Shopping and engineering. Soon, brewing.
Right then.
So I’m taking up brewing, and in fairly typical style I seem to be doing it a bit wrong.
I’ve talked to several people - knowledgeable people - and not one of them has said anything remotely like “Yeah, just spend all the money up front before you have any experience of brewing. Go hard out Tim. Go full grain before you’ve done a single extract brew. Nothing could go wrong!”
But that is what I’m doing.
As a result, stage one of my home brew adventure is engineering an all gain brewery.
What stage one should be: Buy a 20L stainless stock pot.
What stage one is: Buy everything required for a fully capable all grain brewery. This includes kegs, burners, all stainless fittings, pumps, silicone hoses and all the tools required to cut and assemble everything. It even includes temperature control systems and a fridge or freezer to ferment in (otherwise: madness).
I’m still not sure if this is cheaper than buying a premade equivalent off the shelf, but my compacted buying schedule will make that pretty clear. Within a month or so I should have a fully operational death star brewery. I’ll compare to the competition and find out how it stacks up. I’m moderately confident that even if it doesn’t come out cheaper, it wont be much more expensive.
And besides, I’ve had a huge amount of fun just collecting parts. The excuse to buy power tools has been awesome. I’ve never needed an angle grinder until now, but I’ve always wanted one. I never even knew what a step drill was, but I’m now a proud owner. Brilliant!
This brewing lark is awesome - and I haven’t brewed a drop.
