I started brewing about twenty-eight years ago. Except for a break while I lived in Germany, I’ve been making beer that whole time. At first, I was driven by the economic advantage—homebrew was a cheaper way to get good, flavorful beer. Now, brewing is like cooking for me. It’s a form of creative self-expression that I can share with my friends.
I really believe in promoting the hobby of brewing. I’m a BJCP judge, I’ve taught homebrewing classes, and I’m an active member of the Liquid Poets, my local homebrew club.
What I Like to Brew
I have a regular rotation of recipes: rauchbier, Kölsch, saison, and Scottish ale. This year, though, I’m trying to focus on new recipes, such as Munich Dunkel and New–England Style IPA. I also enjoy making mead, especially spiced meads.
How Often I Brew
Since I’ve scaled up to 10-gallon batches, I don’t brew quite as often. Lately, it seems to be five or six batches a year, not counting when I help friends brew their first batch. I also make at least one batch of mead every year.
My Brewing System Evolution
Like most homebrewers, I started out making extract beer. I used an 8-gallon ceramic-on-steel pot, so I could do full boils on the stovetop. Simple kits with hopped extract were pretty popular back then, but I had some good mentors who guided me toward adding my own hops and specialty malts.
I’ve got a strong DIY streak, so I generally prefer to build equipment rather than buy it. Once I got my first house, I converted my basement laundry room into a brewery. I put in a countertop with a sink and repurposed an old electric stove. I made a cart with a tiled top, so I could slide the kettle off the stove and wheel it over to the sink. By that time, I had also made an immersion chiller.
After four or five years with extract brewing, I switched over to all-grain and I built a mash tun using a Gott cooler and a slotted copper manifold. Around the same time, I upgraded to a counterflow wort chiller (see below) which I still use today.
When I moved into my current house, the laundry room was too small to set up my old brewery, so I moved to outdoor brewing. Rather than just getting a regular gas burner, I decided to scale up. This time, instead of building, I bought a Brew Sculpture from MoreBeer that is still the core of my current system, which you can see pictured below.
My Brew System Today
My Brew Sculpture is a three-tier propane system that comfortably handles 10-gallon batches. It features 15-gallon kettles, each of which has its own manually switched propane burner. The bottom kettle is my hot liquor tank, the top one is my mash tun with a sparge loop and false bottom (pictured below), and the middle position is my boil kettle.
The system came with a single March pump (pictured below) that has several jobs. After it pumps water up into the mash tun, I move it to the mash tun outlet so I can recirculate the mash liquor through a heat exchanger in the hot liquor tank. Then it goes back down for the sparge. Finally, I use it to push wort through my wort chiller.
This system has served me well, but I’ve made some minor tweaks. I upgraded the pump with a better head and impeller because the original one was too prone to cavitation, I reinforced the feet on the false bottom using some heavier bolts, and I [etched volume markers](https://beerandbrewing.com/2bJdqeT68EI2sCi2GI0484/article/diy-kettle-etching} into the boil kettle.
For fermentation, I have a chest freezer outfitted with a two-stage Love temperature controller. This lets me brew lagers in the summer and Belgian ales in the winter.
Aside from my main brew system, I have a nice collection of useful tools: • Yeast stir plate • Drill-powered grain mill (pictured below) • Stainless-steel mash paddle • Hop spider • Keg and carboy washer
What I Will Add Next
My last brew day was cold and windy, which meant that I had trouble holding my mash temperature and getting a good rolling boil. I used a sheet of plywood as a windbreak for the burners, but I’ve been thinking of insulating my three pots using Reflectix insulation. Time for another DIY project!
My Dream System
My ideal system would be a lot like my current one; I like the HERMS recirculation and the 10-gallon batch size. The main difference is that I’d like to switch to electric heating and have it be fairly automated, with controllers to manage the pumps and plumbing flow. Going electric would let me move back to brewing indoors and be less dependent on the weather.
Of course, to get there, I’d need to run a 240-volt circuit to my brew room, install a floor drain, and install a hood to handle the humidity. Despite that, I have been thinking very seriously about either converting my existing gear to electric or building an electric system. Then I could add the automation in stages.
The only downside is that I probably wouldn’t take an electric system to Big Brew or other group brewing events, but I could always use a gas burner for those once-a-year times.
One Item I Can’t Live Without
It’s hard to imagine brewing without my own grain mill or losing my counterflow chiller, but I’d say my refractometer is the MVP in my tool set. I use it to track the progress of my sparge as well as my starting gravity.