Mark's Place

Got Questions?  E-mail me here

The Creation and Evolution of a Home Brewery

Last Updated on 8/21/04

    Homebrewing is a hobby that bit me a few years ago.  I had tried a few kits prior to that while in college some ten years ago, but with less-than-desirable results.  Like many others just starting out I had gone to a home brew supply shop on a whim, saw an interesting kit, and bought it.  The kit that I bought, by the way, called for using corn sugar as a primary ingredient.  Not knowing any better, I did as the directions told me.  Between not having a good handle on sanitation and by following the directions on the kit, I created some pretty raunchy stuff.  It would give you a buzz, then diarrhea, then a hangover.  It didn't taste anything like beer or any other palatable drink for that matter.  As a result, I became discouraged and lost interest in the hobby for several years.  Then, quite by accident, my brother had gone to a restaurant with a microbrewery in a neighboring town and saw an advertisement for a home brew club.  Tony and I went to a few meetings, then joined the club in April of 2002.  If it weren't for this decision I definitely would not be brewing today.  The friendships and knowledge gained from organizations like this are really great.  I would recommend anyone interested in brewing locate and go to a brew club meeting in your area.  My brewing abilities have really improved over the last few years, though I still have a lot more to learn.  I chose to make the jump to all-grain brewing earlier this year.  To date I have only used the brewery a few times, but I have several recipes lined up of when I have time.  My move to all-grain is primarily to satisfy the engineer in me by allowing me to create countless gadgets.  However, making beer is great, too.  My brewery made its first all-grain batch during Big Brew this year.  The brewery did very well, without incident, although I screwed-up twice.  

    The concept for my brewery came from ideas and suggestions  from brew club members, magazines, books, and personal websites.  I will detail the workings of my brewery, list links to sites and books that helped me determine my design, and mention any areas that I currently plan on enhancing.  Based upon everything I have learned so far, the typical home brewery is an evolutionary beast.  I know as my abilities improve, I will change my brewery to accommodate that knowledge.  That seems to be a big part of the fun for "gadget" people.  

 The Overall Design

    First things first.  When it comes to brewing equipment design, like most other things in life, there is more than one way to "skin a cat" effectively.  Like custom car or motorcycle builders, many home breweries seem to take on some of the identity of the brewer that built them.  Furthermore, equipment alone is only one part to brewing a good beer.  I have sampled outstanding extract brews and great all-grain brews made with little more than a pot on the stove.  I am still learning to make a good brew consistently and the brewery I have made is simply my interpretation of what I think will work for me from an equipment standpoint.  I have some links at the bottom of this page that show other peoples interpretation.  There are countless other examples throughout the web.

     I chose to build a 2-tier (actually a 2 1/2 tier for no real reason), 3 kettle brewery that uses modified Sanke kegs as kettles.  The frame is constructed of welded steel tubing and angle.  Within the frame, each keg seat has a heat source under it comprised of a propane burner and ring taken directly from turkey cookers.  A console is located in the center of the frame and gives me a central location for motor control, digital thermometers, and propane valves/igniters.  Rather than hard-plumbing my lines for the different phases in a typical brew session, I opted for using a few braided plastic lines that I can connect and disconnect to each kettle via quick-disconnects.  I built a counterflow chiller for cooling the wort and built a peristaltic pump from scratch to move the liquid around.  The pump was a big undertaking that seems to work very well (I used it prior to my first all-grain batch for pumping wort through my chiller).  In addition, I recently finished a motorized mash stirrer utilizing an old ice cream churn motor for keeping the mash mixed.  I have also made a HERMS coil to use for step-mashes and long single-infusion mashes where temperature drop becomes an issue.  I have dedicated pages for the chiller, pump, and mash stirrer so follow their links above if you want photos and information on their use and construction.

