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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

(My) Low Tech Brewery

Converted 48qt cooler
(article to come maybe?)
Basically a Coleman camping cooler with a stainless steel toilet supply line, some 7/16" vinyl tube and a picnic valve.




Pots 34L, 18L, 10L
Really you just need the 34L pot.  I use the smaller two for heating strike and sparge water.  The 34L  pot for my full volume boil.

Cast iron propane burner
Came with the 34L pot as part of a Turkey Fryer kit.

Corona grain (corn) mill
The cheapest grain mill out there!  Tons on eBay.  Requires lots of fine tuning but once set, provides a decent crush.  No stuck sparges yet.    




Plastic 29L primary w/ air-lock
Any food grade plastic pail will do.  Larger is better, head-space needed to accommodate krausen during primary stage of fermentation.

Glass 23L secondary w/ air-lock
Nice to have but not required for basic ales.  You can get away with a longer primary and then straight to bottle.  I use a secondary when dry-hopping or conditioning beer.

Auto-siphon w/ bottle filler
After struggling with a siphon once, I quickly bought an auto-siphon.  I believe this is only piece of brewing equipment that I actually bought new!  The bottle filler required if you choose to bottle condition your beers.  I can't afford kegging.

Bottle Tree w/ Ferrari Vinator
Thanks Kevin!  A really usefully, albeit unnecessary, tool when bottling.  The Vinator makes bottle sanitizing a dream.

Hydrometer w/ turkey baster
Determines Original gravity, Final Gravity (ie alcohol content).  The baster is to draw samples from the fermentation vessel.  Cheaper than a wine thief. 



Thermometer
Needed to monitor strike water, mash temps, mash-out and sparge temps.

Immersion wort chiller
25ft of flexible 3/8" copper refrigeration tubing.  Bends made by coiling tube around a paint can.  Stainless clamps, vinyl tubing and a garden hose connector complete the piece.  Needed to quickly cool the wort post-boil.


Calibrated measuring bucket
Very high-tech piece.  23L plastic bucket with a masking tape strip down the side.  Using a measuring cup, made a mark on the tape after each 2L addition.  I use this bucket to measure out strike and sparge water.  Also doubles as my bottling bucket.

Digital scale
Ok, I lied, I bought this one new (on sale) as well.  I use it to measure out grains and hops for my recipes.

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