1 BBL MashTun

Got a BrewBuilt 31 gallon stainless steel kettle for use as my MashTun. With the upgrade to the 1 BBL BK, I wasn't going to be able to mash enough grains to fill it and MoreBeer had a sale of 10% off earlier this month, so I jumped in and got the 1 BBL kettle with TC and false bottom. It is almost identical to the SS Brewtech I got, except it is a LOT shinier and has much better/larger volume etchings (and no valves or whirlpool fittings). This came with two TC fittings (similar to SS) and was identical in dimensions.

Keg Washer and CIP stand

Working on building a cheap self contained CIP pump / heater / storage cart (as well as functioning keg washer). It should be under $350 all total, as opposed to $6,000 like the one at the left, since it it mostly made out of PVC and plastic buckets. The most expensive part on here is the 1.6 hp lawn pump and the 240v RIMs heater and SS triclamp parts.  Much thanks to the posts and DIY projects at HomebrewTalk Forums.

Brewing - Pilsner

Brewed a 10 gallon Pilsner today to test out the whole new eBrew Panel. It went great. I did this as a pure electric brew, even though I could connect up to the gas and run that too. I had to pack 20 gallons of water in 5 gallon buckets from my soft water tap and then added some CaCL2 (0.7g / gallon) to the initial mash to help lower pH.

Making eBrew Kettle Jackets

As the weather turns colder and as I've begun to convert my system over to electric (still has natural gas option), I've begun lusting over a better insulation for my MT, HLT and BK. They are notoriously lossy during the cold winter brewing months and I've had time to think it might be easy enough for me to work some magic with a sewing machine on some 3mm thick neoprene and some nylon zippers...

New eBrew 50A Control Panel

Right. I had basically convinced myself that I really didn't need an elaborate $2500 50 amp control panel. After all, I had my two Ranco temp controllers controlling automatic HLT coil by-pass and gas solenoid for HLT temp burner and that all worked smashing. All I wanted out of electric backup was a little faster HLT temp ramp (for large step mashes) and being able to sustain a boil in the cold winter months on a full 14 gallons. That really only needed a simple 30A switch box and I could move the cord from the HLT to the BK easily once that transition was ready...

Brewing - Sockeye Dagger Falls clone

Today was the day I would test out some of the new additions and changes I had made to my brewery! Namely, the bottom drain mash tun and the replumbed natural gas access from the garage instead of off the back patio deck (to help make it easier to wheel 15 gallons of fresh wort in my large half bbl stainless steel conical fermenter from SS Brewtech).

Brewing - Dark IPA

It was LONG over due time for me to replenish my long gone favorite house beer, my beloved Dark IPA. I was quite frustrated with myself for letting it go so long, especially since I had been working from home all summer due to some crazy disease or something. It was not rational or reasonable that I had let things get so far out of control. And, so, with a couple weeks off to bleed down my extensive time off before retiring, I resolved to have a brew day!

Blog return from the dead!

Well, after *many* years of not updating my Blog or brewing page, I've decided it is time for some updates! Oh, I've still been brewing; just more like a well oiled recipe book with little changes. I'm now retired from my day job as a DRAM/NAND Flash Electrical Engineer working for Micron Technology of almost 26 years...and one of the things I wanted to toy with was growing my brewery scale (or at least seeing how to make it better). I'm still not sure to what end...

How I Brew

Finally got a section detailing How I Brew put up. It has details about all my proceedures for brewing and even has a sample data sheet for recording all my critical numbers. Hope this helps a lot of you out. I've had a LOT of questions and requests for something like this.