My Brew Build - Elm Street Brewery - Part 1 - Introduction

DarkSide · 07-27-2009, 05:56 AM

Hi everyone,

Sometime around the mid-1990's I was flipping through the TV when I came across a program that would change my life. Watching TVO (TV Ontario) one night I became amazed at this guy who was telling me I could make my own beer at home. He said it was easy and he was going to show me how..."Relax...Don't Worry...Have a Homebrew" he said. Of course that was Charlie Papazian, and the show was HOME BREW, a 3 part series that aired on TVO years ago.

It inspired me to get into homebrewing. In my apartment I slaved over the stove. I played around with the basics. Malt extract kits, some specialty grains, but always wanting to go All-Grain. An apartment was not the place to dream of that, so when we moved to our first real home almost 10 years ago, one of the first things I thought of was a garage brewery. Yea...10 years ago.

Well, I never thought owning a home was going to be so much work. You become a real jack of all trades. I built a deck the first summer, another summer was spent putting down flooring, the basement finally got done last year, and this year it is the backyard gardens and firepit....plus there is always painting to be done.

So this year I finally said this was it...Brewery or Bust! I have been planning this since I joined HomeBrewTalk back in February. Well I am here to say I finally put all the pieces together this past week and brewed my first All-Grain batch today!! I wanted to do some posts as I built but decided to wait till I was all done to give everyone the whole picture at one time. So I will present all my info in a multi post series if you will. I'll show pics and talk about how and why I did what I did. None of this would not be possible without everyone's help here on the forums. I may not have made many replies to all your posts, but trust me, you all helped. I'll post links to any inspiring posts, ideas or sites. I hope you enjoy. I'll try to post one part each day this week till I'm done.

Thanks everyone!!

P.S. Here's a pic of some raw materials.

Scut_Monkey · 07-27-2009, 06:27 AM

Congrats on the decision. Looks like you have a good start to obtaining supplies. I'll be interested to see your progress.

donshizzles · 07-27-2009, 11:00 PM

Congrats on finally getting going. I made the same decision a few weeks ago (after about 2 years of toiling away at home improvement stuff) and I am not looking back.

DarkSide · 07-28-2009, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by donshizzles

Congrats on finally getting going. I made the same decision a few weeks ago (after about 2 years of toiling away at home improvement stuff) and I am not looking back.

I'm glad your starting! It's an adventure. This forum has tonnes of information and helping hands. It certainly helped me along the way, especially everyone who posted their DIY projects and pics. I am hoping sharing my project will help others as well.

Waiting to see your progress!!

BakaBrew · 07-28-2009, 08:32 PM

I hear you about an apartment not being the place to dream of going AG, especially if you are married. I have 2 more years until I am done with Uni to even have the possibility of living in a rented home let alone my own home. I love watching all these projects and can't wait to someday add my own to all these and show how much of an inspiration everyone have been.

Quote:

one of the first things I thought of was a garage brewery. Yea...10 years ago.

You must have had a very busy/interesting 10 years there, I would go bonkers having a garage and not an AG brew space in it.

**IrregularPulse** · 07-28-2009, 08:44 PM

Where are teh rest of teh pictures? You said it's already done right??

DarkSide · 07-29-2009, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BakaBrew

I hear you about an apartment not being the place to dream of going AG, especially if you are married. I have 2 more years until I am done with Uni to even have the possibility of living in a rented home let alone my own home. I love watching all these projects and can't wait to someday add my own to all these and show how much of an inspiration everyone have been. You must have had a very busy/interesting 10 years there, I would go bonkers having a garage and not an AG brew space in it.

My wife is not a fan of the whole "SMELL" of brewing. In the apartment the smell seemed to last a day or two. Of course there where 2 kids in those 10 years and like I said, many other projects before I even thought about an AG setup. In a sense, I am glad I waited because I was able to find this website and like you said, all the projects people post. Keep the dream alive, someday you'll have your own brewery.