DeeperRootsBrewing: My Brewing System

For those interested in my brewing set-up, here's a quick overview.

Brewing

I brew on a homemade all grain system that relies on gravity for the moving of liquid. I use a single 15.5 gallon stainless steel pot, fitted with a stainless steel ball valve and a false bottom for heating strike water and for full wort boils. My mash tun is a modified 48 quart rectangular igloo cooler with a custom copper manifold for distributing sparge water and a stainless steel false bottom/bazooka screen combo and stainless steel ball valve mount. I crash cool wort with a Chillzilla and connect all vessels and equipment with high temperature flexible tubing and cam locks for convenience. I use a 55,000 btu burner and do all of my brewing in my garage.

Fermenting

I utilize carboys as the main vessels for fermentation. I have two glass carboys: a 6.5 gallon primary and a 5 gallon secondary. I also have three Better Bottles: a 6 gallon primary and two 5 gallon secondarys. I've recently started fermenting in one gallon clear glass growlers as well. I occasionally use a corny keg (I have a single pin lock) for fermentation and also have two fermentation buckets for fruit or other miscellaneous additions. Five of my eight fermentation vessels are used exclusively for sour beers. When transferring beer, I use an auto siphon. I also have a stainless steel pumice stone and a fish tank aerator for aerating beer prior to innoculation.

Serving

Beer is generally kegged using one of 5 ball lock corny kegs. I gelatinize and force carbonate most of my beers , then serve them from a custom built kegerator. The kegerator can hold three 5 gallon corny kegs, but has two taps. The kegerator was built using a chest freezer, fitted with a collar and with temperature adjustment via a Johnson Control. When bottling meads, barleywines or other specialty beers, I use a bench bottle capper.