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Mary B:
I have been busy the last week building my brew stand for doing all grain beer. Started as a ratty and nasty looking 3m AV cart.



Sanding and primer later...



2 coats of gloss black after I attached the steel to hold the burners. My setup will be a 3 level with gravity flow instead of using pumps. Cheaper, less to clean etc.



And a rough idea what the finished stand will look like. I need to pick up some cedar decking for the top burner(hard to see but it will be on those shelf supports), and for the lower burner.



And a home brew after some hard work!

madlabs:
Me!

Well, I actually haven't brewed much for the last few years. I moved onto my property and haven't set it all back up. I have a RIMS system that I built but I plan on making a three tier system. I too grow sick of pumps. The RIMS was nice for making the exact same beer over and over, but other than that too much hassle. I can't remember exactly, but I think in my brew log I have over 600 gallons of beverages (beer, wine, cider and liquor) recorded. Dunno if it's cheating but I always counted the mash gallons of liquor and not the distilled gallons.

Jonathan

Mary B:
Sweet! 600 gallons! I am impressed! I used to all grain brew with a friend in the 80's. We were doing 15 gallon batches 4 times a week to keep 2 extended families in beer. I would guess well over 2,000 gallons before I moved to far away to be brewing with her every weekend(2 batches a day, yes lots of work) but we did have brewery slaves in the form of kids to do a lot of the heavy work.

Now I do about 15 gallons a month to feed my beer habit and a couple of friends. Extract brews have come a long ways since the 80's Hawaiian Punch tang flavor! Been doing extract until I get the all grain system up and running and fine tuned. Expect a few flop batches that will be drinkable sort of! All the new extract recipes use some steeping grains(2-3 pounds) so the flavor is way better than what I remember learning to brew with in 1979!

And people think 5 gallons is a lot of beer until I put it like this, that is 2 cases of beer! If my sisters and brother in laws show up that is gone in a weekend! They already want me to brew for them again and I put my foot down and told them they can come down and use the gear as long as they clean up the mess! One of my brother in laws asked how hard is it so he came down and helped one batch. 2 hours up to your elbows in sanitizer cleaning convinced him otherwise!

madlabs:
Mary,

2000 gallons?! There goes my bubble!

Yep, it goes faster then folks might think. I had partners in brewing, so was often only keeping a half or third. And we used to brew for friend's weddings and special occasions. Nothing wrong with extract brewing, I like whole grain brewing because it is cheaper! And you do get some more control over flavor.

Guess not too many brewers here. I'm surprised.

Jonathan

Smithson:
    Hi:    I used to brew beer in the 70's.  It wasn't in any of these new fangled brew equipment but just in a 10 gallon crock.   I was never to happy with the crock as a friend sold it with a crack in the side of the crock that he had epoxied. I was always afraid that could be poisoning me so stopped until I could get a better crock.  I recently bought a new crock cheap but have since lost the recipe.  I used a can of malt and sugar, yeast etc.  if anyone knows the recipe please leave me a message.  I enjoyed the process of brewing and checking the batch every day. One time I diversified and brewed root beer, but the whole batch blew up and dis colored the bedroom walls.  My wife hates beer.  Arch

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