Home Brewery

So, I've moved, so I haven't been posting much. I still owe you guys some notes from drinking in the UK and how I went (fake) gay for CAMRA. It was Roger Protz's deep blue eyes, and his amazing British teeth.

 Actually, he has very lovely teeth and is a thoroughly lovely man.

But today, today is about home brewing. I took some photos of the new setup, which is like the old setup but with less space. Why less space, well, its the new layout. Now, its less space for brewing, but more space for fermenting. And Kegs. By which I mean, out with the old:

And in with the new!

15 cu. ft. of cool wonderment. Fermenting, lagering,

6 kegs on draft and at least a case in there as well.

So here's how it rolls, for all you people claiming you can't do all grain because you don't have the space. I have a 950 sq ft apartment 1 bedroom apartment. You probably have a kitchen bigger than my bedroom. Hell, you might have one bigger than my living room. Suck it up.

Cooler on counter, cooler on chair, kettle on floor. Fill up seven gallons. Lift to stove and boil. It won't boil well, you'll get a shitty hot break, but you'll make beer. If you have decent stove, you'll be OK. I have an old apartment stove, I'm still ok. Boil it down to 6 gallons, rack 5.5 to the carboy/bucket, toss it in a corner or closet, maybe in a bin of water with ice packs and let it rip. To make the tun, I used a 12.5 gallon (50-75 can) Igloo cooler. Its not the best, but it works. Leeches some heat (2F) in a one hour mash, but what doesn't. I drilled through the lid and have a sparge arm built in. Ball valves are put on with stuff I got at the hardware store, using O-rings, washers, pvc and brass. More on making mash tuns in a few weeks I hope. HLT is the same. I use 2 Ikea brand pitchers to recirc through a funnel. That's it. I mean, with a pump I wouldn't have to lift the kettle, which is nice and could recirc better. I could also get a burner out back, but this is the system. Anything more means I'm moving to a RIMS setup somehow. Not the best idea right now. Oh, and stir the crap out of it when cooled, look at this cone of trub!