Brewery Equipment

I'm already part way through building my brewery, so I'll give you a quick glance at what I'm building/buying and where I am so far.

Equipment for Self Build

• Mash Tun
• Boiler (for wort+hops boil and HLT)
• Wort Chiller
• Temperature Controlled Cupboard

Equipment Off The Shelf

• Fermentation bins/buckets
• Kegs
• Bottles
• Various syphon tubes, airlocks, taps, connectors, etc.

I have already completed the Mash Tun by converting a cool box that was living in my garage. I will provide some details, photos and tips on how I did this in the next post.

My next challenge is to build my own boiler. I've noted above that the boiler will not only be used to boil the mashed wort and hops, but it will also serve as my HLT (hot liqor tank) until I decide to purchase a dedicated unit.

I have decided to build a plastic boiler for the time being. Many people build strong shiny boilers out of stockpots or repurposed tea urns or boilers (e.g. Burco, Swan, etc). For this first version of my brewery I'm limiting the investment capital in case it all goes horribly wrong :/

I'm currently putting together a shopping list for the remaining parts, which I should be picking up this weekend from my (not so) local home brew shop. This weekend is the 2nd May bank holiday so this project should keep me busy for most of that. I'm looking forward to it.

Project brewery

Hello, this is my first post on this blog so I'd just like to write a little about what I'm going to do with it. If you happen to stumble upon my blog, I hope you will find it both interesting and useful.

This is my journey into the brewing of real ale (or craft beer as our American cousins seem to call it), and I will be doing this through home brewing.

I've been following a number of home brew communities for a little over a month now, and I'm fascinated with the stories of being able to brew and serve real ale at home, just like the stuff I quaff many pints of at my favourite pub. I'm a big fan of real ale in general, and although not a member of CAMRA I support my local breweries and pubs by simply buying and drinking the stuff. What better way ?!

To give me a good grounding in the science and techniques for this journey, I've bought a good book on the subject - CAMRA: Home Brewing, by Graham Wheeler, which is sadly out of print these days. I managed to obtain my copy from a dealer on Amazon who happened to have a 2nd hand copy. I'll talk a lot more about this book in a future post.

I've also found a wealth of resources online that have enabled me to understand what other home brewers, amateurs and even pro brewers get up to. I'll be mentioning some of the most useful resources I've found in later posts as I progress through my journey.

I've taken a very structured approach to this project, and I even have my own project plan, purchasing spreadsheets, and brewery schematic. Perhaps I've taken it a little far?

I have no idea what beers I'm going to brew yet, but first I simply need the means to brew them, so my first task is to build the brewery.

Thats all for now, my next post should include some detail of the brewery build, and where I got some of the ideas from.