Spill proofing your work area

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MitchK
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Spill proofing your work area

Post by MitchK » Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:04 pm

So at my current apartment I have the luxury of plastic faux wood floors in my brewery area - I can spill sanitizer, wine, beer, whatever to my hearts content and a bit of wiping with a Lysol wipe later and everything is back to good.

The new place however has carpet more or less everywhere. So what do you guys think I should do in terms of guarding from splashing, overfills, dripping, and the disasterous "bottling wand stuck open" issues?

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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by Jimmy » Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:07 pm

Depends on what you're doing. If it's just sanitizing and cleaning, rubbermaid containers work great to catch all that stuff.

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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by MitchK » Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:17 pm

Yeah, bottling is definitely the big concern, followed by racking my beer/wine.

Edit: maybe some type of large drip pan under my work tables?

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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by GuingesRock » Thu Nov 12, 2015 9:51 pm

Is it your house or renting? You're going to have to tile that kitchen ASAP. Sloping floors leading to a drain would be ideal. Maybe large double doors for vehicle access, like a front end loader for the mash, bags of grain etc.

Hmmm ......A home brewers dream kitchen. I wonder what that would look like?
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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by MitchK » Thu Nov 12, 2015 10:14 pm

renting. I'm probably going to have to just put a drop cloth over the half of the room as a backup protection (it's not the kitchen) and then just be more careful about setting everything (bottles or whatever) into plastic bins to catch any overflow/drips. Maybe an oil drip pan thing from princess auto under the mini fridge fermenters just in case anything springs a leak.

Ideally I'd have a tiled space for this with a floor drain so it can basically just be hosed down, lol.

Hell, there are 3.5 bathrooms in this place for 3 people... Maybe I should just set up my brewery in the master bath shower stall. That would win me points at home for sure.

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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by GuingesRock » Thu Nov 12, 2015 10:18 pm

Plastic tarps are cheap. Canadian Tire maybe: http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/certi ... kU6ZP2FPDc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by Keith » Thu Nov 12, 2015 10:59 pm

GuingesRock wrote:Is it your house or renting? You're going to have to tile that kitchen ASAP. Sloping floors leading to a drain would be ideal. Maybe large double doors for vehicle access, like a front end loader for the mash, bags of grain etc.

Hmmm ......A home brewers dream kitchen. I wonder what that would look like?
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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by Keith » Thu Nov 12, 2015 11:03 pm

MitchK wrote:renting. I'm probably going to have to just put a drop cloth over the half of the room as a backup protection (it's not the kitchen) and then just be more careful about setting everything (bottles or whatever) into plastic bins to catch any overflow/drips. Maybe an oil drip pan thing from princess auto under the mini fridge fermenters just in case anything springs a leak.

Ideally I'd have a tiled space for this with a floor drain so it can basically just be hosed down, lol.

Hell, there are 3.5 bathrooms in this place for 3 people... Maybe I should just set up my brewery in the master bath shower stall. That would win me points at home for sure.
I've got a few mats that I use to use. would hold 2 fermenters. I'll see if I can locate them again. I think I picked them up at canadian tire, but honestly forget.
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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by LiverDance » Fri Nov 13, 2015 9:34 am

I use a large size bbq matt that I got from Costco. Princess auto also has a selection of protective mats.
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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by MitchK » Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:52 am

well, I think some type of tarp/mat combo along with some rubbermaid style bins to set bottles in while filling are probably enough to satisfy my carpet/red wine interaction paranoia.

I just wish I could find a better piece of gear than those shitty bottling wands that stick open and fire your booze everywhere...

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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by LiverDance » Mon Nov 16, 2015 10:47 am

MitchK wrote:well, I think some type of tarp/mat combo along with some rubbermaid style bins to set bottles in while filling are probably enough to satisfy my carpet/red wine interaction paranoia.

I just wish I could find a better piece of gear than those shitty bottling wands that stick open and fire your booze everywhere...
I picked up a spring loaded bottle wand at Maritime Beer and Wine
"Twenty years ago — a time, by the way, that hops such as Simcoe and Citra were already being developed, but weren’t about to find immediate popularity — there wasn’t a brewer on earth who would have gone to the annual Hop Growers of American convention and said, “I’m going to have a beer that we make 4,000 barrels of, one time a year. It flies off the shelf at damn near $20 a six-pack, and you know what it smells like? It smells like your cat ate your weed and then pissed in the Christmas tree.” - Bell’s Brewery Director of Operations John Mallet on the scent of their popular Hopslam.

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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by HoweFox » Mon Nov 16, 2015 11:03 am

If you have a dishwasher I find that is the best place to fill bottles. Sanitize with Starsan then let them drip upside down until ready for filling in dishwasher racks. Then fill bottles on door of dishwasher kind of like this: http://www.ancientartpodcast.org/brew/w ... G_3487.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Spills collect on the door and then you just close it when done with no mess.
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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by bluenose » Mon Nov 16, 2015 11:30 am

I'd like to build something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORAu5o7QnFs
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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by mikeorr » Mon Nov 16, 2015 11:49 am

bluenose wrote:I'd like to build something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORAu5o7QnFs
Wow, that's pretty nice... If I bottled more, I'd want it.

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Re: Spill proofing your work area

Post by Swine » Mon Nov 16, 2015 12:12 pm

MitchK wrote:well, I think some type of tarp/mat combo along with some rubbermaid style bins to set bottles in while filling are probably enough to satisfy my carpet/red wine interaction paranoia.

I just wish I could find a better piece of gear than those shitty bottling wands that stick open and fire your booze everywhere...

Everwood has a great bottling wand that is spring loaded, I picked up both sizes, use them for bottling wine, hardly ever a drip!

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