Last Autumn I completed an MSc in Brewing and Distilling.
I thought I would celebrate by building a brewery.

Exhibit A:

The old washhouse in my girlfriend’s garden

Some issues:

Roof not the best

This was it “cleaned out”:

The old wash basin:

Kind of tempted to turn that into a direct fired still….

My dad and I got to work.
First things first. That roof.

Off:

New joists:

We also had to reinforce a lot of the rotten main ones. Interestingly, the old roof wasn’t actually attached to the building but was just resting on it. We fixed that.

Some new, more modern roof panels:

Slight aside. Had to buy, make a base and erect a new shed for all my girlfriend’s stuff:

Some more issues.
No electricity.
Being dug into a hill side, it was very damp.

Cue installation of a ring main, and seven (7!) coats of latex damp proofing paint:

Next, a £60 kitchen off of Gumtree and a sink/ Luckily it did have a water supply and drain.

A mill to crush the grains. The grist falls down into the cupboard below (there is normally a hopper on top):

Evaporate (from boiling the wort) extraction system consisting of a bathroom fan, tumble dryer tubing and the lid from a garden waste burner:

Put an outside light in as well as some weatherproof sockets out the back as a wee thank you to the GF:

40A electric supply:

Washy-hands:

Safety first:

Storage:

The library:

The yeast zone:

Some nice fermenters:

Anti-winter technology:

Fully chilled supply chain:

An incubator for growing up microflora cultures:

Ageing some old hops for making a lambic:

Got my hands on some whisky barrels for maturation:

Had a visitor:

Complete and ready to brew:

And the end result:

That is bloody awesome.

Drac wrote:

That is bloody awesome.

+1, rad.

Very well done indeed. How does it taste?

Nice! It sounds like a lot of time and work went into it. That’s a well deserved beer

More of this sort of thing!

Superb.

Your girlfriend doesn’t look impressed with the shed you built for her! 😉

Wonderful! Hope the beers fantastic!

10/10 awesome.

Ps. You look 100% exactly how I imagine a man building a brewery in a shed looks like.

Excellent.

Your shed has been photobombed by Justin Lee Collins.

That is ace. Are you going commercial? Im really interested.

Your shed has been photobombed by Justin Lee Collins.

I thought it was Cougar taste testing.

Love that! If you’ve got a problem with damp and cold, why don’t you insulate the roof?

That looks quality. I’ve got a plan for my garage but it keeps falling down the to do list.

I did block up the eaves with foam, but just got loads of condensation dripping down.

One just had to accept the cold.

Had a few issues with the grain mill, but once I got that sorted the beers are tasting great.

And yes, I am going to go commercial from here, though in a rather limited capacity

And yes, I am going to go commercial from here, though in a rather limited capacity

Around 7 years ago I met a couple in local pub with a similar set up. His dream was to do small batches of beer just enough so it would be job he’d loved.

Now it looks like this.

You might actually struggle to organise a piss up in that brewery.

A very small one maybe.

I like tall women but by jings, are those her tights?
It’s a very civilised thing to bring more beer into the world.
Great job and good luck!

Well, if I do go commercial with it I have a philosophy of zero growth/expansion. Everyone who opens a brewery is always chasing tank/space capacity and everything that entails – materials storage, utilities, staff/HR, supply chain, distribution, cashflows etc etc. You end up very far from making the beer.

Obviously this means I’ll never make a living off it and will need a “day” job, but it will free me from commercial compromises. I am expecting it to take around a decade before I perfect the one beer I want to make/sell.

As far as piss-ups go, after registering as the smallest brewery in the country I would like to get set up as the country’s smallest taproom/bar – a capacity of one. I plan on sawing the door in half like a stable one and serving beers through the hatch one afternoon a month. Something like that. There might be an umbrella involved.

very very cool YGH… happy to help with the tasting as required

I can see an STW ride and beer being organised…
Where in the world are you?

Well, if I do go commercial with it I have a philosophy of zero growth/expansion. Everyone who opens a brewery is always chasing tank/space capacity and everything that entails – materials storage, utilities, staff/HR, supply chain, distribution, cashflows etc etc. You end up very far from making the beer.

Oh I’m suggesting you go full brewery Tap level just showing you what they did, they still brew with the same passion as ever.

Hang on.

What’s this?

Sack truck can’t bear to look at the mess 😉

Looks like a great project and good to put your degree to good use 🙂

Great effort.

All the best 👍👍👍🍺🍺🍺

Nice work, good luck!

Great stuff!
I like your future plans – Good luck with it!

Oh, don’t worry – all the mess has been tidied up. 3 transit van loads to the tip!

Matt – it’s in Linlithgow, so some decent cycling around the Forth coast or up at BeeCraigs country park. Could be fun to have a ride and a beer afterwards, and plenty trains home.

I’ve currently got a few beers on the go:
A very basic Kveik fermented farmhouse ale
A west coast IPA
A barley wine
A black IPA
A strong porter fermented with some Belgian trappist yeast

and I should be brewing up another American IPA, a dark Belgian Abbey ale and another barley wine over the next few weeks.

Probably time to have a party after that and get my kegs and bottles freed up….

Oh yeah, I forgot I built a bar in my flat as well.
I have a flat roof outside.
A newsagent was giving away an ice cream freezer:

I knocked together a little temperature controller unit for it:

Add in some kegs, an old fire extinguisher and a welding regulator:

Get a really long drill bit and make some holes into the kitchen, et voila!

Top work sir!

What’s the paint you’ve used to stop damp? My bike shed is an old coal hole/wash house with soil to 3 sides and is damp, that paint looks just the ticket.

Haha! Loving the second one more.

The paint is called Synthaprufe
It’s pretty minging stuff, and it did take a lot of coats, but it has worked – along with having airflow across the bottom of the roof panels

This is awesome. OH likes to do homebrew but this is on another level!

zero growth/expansion

Is a lovely way to be on. We try to run our business along these lines too. Enough to pay the bills is enough to pay the bills

Cheers YGH 🙂

Nice one OP – First class story!!

Bloke who used to post on here built and built and built something that became this…

He recently sold it for a few quid…

More here – https://www.magicrockbrewing.com/about/history/

Magic Rock make some very nice beer. My GF loves “Salty Kiss” – a gooseberry gose.

going to be looking out for a newly roofed shed/brewery next time i ride through…

Good work OP, hope it’s a success.
Who was the bloke off here scuttler?

YGH, I live on the other side of the Bathgate Alps!

If you ever need a volunteer to try out any of your beers..

That looks amazing! I won’t offer to sample anything, I’m quite far from you. Good luck with it all.