Hoppy Brewing

Well, I’ve gone from humble beginnings to a pretty sweet setup over the last year. I wanted to show off a bit of what I have now. So without further ado, we’ll start with the kegerator:

Here’s a front view of the taps. They are all Perlick forward-sealing faucets, I figured I only wanted to buy them once, so I’d might as well get the good ones.

A bit of a close-up on the logo I cut out of the back plate on the fill station. It turned out pretty sweet.

This is a look into the Kegerator. It comfortably holds 5 or 6 Cornys, and if need be I could probably squeeze 10 in. I built a 3-way split manifold for serving pressure that splits off of a dual regulator so that two more lines can be set to carbonating pressure at the same time. And of course it can hold some bottles on the right side for a quick pick-me-up (don’t forget to notice the bar style bottle opener in the bottom right corner…)

Now on to my current project: The BrewStand. I welded this from scratch, all for under $200. It has been very rewarding to see it take shape! Here it is:

The stand has two burners connected by a gas manifold for one propane tank operation, has one pump, a plate chiller, a push-button starter so that I don’t have to use a lighter to start it. I welded casters on the bottom so it is easy to move around. I have not gotten to brew on this system yet, but I am very excited to see what it can do!

This is a better view of the burners. They kick out 70,000 BTU’s, which is pretty low for what most people use, but I find that on my system, it is more than reasonable to get things up to temperature. The last thing that I will probably add onto the system is a water system that will allow me to quickly fill the hot liquor tank and mash tun, but I am waiting to use it a couple of times so I can work out the glitches. I get my propane regulator tomorrow which means I will probably brew for the first time on this beast on Thursday. Anyone want to join?