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I started brewing in 1989 with a Coopers stout kit from a local liquor store. In 1993, my brewing partner and I started brewing all-grain with a ten-gallon converted keg setup and a bare minimum of equipment. This amount didn’t last long between the two of us and our brewing time was not abundant. Rather than run two breweries in tandem, we decided to find larger vessels.

A winemaking friend sold me a pair of 55-gallon stainless-steel drums and I built a frame around them. I designed the brewery using features found on other systems and collected the pieces from specialty stores on the Internet and local hardware stores.

Chris and Joe
The brewery boiler is fired with three 150,000-BTU burners and features a fifteen-gallon hot-liquor tank with a heat exchanger for recirculation mashing. Both the boiler and insulated mash tun drain into a stainless food-service tub used as a sump tray as well as a hopback. On the way to the fermenters, our hot wort is pumped through a built-in wort chiller, a temperature gauge and an inline oxygenation stone.

Chiller, Sump, and Burners
It took a year and $2,500 from concept to completion. While there are some design flaws, we’re pleased with how well it works. One lesson we learned is that mash tuns are supposed to be shallow and wide. A tall, narrow mash tun causes grain compaction when recirculating the mash, making step mashes difficult.

Tipped Mash Tun
Brewing forty-five gallons of beer is quite an adjustment from ten gallons. The ingredient adjustments are not linear — you can’t simply add proportionally more malt or hops. Our recent experience has forced us to become better brewers, not only because of the advanced recipe formulation, but because it has piqued our interest in the science behind the brewing process.

Hot Liquor Tank
Brewing in higher volume requires a healthy and viable yeast culture. We pitch a two-gallon stirred culture prepared a week in advance. Another benefit was achieved during our club brews with the Silicon Valley Sudzers. Each member receives five gallons of unfermented wort, each to become a distinctly different beer. Last year we brewed a Belgian dubbel using ten different yeasts; this year it was an IPA with two yeasts, and hops added at cooling (in the hopback) and dry hops.

Disassembled Oxygen Injection System
These experiments have allowed us to understand the wide variation in tastes made possible by changing a single component, in addition to what type of hops or yeast work well for a specific style of beer. So what’s next for the brewery? In the short term we will experiment with steam injection for step mashing. Long-term plans may include attaching a computer to track and possibly automate the entire brewing process.

Three 150,000-BTU Burners


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FastRack 200x200 (Feb. 22-Aug. 11, 2013)
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Brewmasters Warehouse: BYO IMP12 (started Dec. 22, 2011)

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