Sorry I haven't had time to add pictures yet!

My brewery is sadly confined to my kitchen, and storage/some prep is done in the basement. I don’t have a garage so I can’t brew there, and have not yet purchased an outdoor propane burner and created a setup to brew outside.

I purchase most of my supplies from Northern Brewer, Midwest Brewing Supply, and The Wine and Hop Shop, which is the local store in Madison, however their selection and pricing isn’t as good as the others.

I’ve also begun growing hops. I have Cascade and Fuggles growing up and over a pergola that I built attached to the house. **pictures**

If you have any questions about my brewery/process, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Measuring and milling:

I use all grains. I measure them with an Escali scale, and grind them with a Schmidling A model grain mill. **Picture***

Mashing:

While I’m measuring and milling, I’m heating my strike water. I do this in my brew kettle. Once it’s heated to the right temp (about 175 for my set up) I transfer it to my mash-lauter tun which is a plastic bottling bucket with a spigot and some tubing that leads to a stainless false bottom. **picture**

Once filled, I slowly pour in the grains, stirring to keep them from clumping. I cover and let sit, stirring every 10-15 minutes. If the temp drops, I add a quart or two of boiling water. Although I’d like to get a cooler, this will have to do until after the wedding/honeymoon. All extra efforts/money are currently going to that.

Sparge:

After a 45-60 minute mash, it’s time to lauter/sparge. I have a sparging arm and prefer to fly sparge. It gives good efficiency. Almost always above 70%. Some around 80%. *Picture**

As you can see from the pictures, my sparging and brew kettle filling process is a bit of a juggling act with the hot liquor tank being another bottling bucket, and it being filled with water I’ve heated on the stove. I slowly fill the brew pot which is on my stove (yes it’s electric, but it actually does bring it to a boil).

Boil:

Once full to about 6.5 gallons, I wait until it is boiling, then hop as per my recipe. **pictures**

After a 60 minute boil, I fish out any whole leaf hops, if I used them, then hook up my all copper, counter flow wort chiller. (A Chillzilla.) This is really a crazy set up attached to the sink! **pictures**

The wort travels through the hose, through the chiller and through a sieve which strains out hops and trub as well as aerates the cooled wort as it drops into the primary. All the wort is through in about 10 minutes. **picture**

Fermentation:

Then, of course, I add the yeast and primary ferment, either in my dining room, or my basement, depending on lager or ale and time of year. I secondary ferment my beer in either one of my 3 glass carboys, or my better bottle. *Picture*

Bottling:

I bottle using the plastic primary bucket. I always use corn sugar for priming as it ferments completely and doesn’t contribute any taste to the beer.

Sometimes, I put half in the batch in a Party Pig so my fiancé and I can have it readily on hand in the fridge. I highly recommend Party Pigs for those who don’t have a kegging system. They work well. **picture**