ghetto brew setups?...

You gotta be ****ing me... that there is a great bar next to your pool. Man, that gets my gears spinnning...

 

Yeah,that looks really inviting on a warm summer's eve.

 

Well,it's a new year with new brewers joining the ranks. Let's see those new ghetto rigs. It's about time for some spring cleaning in my brewery/man cave. Gotta stop saving boxes,shipping materials & bottles! Gunna delabel a bunch of plain craft bottles to replace the Sam Adams ones...

 

I would have to say my setup up from time to time is ghetto. I use a truck, boxes, chairs, ect hahahah. I guess you can say I use my resources, but it works and does not matter what you use as long as it come out drinkable.

 

what is it. You got 100 dollars in tubing and fittings in that thing. 200 if its all swagelock. Chiller?

 

I wouldn't consider my setup ghetto, but it's still neat to see what others are doing.

 

I think that the term "ghetto rigs" .. can also refer to "redneck .. or hillbilly rigs .. too". Part of the appeal of homebrewing is adapting "what you have .. to get the job done". I present the Aldi Clam Chowder soup can ball valve heat shield. I am showing my heat shield attached to my mash tun .. but actually use it for protection of the plastic parts of my ball valve during the long boil time on my brew kettle. I think the can cost $1.29 .. and is not too bad .. if you add about 1/4 cup of half and half .. a pat of butter .. maybe some chopped celery .. chives and some bacon bits. Serve with soup crackers and lots fresh ground black pepper .. and maybe a side green salad.

 

My lil apt set up. Making my house pale ale (based on yoopers house ale, thanks Yoop). My fly sparge works wonders.

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my ghetto electric build


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Ghetto is a pid, pump, stainless valves, plate chiller?

Nice 2 vessel rig, but the only ghetto is the Dr Pepper, and maybe the inexpensive cordless drill.
Cheers!


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I gotta agree. You need crap, stacked on $hit, with a lot of dangerous, sharp, or potentially injurious paraphernalia. What you got is safe, efficient and comfortable to work with. Put some more effort into it if you want true ghetto.

 

Should've snapped a pic of my bottling day. Transferring from fermenter to the kettle (Yea I used my brew kettle for this) involved paper-clipping a 1/8" tube to the kettle, running it down and lodging it in the closed spigot, putting on the lid to hold it in place, running this tube into the siphon in the fermenter, which I then jerry-rigged a paper-clip rig to hold up off the lees. I'd like to say it was my inner engineer coming out. It wsn't

Beer is chugging along though, so it's all good

 

I figured I would tag my pictures on here since it doesn't really warrant it's own post. All of the materials I either had or got for free with the exception of the aquarium pump. Some of which I had been holding on to "just in case" even before I started to homebrew.

Ghettotastic homebrew temperature controller. Spare bits of wire, a cut off computer power supply cord, an old scavenged digital temp controller, a ****-off sized K-type thermocouple, a duplex outlet/box, rubbermaid tote, piece of PT 2x4 I was to lazy to cut in half, a $5 aquarium pump, and an aquarium heater. Oh, and "some" electrical tape to hold it all together. All set up in my unused 2nd bathroom.

Half of the outlet is powered directly from the wall for the pump, and the other half goes through the TC for the heater. The thermocouple is about 16" long and the tip is about 2" from the bottom of the bucket. It's not a fire hazard, I promise, it's all grounded.

 

not too ghetto but hey, why not. Works every time.


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New to the group and been brewing since the fall. Graduated from a ghetto rig to purchasing a used ruby street rig this weekend. Can't wait to try it soon. Converted it to NG last night.

 

What I graduated from

 

NG conversion done without tinkering with the mixture on a very windy night.

 

Here is the Home Depot Mash Tun that I made for $22. Price of the parts came to $47 but they said if I opened a Home Depot card with them I would get $25 off right then and there...so...why not?

The Turkey Fryer was given to me by a co-worker who just wanted it out of her house. Looked like the pot had been used maybe once.

I also made my own fermenting/bottling buckets with Home Depot buckets for around $9 each with spigot and grommet for airlock.

 

Well, I think this might qualify. Old sleeping bag bungee corded around the pot to maintain temp (which works quite well). Chiller - I had to run the hose from my basement since it won't fit the kitchen sink faucet, and the outdoor faucet is turned off until spring.

[ame]http://youtu.be/GQ8o0Zwymz4[/ame]

Hope the URL works

 

The ghetto-est of rigs, its my HLT and BK! Hasnt let me down yet though.

 

my set up

 

Keeping it a cool 59 degrees. Yes, that's a plant potter that I realized was the perfect height with a perfect hole to keep the thermometer in the water without it falling in

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Hey,whatever works is all good. That's why I started this thread,to pass along improvised ideas.

 

10G setup

 

I'm really digging these setups. They're giving me some ideas to get my AG setup put together without having to sell a kidney. That's what I love about HBT. I can always count on it as a source of inspiration.

 

Again,my reason for starting this thread. I was interested in how others figured out there own unique work arounds to expensive rigs & equipment. Like roady said,everything works if ya let it...

 

Here's my ghetto set up.





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That's all you need right there! I'm curious, why the boxes under your mash tun? It looks to me like it would be high enough to drain into the kettle just sitting on the table, as long as the outlet tubing is below the rim of the kettle it will work fine even if the bottom of the cooler is an inch or so below the top of the kettle...less is more sometimes...
Cheers!

 

Keen eye. Unfortunately, it must the angle of the camera. The mash/lauter tun valve would have been below the lip of the brew kettle had I not adjusted for height but I admit I probably could have only used two vs four boxes. I tilt the tun when it starts running slow to eliminate some of the dead space between the bottom of the cooler and the valve body so I remove the shorter box closest to the kettle. I could have used a piece of 2 x 4 for that.

I do have a shorter burner I could have used to eliminate the need for more height but then my fermenter would not fit under the kettle valve post boil. I don't like to lift 5 gal of wort so a quick solution to a problem = old extract kit boxes. I knew they'd come in handy for something!

 

That's a great idea! I've been thinking on how to add covers over my pumps for cheap. Next time I make chili I'll save the large cans from diced tomatoes and after a little work with the Dremmel I'll have some covers! A can that can be opened on both ends with a can opener would be better though, would make it a lot easier to cut the bottom out. Thanks for the idea

 

BTW, I have a ghetto stand. It's made out of recycled pallet lumber. Cost me <10 to make it, and that was for the fasteners. I hate the recycled casters though, they have a mind of their own. They are perfectly happy to go in any direction, as long as it's not the one I'm asking for.

 

The stuff isn't so much ghetto, as the stand is... bedframes FTW!... i still need to paint... one day... it's been rusting apart for months...

 

I do split batches with two 4 gallon pots. So I avoid a burner, kettle, and I can still do full volume boils and brew in my kitchen. I also made a dual worth chiller with 20' of 3/8" tubing and split the watet source with a T .

 

all of these 'ghetto' setups are still way nicer than mine

 

Just some brewery updates. I got a 2' x 4' folding table at Walmart for $29.78,10 bucks cheaper than Home Depot. I finally got my bottling table. It should save a lot of set up & tear down time.

 

Ok. I'm going to post something actually ghetto. Arm + fence = gravity!



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+ dedication

 

Hey,as long as it works go for it! Especially if it's cheap or free. Good ol' American ingenuity...:rockin:

 

Pictures!!! Or it didn't happen lol

 

Hey man I see all the leinenkugels bottles. Any chance you are near Rockford il?