Burners
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When I started brewing outdoors I used a turkey fryer to do most of my brewing and would sit it on some tables etc... for leverage. I got tired of having to set everything up, so one day I just decided to build my own brewing stand. Now most home brewers brew stands are made from welding steel railing together and since I didn't know how to weld at the time and didn't really want to pay someone to do it for me, I decided to build my brew stand out of wood. I was also worried about putting turkey fryers up on a stand, so I decided to incorporate the burners directly into the stand. As an added precaution I added some flashing to the inside of the wood (to avoid charring) and decided to apply some Thompson's water seal to the wood for added protection against spills. The wood is treated lumber and the slated bars are all stainless steel (I got them really cheap at a mallstore closing, i.e., 2 for $2) and the structure is on 6 heavy duty swivel casters (can hold roughly 350lbs). I use a counterflow chiller to cool the wort after the boil is finished (pictured on the lefthand sode in the first picture).
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Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) The Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) holds the water used for striking the mash and for batch sparging. My HLT is made from your everyday run of the mill 15.5 gal keg that I have converted by cutting the top off. I've also added a thermometer and what is called a site gauge (located on the left side of the keg). The thermometer is used for measuring my temps for both my strike and sparge water, and the site gauge is used to let me know how much water I have left in the HLT. For my brewing purposes, this keg holds plenty of strike water for the mash and batch sparging. You'll also notice that I put a faucet/spout at the bottom of the keg, this makes it easier to drain. |
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My boil kettle(s) are basically the same type of keg as my HLT, the only difference is that I didn't include a thermometer or site gauge, and I added a 'Bazooka T screen' that helps strain out the hops when siphoning after the boil. Please notice how the top of the keg is cut off ,so that adding ingredients and stirring the boil is easy to do. I have 2 boil kettles so that I can brew two batches at the same time.
Some things in all-grain brewing are certainly more important than others and the crush of the grain to me is one of the most important. The grains must be crushed in such a way that the kernel is ground very fine, not into flour however, with the grain husk being left as in tact as possible. I use a cost-effective barley crusher to mill my grain. I usually (if time permits) mill my grain twice...just to make sure that all of the kernels are broken up!