1. Introduction
The following is an adventure in a first time build of an all grain system.
I'm a homebrewer going back to 2000. I've been brewing extract for most of those years, often with specialty grains or a partial mash. I've done some all grain batches, but they were complicate precarious Rube Goldberg experiments, often involving searing liquids perched on barstools and what not. Because I didn't have the right equipment, it was always a mess and the results were mixed.
I wanted instead to build something that would allow me to focus on my process while brewing, not problem solving anew for equipment with each new batch. I love to build homebrew solutions and the need to problem solve and create equipment is one of the best parts of the hobby. But I want to be focused at one thing at a time: brewing or building. Trying to do all grain without a good system, was always doing some part of both. The result for me was that I couldn't build on what I learned and repeat my process. The great homebrewers I have met, pretty consistently will say that learning to repeat and control your process is where you can really take your craft to the next level. So that is what I want. A system I can control, that has process that are repeatable and that will allow me to focus on brewing.
For cost and good old recycling reasons I decided it would be a requirement to use as much as I had around from previous brewing: a keggle, a Camp Chef burner, an emersion chiller and other things. Also I would use as much as possible the scrap wood in the garage, old bed frames, etc...
Also, within reason given all the recycling, I wanted it to look good.
