Hi guys, I'm Sean. I live in Kitsap Washington and have been brewing for a few years now. Some Warcraft buddies convinced me to try it and I've been hooked ever since. Started like most I expect with a few kit beers and then progressed to all grain on a 5 gal system in my little condo in Seattle. A weird series of events led me to buy a 1 barrel system. I liked it so much I thought I might do it for a living but I knew stove top brewing and commercial are totally different animals so I wanted to get as close to commercial as I could with a garage system.
It took about 6 months to get everything delivered. Here's a pic of things right after they arrived:
It took another 6 to get everything set up and my first brew was a 14 hour nightmare. I swore if it was going to be like this I was giving it up and putting the whole thing on eBay
5 or 6 boil overs, a complete tear down of the system so I could clean that big black catch tray and another 3 hours cleaning wort off the garage floor. Not a good time..
I immediately decided the black tray had to go so I had a buddy weld me up a new stand and here's now things look today:
There's an extra long pallet jack under that so I can pull the whole thing out into the driveway and hose it off but with those removable trays I only need to do that every 3rd or 4th batch.
In support of the brew system (which I got from Stout Tanks in Portland and Brewmation in NY did the automation), is a temperature controlled fermenter room:
Beer storage and 4 taps:
Now you're probably wondering what I do with all this beer, it is a hobby after all and I can't sell anything I make. I give most of it away in these with comment cards and I make alterations to my recipes based on feedback.
There's lots of other details I won't bore you with like cooling issues and learning about pump transfers and the two batches I had to pour down the drain. You brew and you learn. It has been quite an adventure so far. I brew once or twice a month as time allows and then share the love. Cheers.
It took about 6 months to get everything delivered. Here's a pic of things right after they arrived:
It took another 6 to get everything set up and my first brew was a 14 hour nightmare. I swore if it was going to be like this I was giving it up and putting the whole thing on eBay
5 or 6 boil overs, a complete tear down of the system so I could clean that big black catch tray and another 3 hours cleaning wort off the garage floor. Not a good time..
I immediately decided the black tray had to go so I had a buddy weld me up a new stand and here's now things look today:
There's an extra long pallet jack under that so I can pull the whole thing out into the driveway and hose it off but with those removable trays I only need to do that every 3rd or 4th batch.
In support of the brew system (which I got from Stout Tanks in Portland and Brewmation in NY did the automation), is a temperature controlled fermenter room:
Beer storage and 4 taps:
Now you're probably wondering what I do with all this beer, it is a hobby after all and I can't sell anything I make. I give most of it away in these with comment cards and I make alterations to my recipes based on feedback.
There's lots of other details I won't bore you with like cooling issues and learning about pump transfers and the two batches I had to pour down the drain. You brew and you learn. It has been quite an adventure so far. I brew once or twice a month as time allows and then share the love. Cheers.
