Your Ideal Homebrew Setup

What is your idea of the perfect homebrew setup? That is, anything from boiling to chilling to fermentation and storage; everything. I find that homebrewers tend to feel like they're working towards some ultimate setup. My holy grail setup is as follows:



A simple 5 gallon, 3 tier system with turkey fryers, a cooler mashtun capable of batch sparging, but here's the kicker: it must have the capability to brew two batches simultaneously.

I want a temp controlled chest freezer for fermentation (that can hold two carboys), and another for kegs.

That's it. My aspirations are fairly simple compared to some.

I have a two tier RIMS with a water heater element to control the mash temps. But what I want is a Brewmagic.

I'd say a Brutus 10 or Sabco Brew-magic type setup, I'd like it to be DIY, but if funds were limitless I'd spring for something nice.

I'd like to have a keezer that would hold at least three cornys, but ideally 5-7 corny kegs is what I would want. A fermentation chamber that could hold 4 buckets, or 4 - 6 gallon BB's. Also, a small upright fridge/freezer for yeast ranch and hop storage.

5-10 more years and I'll have my ideal setup! Seems like a long time, but I only started brewing this past February, so I need to perfect my process and understanding of brewing, having said that, each brew has become exponentially better than the last.

My goal is to get 10 gallons of beer down into the 'teens of dollars if possible.

I would say john beeres setup is friggin' awesome, I know he is working on a v3 and I am sure it will be great but even his v2 was amazing RIP



As far as you mentioning doing 2 brews at the same time. I have been doing that for a few brews now.

For my main setup I have a 10G round coolder, keggle, and a turkey fryer for the HLT.

The second setup is just a 5G round cooler and I still use the turkey fryer for the HLT but then turn around and use it for a boil too since my second batches are for testing recipes and usually 2.5 - 3 gallons.

I do 2 all grain brews simultaneous in about 6 hours.

Fully automated Clean in Place - I mean push one damn button and walk away from it. I hate & my back really hates lifting keggles and cleaning them. I know some people have a CIP system but it still is a lot of work.

Hey - willing to pay for this, anyone have a cool set up for this already?

Have the one button brew, but still working on CIP design.

For smaller batches, 10G and under, my setup is fine. My goal is to get a 1 bbl rig run by a brewtroller in the next few years. Noting super specific, just a big honkin digitally controlled CIP system.

I already have the Sabco RIMS. I'd like to be able to pony up for the SS elemnt chamber.

Aside from that;

-Dedicated brew shack.
-Jacketed conical fermenters
-Chilled glycol loop through Therminator.

I would love to have a system utilizing two natural gas fired jacketed 50 gallon steam kettles to brew like the big boys. I'm dreaming of course. maybe if I ever hit the lottery. Two of these Bad Boys would be mighty nice, one for a boil kettle and one for a Mash/Lauter Tun.

Schnitzengiggle said:

I'd say a Brutus 10 or Sabco Brew-magic type setup

Click to expand...

I believe Dogfish Head began on a Sabco Brew-Magic. Amazing.

I think the Brutus 10 is a pretty good start.

I've been kicking around the idea of wrapping a kettle with some tubing and a outer jacket. Then use one of brutus controllers to control the pump. Kind of a hybrid ferm. chamber/brew stand/all in one unit. I'm not sure how long the pump would have to run to keep 10 gallons in the low 60's. I figured I could drop frozen 2 liters into the water tank every few days. Not sure if it's worth the hassle but seems easier than building a chamber and using carboys.