    At the rear of the frame I have mounted a particulate/taste filter for incoming water.  Also, a 4-oulet receptacle box is fitted at the rear with a drop cord supplying it.  This provides electricity for my pump, my mash stirrer, and whatever other devices I may need.  I am using brass garden-hose quick disconnects for connection between transfer lines and the kettles.  The male disconnect has been modified by adding an o-ring groove and o-rings for better sealing at high temperatures.  The QD's work pretty good, though I may chose to go with the Polysulfone type or switch to hard piping at some point.  I would not recommend the garden QD's for hot liquids in their stock configuration...they WILL leak, especially on the suction side!

HLT 

    The HLT holds the heated water for mashing and sparging.  It also contains my HERMS coil, which is a 50' coil of 3/8 copper.  The HLT is equipped with fittings for the HERMS coil inlet and outlet, main water inlet and outlet, sight glass, and digital thermometer probe.  All inlets and outlets have 1/2" ball valves and quick-disconnects.  In addition, the HERMS outlet is also fitted with a stainless tee that houses a mechanical thermometer.  This gives me two temperature check points, one at the HERMS outlet and one for the main reservoir itself.  The port for the digital probe is a 1/4" compression fitting with a piece of 1/4" OD plastic tubing inserted into it.  The ID of the plastic tubing is a slip-fit with my temperature probe.  So, after the probe is inserted and the fitting tightened, I have a water tight seal that can be easily taken apart for cleaning.  The internal connection for the HERMS coil is made with compression fittings.  I placed my mash tun on the top tier, with the boil pot and HLT on the lower level.  Some choose to reverse this setup and place the HLT on the top tier.  To date I have had trouble using my HERMS alone for doing step mashes and have had to rely on direct heat for help. I have not learned to balance my pump flow with the thermal transfer of my HERMS.  What I mean is that I either pump too fast and collapse the false bottom in the mash tun or I pump too slowly and it takes too long to achieve my step.  I plan on refining this technique with each new batch, along with adding a water agitator to my HLT to increase thermal transfer efficiency to my HERMS coil.  When I figure it out I will update my site with any tricks I learn.

Mash/Lauter Tun

    The mash tun has fittings for a sight glass, a digital thermometer probe, and the main outlet.  The outlet originates in the center of the tun, beneath a stainless steel false bottom.  On the outside of the tun, the outlet is fitted with a 1/2" ball valve and a QD.  The mash stirrer I built mounts to the top of the kettle through the use of stainless tabs I welded on the keg.  Follow the mash stirrer link for photos and information on its use.

Boil Pot

    The boil pot has fittings for an inlet and an outlet.  On the outside of the boil pot, these fittings are fitted with ball valves and QD's.  In addition, the outlet has a vertically positioned ball valve with a barb fitting on the end that is used for aeration.  Since the aeration valve is on the suction side of my pump, I get good aeration of the cooled wort with the valve open.  I do have an external oxygen tank with aeration stone, also, that can be used for aeration in the fermenters.  The inline aerator works well so far and the O2 tank is there for added measure with high-gravity brews.  Inside the boil pot, the inlet has a short piece of copper fitted to it.  The outlet has a stainless steel false bottom attached to the end of it and looks identical to the mash tun on the inside.  Basically, it all works as follows.  During the last 10 minutes of the boil I circulate boiling wort through my chiller (cooling water off) and back to the kettle.  This sanitizes the chiller loop.  When the boil is complete I turn the burner off and the cooling water on.  I continue to circulate wort to the chiller and back,  dropping the temperature of the entire batch in the kettle.  After cooling is complete I crack open the aerator valve and continue to pump for about 5 minutes.  Next, I close the aerator valve and turn my pump off.  I then allow the wort to settle inside the kettle for about 5 minutes.  Finally, I turn the pump on, crack open the aerator valve again, and slowly pump to my fermenters.  As you can see from the trub photos below this method removes a great deal of hops and trub.  I do still get some proteins settling out of suspension within the fermenters but overall my wort is much cleaner.  I typically have a maximum of only about 3/8" to 1/2" of sediment in my fermenters during primary fermentation, and part of that is yeast.

Links (with my opinions):