I’m going to make good use of my vacation time and get the garage/brewery organized. While I like the idea of organization, I have to admit I’m not very good at it. This causes me to get frustrated very easily when I’m brewing or kegging. If you care to share, please post some inspirational pictures of your brewery organization. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks!
Amen. I could use a little organizational inspiration also.
There was an article in Zymurgy by Mr. Drew Beechum on organization. Search functioning is not working for me now. If you are an AHA member you can go through some of the online issues and find it.
I like to organize by spreading everything all over the floor of my basement. Makes it easier to see what I’m looking for without having to go through boxes and drawers and stuff.
I brew in the kitchen, in the garage, on the patio, while camping, at friends’ houses, and I do brewing demos at the LHBS. So I use a brew box. It’s just a tool box I use to store and transport my brewing tools,salts, whirlfloc, hop socks, etc. Just grab it and brew anywhere.
Organization was bugging me too then I decided to clean up my apartment.
I have drawers and cabinets in my garage and every piece of equipment goes into the same one every time. I can find things without even really looking.
Yeah but let’s see it two years on. :-X
With those corny’s stacked like that, I’ll bet it sounds awesome during an earthquake… (sorry - cheap California joke - I used to live there, too!)
I put a rack in the garage to hold all of my brewing equipment just like narcout’s. Consolidated and organized.
My philosophy is about minimalism. The least amount of equipment that one can successfully brew with. Less to store, keep track of and keep clean makes for a happy brewer- at least in my case.
As a side note- as I believe it is related: carefully consider equipment upgrades. I have plenty of discarded items from my brewery. If their role and implementation in the overall scheme were better thought out then the waste in time, space and expense would have been avoided. But, the practical knowledge gained has been invaluable.
Panoramic shot of the basement. Garage still needs to be worked on desperately.
Wow!
as the jealousy steams off of me I ‘grin’ and congratulate you on your amazing brew space.
Very nice work Amanda ! That looks fantastic. +1 to euge’s minimalism as well - that’s my approach.
What do you have your grain stored in?
Something I always keep in mind when I am organizing anything is the flow or sequence of the work. In other words, when I use something determines where it goes.
A great example of this on a macro level is the new brewery in town (balebreaker.com). They organized the inside of the brewery to operate in a clockwise fashion: malt deliveries/silo on the South side, just inside that south wall going North is the MT, LT, BK,. Then the fermenters along the North wall heading East, packaging along the East wall and finally cold storage/shipping is back at the South side.
Looks to be some of the same containers I have some of my grain in: Vittle Vault II
Awesome. Thanks Drew.
Yep. Vittle Vaults.
I just ordered a 25CF chest freezer to hold all of those kegs too. I gotta get the current kegerator out of the garage, it’s crampin my style.
Once I get the sour beer area done and the chest freezer up and running, I’ll post back.