Galuszka Brewery (under construction)

A shed - how bloody boring, right?!

I'm very glad I decided to start home brewing when I moved back to The Swamp, rather than trying when I lived in Wellington. Why? Because every place I lived in had either no garage, or a garage full of crap. Brewing in the back yard would not have been as much fun without some tin to keep the elements out.

So, I'm absolutely delighted to say that I now live in a place with a space I can dedicate to being my man cave brewery.

Under-and-over of the hot water cylinder + water source

By the state of the vegetable patches and shed when I arrived at my current residence, the person who lived here before me was old and Irish. I say that because the shed was filthy and cluttered, and all I got from the vege patches when I dug them up was potatoes.

But I thank the old Irishperson - who will now be known as Paddy - because somewhere along the line they decided to undertake some home improvements and hook up the shed with water. While Paddy's plumbing is creative to say the least, I have running water to the shed - that's the main thing.

There is also a hot water cylinder in there, if I ever need it. Paddy also left me plenty of shelving, draws, and a random set of old school lockers. I even got some panes of glass wrapped in newspapers - Evening Standards, just for a connection to my current occupation. I'm not sure if any of the random stuff will come in handy, but it's nice to know that it's there if I ever do need it.

Old school lockers and an Evening Standard from exactly 35 years ago.

Paddy also left me something else - dust. Lots of dust. While some may say you can have as much dust as you like, it's a bad thing for brewing. Have you ever heard of dusty beer? Yeah, I thought so.....


So, I spent a good Saturday morning cleaning out the shed. I swept up the cobwebs, beat the mats and even vacuumed the floor. Yes, i vacuumed a concrete floor. I'm mad. I'm crazy. I'm nuts. But I'm being thorough, because the last thing I want to have to do is throw out a batch of beer because a spider/speck of dust/piece of shed dropped into something without me noticing.

There's still plenty of cleaning to do. I know I need to give it another going over with the broom, and I plan on giving every surface a good dose of bleach. I also need to figure out where to put all the random pieces of wood that Paddy left me. But most important of all, I need to to some measuring to see if I'll be able to fit my drums in the man cave brewery as well. I am going to need something to do while I wait for wort to boil after all!

Pic 1 - the view. Pic 2 - some shelving/benches

 So, while I have plenty of space, shelving and random stuff (seriously, does anyone need some old high school lockers?) I have no idea how to properly get myself set up for brewing. Which is where you come in!

How would you set this up? Anything I should knock up? Knock down? More shelves? More draws?

 

Also - should I hook up the bathroom so it actually works? 

Yup, through that door is a bathroom (da-daaa!) currently out of order.