Brew House Ventilation

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sucanushie
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Brew House Ventilation

Post by sucanushie » Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:16 pm

I'm looking at building out a section of my shed for a brew house. I'm using a grainfather and would like to to vent to the outside.

What would you guys suggest? Would a stove top vent hood do the trick? I would I need something with more power?

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Jimmy
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by Jimmy » Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:44 pm

I use an 800 CFM inline duct fan and it works great. Tons of them on Amazon.

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Celiacbrew
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by Celiacbrew » Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:12 pm

Grainfather boil off is about 2 litres an hour. That is less than a shower puts out. If your shed has a window, a fan in the window would be enough. If you need something more powerful, there are less powerful and cheaper versions of what Jimmy uses. 40 cfm would be plenty for warm weather, no guess how powerful a fan you would need to prevent condensation when it is -20 outside. the cheap inline vents on Amazon start around 100-200 cfm. They are usually used in hydroponics so they come wired with a plug so you don't have to do anything other than plug it in. They cost about $30 and you can use the flexible dryer ducts to vent outside. You just need the ducting to slope down slightly when you install it so that condensing water drains out.

With my grainfather I use my house's built in HRV on a low setting and it is enough to clear the boil in my bathroom. That's in a warm house so I don't have to deal with condensation in cold weather.
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sucanushie
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by sucanushie » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:40 am

I think this is the one I'm going to go with.

https://www.amazon.ca/Active-Air-400-In ... B00KWYJQYA

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Maritimer
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by Maritimer » Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:29 am

I Brew with an electric kettle in the house.
My solution was to build a hood out of eps foam that sits over my pot and connects to a window fan. It works really well, I boil off around 6L per hour without issue.
I think the trick is to capture all the moisture in a hood of some sort, that will lower the overall CFM you require (exhausting a small area rather than the whole room).
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know1
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by know1 » Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:28 pm

On the basis of boil off, you require very little CFM but that's assuming 100% capture.

6L water per hour = 6 kg or 13.23lbs/hr = 0.22 lbs/min
steam density at 100C, atmospheric: 0.037 lbs/ft3
0.22lbs/min / 0.037 lbs/ft3 = 5.96 ft3/min of water vapour
assume minimum 2:1 air to vapor ratio ~ 12 CFM air flow.

As Maritimer said, the more capture you have, the less air you need. Make sure your hood overhangs to kettle and is as low as you can comfortably get away with to account for thermal currents and cross drafts. Be aware that low points on the hood are not directly over the kettle as there may be some condensation and you probably don't want it dripping back in. Foam is a good idea as Maritime uses to prevent the cold surface. As Celiac said, slope the duct as it almost certainly will condense inside.

There will also likely be a bit of condensation within the shed purely due to the cold surfaces. The added heat from the kettle will allow the air to retain more moisture, (from the brew and you being in there) which will inevitability condense on a cold surface somewhere. Probably not a big deal for all it will be, I'd just make sure there is nothing that might drip somewhere you don't want it to.
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Keith
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by Keith » Wed Sep 06, 2017 7:24 pm

I use the 400cfm range hood from Canadian tire on my 1bbl setup. No issues so far. About 20" clearance from pot. Also have about 4' straight pop with 1 90 degree pipe. You're welcome to pop by and check it out. Get a feel for what you need.

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MacMan
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by MacMan » Wed Sep 13, 2017 9:40 am

Ok, this thread gave me a great idea, put one of these in my garage and I can use it with my Bradley smoker as well, after all its just removing air , one has moisture the other has smoke. Amazon, here i come :)
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mckay75
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Re: Brew House Ventilation

Post by mckay75 » Wed Sep 13, 2017 9:57 am

I bought mine from these guys:

www.kbliquidation.com

Some pretty sweet deals on some high end range hoods.

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