I started brewing in the mid 70's when life in the home brewery was much simpler - 3 pounds of malt extract, 3 pounds of corn sugar, 5 gallons of water, and a pack of dry lager yeast. I still have my copy of Leigh P. Beadle's Brew It Yourself which was written in 1971 and reprinted in 1973.
I stopped brewing in the early 80's when my job with a large aerospace company began to require a lot of travel and my schedule became unpredictable.
When I retired in 2000 getting back into brewing was one of my priorities but I didn't get started until late 2003, soon after my son-in-law brought me a sample of his homebrew. One taste and I was hooked!
About all that was usable from my old equipment was a couple of five gallon carboys, a hydrometer, and 10 cases of bottles. Fortunately, we have an excellent local homebrew shop (Austin Homebrew Supply) so I had plenty of help getting started again. I picked up some new equipment and a copy of John Palmer's How to Brew and got started.
I did a few extract batches and then a couple of specialty grain brews. Everything tasted great! It wasn't long before I was seriously looking at all grain equipment. Well, as any good homebrewer knows, one thing leads to another. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story. Use the links at the top of the page to take a tour of my brewery.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: My hat's off to all those who posted their brewery ideas and gadgets on the internet, it really helps to see how others solved a particular problem. My special thanks to Dennis Collins for his great pancake filter design and Doug Brown for his counter flow chiller.