My wife, who is awesome, gave me a Brooklyn BrewShop beer kit for Christmas last year. They’re one-gallon all-grain kits that make surprisingly good beer… basically a six pack. I worried I might be hooked back in January and, surprise, I was.
Since that time I’ve learned a bunch about water, grain, yeast, and hops, and how you mix them together in a reasonably specific process using an assortment of stainless steel, silicone, and polyethylene implements. I have a 210kBTU propane burner that can bring 10 gallons of wort to a boil in about 10 minutes – you can actually hear the propane tank glugging and see it freezing when that happens. I have a bunch of plastic pails and glass carboys, and there’s even a two-tap keg fridge. I love it – beer is all about chemistry and physics… and drinking beer, can’t forget that, so it appeals greatly to me.
I ran across The Electric Brewery, a home and semipro brewing design that’s meticulously documented by a very nice fella in Ottawa, in March and have been drooling a little ever since. After a number of batches that were pretty well received, and a desire to experiment a heck of a lot more, I’ve gone all-in and am building a brewery in the basement.
I’ve ordered all of the remaining parts, and will start refitting a corner of said basement to become a brewery and bar. Construction will start the weekend after next, and I plan on having a functional brewery by Christmas.
I am teh excite. More to come, and I’ll try and go over the process as much as possible over the next few weeks. For now, I have some tile to buy, and some demo to do… and some more stainless to buy. It’s going to be fun.