Date: Special Issue: 25 Great Homebrew Projects
Build Your Own Glycol Fermenter
Digital and Plus Members OnlyBuild a glycol chilling system to keep your fermenter at the optimum temperature.
The DIY In-Line Oxygenator
FREEAs homebrewers, we have control over many of the physical processes used to make our beer. It’s been known for some time that after boiling (and then chilling the wort) it is
Nitro Kegerator
Digital and Plus Members OnlySo you’ve got a kegerator, and you’re loving life now that you don’t have to bottle every batch of homebrew anymore. You also are the envy of family and friends because you serve finely crafted beer on draft in the comfort of your own home. But something is still missing: the ability to serve stouts,
Build a Kegerator
Digital and Plus Members OnlyIn this project, I’ll outline how to build a basic, two-tap kegerator. It’s not a cheap project, but the benefits are tremendous and well worth the money. Before you can get started buying all of the needed hardware, you need to decide if your kegerator is going to be housed in a refrigerator or chest
Carboy Spray Wand
Digital and Plus Members OnlyProbably every homebrewer’s least favorite part of the hobby is the sometimes staggering amount of cleaning that is required to produce a sanitary, contaminant-free batch of beer. And one of the most stubborn things to clean can often be that thick, nasty-looking ring of dried kräusen gunk that is almost always present after a healthy
Rebuild a Keg
Digital and Plus Members OnlyUsed Cornelius style kegs are widely available at reasonable prices. A considerable amount of money can be saved if you buy kegs that have not been worked on in any way and rebuild them yourself. This keg reconditioning process requires nothing but a little time, a limited amount of mechanical skills and most of the
Portable Draft System
Digital and Plus Members OnlyAdding a kegging system to your homebrew setup is often a welcome addition (and relief) to brewers. You can save time that would normally be spent bottling, precisely control and adjust carbonation levels, and you do not need to wait on the natural carbonation process. The problem arises when you want to take your finely
Counterpressure Bottle Filler
FREEKegging is convenient. it eliminates the bottling process, and cuts out days of carbonating time. When you bring a keg to a friend’s house, however, you’re bringing a lot of beer. The
Build An Electric Heat Stick
Digital and Plus Members OnlyI’ve been an apartment brewer since 1987, so space has always been a problem. Then, in 2005, I purchased a 15-gallon (57-L) stainless steel conical fermenter and a 60-qt. (57-L) stainless steel brew kettle. With these two major upgrades came the inevitable step-up to brewing 10-gallon (38-L) batches. This increase created a number of problems,
Build a Cooler Mash Tun
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThe heart and soul of any all-grain homebrewing system is the combination mash/lauter tun. “Mashing” is the hot water steeping process that results in sweet fermentable wort, while “lautering” is the process of separating the wort from the spent grains.) A third critical step in the process is sparging (technically a part of the
Build a Recirculating Wort Chiller
Digital and Plus Members OnlyGiven that there are so many places in the world where fresh, potable water is a scarcity, I think the least we can do as enthusiasts of a water-intensive hobby is minimize water usage while brewing. One obvious place to start looking for water usage inefficiencies is the wort chilling process. This project, which turns
Build a Randall-Style Hop Filter
Digital and Plus Members OnlyMost of the homebrewers I know that own kegerators rarely bottle their homebrew anymore. But some of the most hopped homebrews I’ve tasted lately seem to come in bottle form. As a kegerator homebrewer, I asked myself, “How can I make my draft homebrew hoppier?” I use kegs as my secondary and tertiary fermenting vessels