For homebrewing one need quite a lot of room - just try it in kitchen and you'll see.
My goal was to brew mainly lagers, so the next problem is the low temperature for lagering. I brew two times on terace and it was not comfortable. The need to store the equipment each time (and i had no good place where to put it) + i made quite a mess on the wooden terace.
For that year, i planned to build 15m3 rainwater container (for toilet + garden).
Naturally this question just pop up: "If i am digging such a big hole in the ground, why just make the hole bigger and build there small cellar + room for brewing?".
This is temporary setup, lot of things have to be improved and done.
In this room is equipment for brewing, downstairs is small cellar. In that cellar there will be box made from polystyren, to keep several corny kegs at 2°C for lagering phase.
This box will be cooled by recirculation of cooling liquid by the fridge seen on picture, through PVC pipes.
The first idea was to make the cellar floor depth at 3m, but during excavation, undeground water appeared at 2,2 - so we end there. At the end i am glad, because the final floor area is bigger (less steps, more area). There is concrete ceiling and i put some soil at top of it, so the depth is increased. There is no insulation of walls. Floor will be finished later.
I will post temperatures charts during the whole year.
Really big advantage is the possibility of cooling with the rainwater - i just recirculate water through copper spiral and return it to the rainwater container - so there is zero water loss.
Also the usage for washing and cleaning is really great.
Price
The final price is around 1800 $. All work except excavator is made DIY.
Wood, OSB plates, asphalt cover and fasteners for 640 $.
Lost formwork 500x100x250 (212ks) and steel rods for 900 $.
Concrete from nearby concrete plant was for 170 $, excavator for 106 $.
