The brewery is in a 12' X 16' utility room on the lower floor of my home. When the house was built in 1987, this room was constructed with a future brewery in mind. Water and drain lines were stubbed out, HVAC was ducted, and the floor was tiled. The workbenches were originally built to support my rifle and pistol handloading equipment so they have sufficient strength to support the heavy loads encountered in homebrewing. I built a removable bench that attaches to the end of one of the workbenches so that the propane burner sets in an open outside doorway when in use.
| I use a Recirculating Infusion Mash System (RIMS) for my brewing. The mash tun is a PolarWare 40 quart brewpot with false bottom sitting in a homebuilt insulating jacket. The Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) is electric. A 2 X 4 rack holds the mash tun, HLT, and controller. |  |
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The RIMS heater is 1 1/2" SS pipe with a 230 volt, 4500 low watt density water heater element running on 115 volts. The PID controller is a Watlow Series 93 driving a 10 amp solid state relay. The pump is a Little Giant 3-MD series. The controller, pump, and SSR were all found on eBay at reasonable prices. |
| My brew kettle is also a PolarWare 40 quart fired by a high pressure propane burner. The output of the brew pot goes through a pancake filter to a homebuilt counter flow chiller. |  |
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Fermentation is done in a refrigerator given to me by one of my brewing buddies. I installed a Johnson Controls thermostat for temperature control. |
| Lagering and serving is done in a converted chest freezer. The collar for the taps and CO2 lines is made of 2 X 4's trimmed with 1 X 8 cedar. There is room for four serving kegs, two lagering kegs, bulk hops, and a few bottles. |  |