So it’s been more than four years since I’ve brewed, and I’m faced with these facts:
1. I’m the only person in the house who drinks beer.
2. Drinking more than one beer per day in my old age has unpleasant consequences.
3. We’re temporarily moving out to enable a big remodel of the house.
The logical outcome is that I have a lot of brewing equipment that’s now looking for a new home. This includes a fair amount of “bling” which in hindsight may not have been smart purchases but which did at least provide a temporary amount of joy.
Brew system
The brew system is, of course, the bulk of everything. This is an electric 9.5 gallon three vessel setup with the usual mash tun, hot liquor tank and brew kettle. The tanks are from Stout Tanks and Kettles and I am the original owner. Some of the ball valves and other hardware came from Stout as well, and I’ve got a bunch of random bits from Brewer’s Hardware too. The control panel was built by me following plans from “The Electric Brewery” fairly closely. The results aren’t remotely as pretty as what you see on the Electric Brewery website, but I don’t recall ever having problems with the electronics.
I’ve been using 4500W elements inside a Brewer’s Hardware Tri Clamp compatible NPS element adapter. I think the control panel should in principle be able to drive 5500W elements, but I’ve never tried it and so I don’t know if it would work. 4500W is definitely enough power for 9.5 gallon tanks anyway. The panel requires 50A 240V service.
There are two Chugger pumps which are probably in need of maintenance. There’s also a counterflow chiller from MoreBeer. Finally, there’s a stainless steel table that will hold all three vessels.
The system on the whole is a bit finicky and definitely not for someone who expects something “turnkey”. Examples of this are:
Kegging stuff
This includes a 5 lb CO2 tank which is probably past its “test date” (but that hasn’t been a problem on previous exchanges), a pressure regular that may not be in great shape, a 5 gallon keg and a 3 gallon keg, both “corny” style and purchased new, an assortment of hoses and adapters and a distributor. Also, a keg washer.
Bottling stuff
This is a bottle tree, a bench capper (I want to say “Agata”?) and probably a few hundred bottle caps, mostly still in sealed packages. Also, a Blichmann "beer gun".
Miscellaneous stuff
Barley crusher
Refractometer
4 “Pet food”-style containers for storing grain
Non-airtight large cylindrical container that I used for storing sealed bags of specialty grain
High-powered fan for ventilation
3 6 gallon carboys
1 6.5 gallon carboy
2 1 gallon carboys.
1. I’m the only person in the house who drinks beer.
2. Drinking more than one beer per day in my old age has unpleasant consequences.
3. We’re temporarily moving out to enable a big remodel of the house.
The logical outcome is that I have a lot of brewing equipment that’s now looking for a new home. This includes a fair amount of “bling” which in hindsight may not have been smart purchases but which did at least provide a temporary amount of joy.
Brew system
The brew system is, of course, the bulk of everything. This is an electric 9.5 gallon three vessel setup with the usual mash tun, hot liquor tank and brew kettle. The tanks are from Stout Tanks and Kettles and I am the original owner. Some of the ball valves and other hardware came from Stout as well, and I’ve got a bunch of random bits from Brewer’s Hardware too. The control panel was built by me following plans from “The Electric Brewery” fairly closely. The results aren’t remotely as pretty as what you see on the Electric Brewery website, but I don’t recall ever having problems with the electronics.
I’ve been using 4500W elements inside a Brewer’s Hardware Tri Clamp compatible NPS element adapter. I think the control panel should in principle be able to drive 5500W elements, but I’ve never tried it and so I don’t know if it would work. 4500W is definitely enough power for 9.5 gallon tanks anyway. The panel requires 50A 240V service.
There are two Chugger pumps which are probably in need of maintenance. There’s also a counterflow chiller from MoreBeer. Finally, there’s a stainless steel table that will hold all three vessels.
The system on the whole is a bit finicky and definitely not for someone who expects something “turnkey”. Examples of this are:
- The pumps seemed to stall occasionally. I recall having to take the pump heads apart sometimes in the middle of brewing to get them going again.
- One of the heating element adapters probably needs to be taken apart and put back together again. I suspect it has a small leak which causes a short, because that has happened once before. (But hey, the control panel shut down properly so it was good to get confirmation that that works… .)
- The screen in the mash tun isn’t great, especially when the grain load is really high.
- My efficiency was always pretty crappy, though whether this was due to a flaw in the system or just skill issues on my part is not something I ever figured out.
Kegging stuff
This includes a 5 lb CO2 tank which is probably past its “test date” (but that hasn’t been a problem on previous exchanges), a pressure regular that may not be in great shape, a 5 gallon keg and a 3 gallon keg, both “corny” style and purchased new, an assortment of hoses and adapters and a distributor. Also, a keg washer.
Bottling stuff
This is a bottle tree, a bench capper (I want to say “Agata”?) and probably a few hundred bottle caps, mostly still in sealed packages. Also, a Blichmann "beer gun".
Miscellaneous stuff
Barley crusher
Refractometer
4 “Pet food”-style containers for storing grain
Non-airtight large cylindrical container that I used for storing sealed bags of specialty grain
High-powered fan for ventilation
3 6 gallon carboys
1 6.5 gallon carboy
2 1 gallon carboys.
