Inaugural Brew

So on Saturday February 19th we brewed our first two batches on the new rig-more affectionately referred to as Brewzilla...20 gallons of Pilsner and 20 gallons of American Brown. Both brews turned out pretty well from the the initial gravity readings. We had done two yeast starters earlier in the week to make sure that fermentation started off well. The Brown showed signs of fermentation by early Sunday morning but that was not the case for the Pils. Lagers go take a bit longer to begin fermenting but the time between pitching the yeast nd the beginning of fermentation, known as the lag, can be nerve racking. The last thing a brewer wants to see is a batch of wort go bad. Finally by Monday morning there were signs that the Pils was off to the races. Now only time will tell on how they ultimately turn out.

Our Brew Station

Here's our brewing station.  We took a 6' stainless steel kitchen table and cut about 10" off the legs.  We then added casters so that we can roll the entire station around the garage.  We recently had 3 12" diameter holes cut into the table top.  We mounted 3 Blichmann burners under the table in order to keep the center of gravity low.

On top of the table, we have a hot liquor tank (hot water), a mash tun, and boil kettle.  We use pumps to transport the fluids around (water for mash/sparging, wart for boiling).  We also have a plate chiller for cooling the wart down for fermentation.

First, here's our brewing table.  With the 3 holes cut into it, the Blichmann burners can easily heat our Hot Liquor Tank, Mash Tun, and Boil Kettle.

Here, you can see all 3 vessels on the table.  The pumps mounted at the bottom of the table are used to transfer  wort between the Mash Tun and Boil Kettle.  During the mash, we recirculate the wort from the bottom of the Mash Tun back to the top.

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