm able to twist my ankle freely. The muscles need time to build themselves up again and I'm told the pain will fade over six weeks.

I'm definitely on the mend and able to perform some small tasks at the moment, but I'm not quite up to standing on the same ladder that caused my downfall. I'm mostly recovered and the end is in sight, although I'll have to take it one day at a time though for the foreseeable future.

 

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