Design me a stillin' room!

Little or nothing to do with distillation.

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Antler24
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Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Antler24 »

I've got a space in the basement I can build into a stillin' room to get things out of the open basement and mostly to keep the kids out of things as they get older. It's not a large space, 9'x13' and has hot and cold water overhead and a drain in the floor.
Looking for a layout, want 3 20g fermenters, I plan to have these on a shelf about 24" of the floor so I'll have storage underneath for supplies, but mostly to be able to gravity flow into my electric boiler (on wheels). A designated spot for my still, next to a small workbench where I can do cuts, a laundry tub next to this would be nice. If also like some shelving, maybe a rack, for storing the aging stock. Last but not least a space for a 30g mash tun for sometime in the future when I go all grain.

I know it's a tall order for the space, but I'm determined I can get it all in there!
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
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shadylane
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by shadylane »

A floor plan drawing of the basement with the location of the stairs, electricity, drain and water would help. :wink:
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pfshine
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by pfshine »

Height of the room as well
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shadylane
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by shadylane »

pfshine wrote:Height of the room as well
+1 vertical is important.
Antler24
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Antler24 »

shadylane wrote:
pfshine wrote:Height of the room as well
+1 vertical is important.
Height is 8ft.

I have a little sketch of the basement layout, could I email it to you guys to post?

Electrical and water isn't an issue either can be moved to where I need it, there's hot/cold water lines running right overhead in that room.
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
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Odin
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Odin »

Capacity to drain.

Odin.
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Antler24
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Antler24 »

Odin wrote:Capacity to drain.

Odin.
Drain and fill ports will be added to the boiler soon.
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
FullySilenced
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by FullySilenced »

He meant drains in the floor i think.. or a toilet or something in the basement...
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Antler24 »

FullySilenced wrote:He meant drains in the floor i think.. or a toilet or something in the basement...

As per my original post there's a drain in the room!
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
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bearriver
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by bearriver »

Antler, please pull up the asbuilt for that room and post it. We can draw you a floor plan that will overlay the asbuilt.

If you cannot get that information online or from your town/city hall, then do your best to represent the room in a floor plan sketch. Heed Shady's advice if you choose to draw it.

(General contractor) :wink:
Last edited by bearriver on Sun Dec 06, 2015 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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bearriver
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by bearriver »

Antler24 wrote:
FullySilenced wrote:
As per my original post there's a drain in the room!
Odin knows there is a drain. That's why he asked for information about it.

We want to know the drain capacities. What are the dimensions? Septic/sewer? Can you drain stillage with solids in it down this drain? Where is it located???...ect

You've asked for a lot of help but haven't given any of the necessary details we need to help you. :eh:
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by S-Cackalacky »

I've been thinking of something similar myself and will be looking forward to what you come up with. I have several pieces of old kitchen cabinets from a kitchen remodel I did several years ago - lots of overheads and a few base cabinets and counter tops. My space is adjacent to the laundry area, so I won't need to do any electrical. It also has a couple of roughed in drains and I plan to put "Y" splitters on the washing machine water feeds for running water. So, it will basically be done on the extreme cheap.
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Antler24
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Antler24 »

bearriver wrote:Antler, please pull up the asbuilt for that room and post it. We can draw you a floor plan that will overlay the asbuilt.

If you cannot get that information online or from your town/city hall, then do your best to represent the room in a floor plan sketch. Heed Shady's advice if you choose to draw it.

(General contractor) :wink:

I don't have any asbuilts sorry. I did make up a little sketch if someone were to PM me an email address. I don't know how to upload a pic. The drain is a 4" for a toilet. There is zero electrical to that 9x13 space other than a baseboard heater so gonna have an electrician do that much for me. Hot and cold water is right over head and in the adjacent laundry room.

I've also been thinking about a chugger pump with cam locks on both sides to get the hoses to any of the fermenters, boiler, mash tun etc. 28yrs old with serious back problems suck.
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
Boda Getta
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Boda Getta »

I would be in heaven if I had that space!

BG
Antler24
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Antler24 »

boda getta wrote:I would be in heaven if I had that space!

BG
Yeah I was running outside at first, then went electric and ran off the dryer recent. but hated breaking everything down between runs. Right now I'm all over the open undeveloped basement and have been happy with it until this past week. While I was away at work (only home weekends) my wife caught the chimney afire and called the fire dept, which came in the basement where the wood stove is, in plain site of 2 20 gallon fermenters, 4-5 gallons of molasses, couple sacks of cracked corn and sugar, my keg boiler and dismantled pot still head on the work bench. Luckily one of my closest friends is on the Fire Dept and made sure he was the first in the basement and tossed a few blankets over the gear.
This small town of about 800 people I'm not concerned someone would call the cops anyway, but the few people that know my hobbies the better. There's also gonna come a time when my kids become teenagers and I'd like to have anything and everything under lock.
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
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bearriver
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by bearriver »

I'm currently messing around with an app for Android (free from Google) , and its called Stanley Floor Plan. It allows for you to scan the room among other features. Touchscreen controls are simple and its built rather intuitively.
Antler24
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Re: Design me a stillin' room!

Post by Antler24 »

I somehow stumbled upon this again and decided to revive it. I've since not progressed any further with the stilling room but I've revised the plans a few times. I'll upload the very, very crude drawing I did recently.

So as you see, I'll have 2 20 gallon fermenters, boiler and thumper keg together, These will be raised on a 16-18" platform so I can drain into buckets. The two small boxes marked R are 240v/30a receptacles, one for the boiler. Coolant lines will be plumbed to and from the still, drained into the large cleaning sink shown. There's a sink and hot water tank in the laundry room directly behind the distilling room sink, so that'll be an easy job. I'll have a garden hose reel above the sink with separate faucets so I can fill fermenters and stuff. There'll be a dorm fridge underneath the workbench for storing yeast.

Future plans include a flute, at that point the thumper will become a dedicated steam boiler (hence the second receptacle) and be moved between the fermenters, and the boiler will be moved 18-24" closer to the work bench. In the empty corner I'm daydreaming of a comfy leather chair and a small table both made from old bourbon barrels. So I should be able to sit, relax and enjoy a nip or two, while mashing and running the still simultaneously. A man can dream I guess lol
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Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
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