Posted here from an AVS thread to avoid “hijacking” charges.
I had a coleman cooler that I converted into a mash tun, but i had a Sabco kettle and HLT. I also had a RIMS set up. I had a temp controlled freezer chest that held 2 sabco fermenters (primary and secondary) and a kegging set-up. Everything was pushed with CO2 so the beer was never introduced to air after the yeast was pitched...that is, until I tapped a cold one.
Man I miss that set-up. But hey, I can watch movies in all their 7.1, Hi-Def glory! I'll post some pics of that brew set up later.
As a side note, I won a silver medal for an Imperial Rye IPA once. Would have won gold (judges said so) if I had entered it into the correct category (entered in regular IPA cat. by mistake).
Sounds like you gave up an awesome setup. I haven’t done much brewing since moving back to Phoenix since I didn’t want to cart a freezer up 2 flights of stairs at my apartment.
At university in Madison, WI my housemate and I started brewing together on the stovetop but eventually got propane burners. We had a temp controlled freezer that held 8 x 7 gallon fermenters mostly for lagers since we could usually put ales in the basement to ferment and store. Keep a couple large plastic tote boxes one full of ale malt and the other lager malt. The shelves were full of every specialty grain we could find. The vegetable crisper in refrigerator was full of hops and yeast. And we had a large plastic garbage can full of chlorine water we just dropped bottles in to sanitize as we emptied them.
Never did any kegging but bottling was such a pain I won’t go back to doing it except for some specialty beer like triple bocks and some Trapist ales. My plan for the house it to set up a system in the garage where I have a NG hookup. I’ll use a couple temp controlled freezers to hold the kegs. At least one set for lager temp and the other for ale. When I lived in New Zealand we had two beers on tap at the Marine house set up by a local brewery. I’ve missed having beer on tap ever since then.
Cool to see you got a medal. An Imperial Rye IPA sounds tasty. If you still have it and get the chance send me the recipe I‘d love to try it. I’ve never entered an competitions but I have brewed quite a bit. I can’t find my brewing logs but I think I made at least 700 gallons when I lived in Madison. Just about every style imaginable but not to many fruit beers. Did make a wicked blueberry stout. I liked drinking real pilsners and lagers but hated having to wait for them to ferment and lager. Also liked making Trappist ales and IPAs, but if I’m planning on drinking a lot nothing beats quaffing pints of bitter.
Cheers,
Dean
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