To bring it all together, we needed a Brew Cart. After looking at different designs (wood vs. metal, single tier vs. 3-tier gravity) and gas manifolds, I knew that I wanted a jet burner for the Brew Kettle. Then I saw a jet burner in action. That was it. I knew I needed one. In looking for a jet burner, I found the solution to the Brew Stand need:
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Building a Stir Plate
Since we are graduating to 10 Gallon All Grain batches, we need to create yeast starters. Otherwise the cost of yeast is crazy. By creating a starter, we only need to purchase one package of yeast for most brews, instead of 2 or more. To create a starter most efficiently, you need a stir plate. This will stir the yeast, oxygenating it and propagating yeast growth. A constant stir also knocks the carbon dioxide out of suspension. Carbon dioxide is a by-product of yeast growth and also inhibits yeast growth.
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Sparge Arm for 10 Gallon Mash Tun
We have decided on a sparge method. We will fly sparge our mash. To be able to do that, we will build a sparge arm to help distributed the added water evenly and not create water channels in the mash.
After some thought, I decided to use a design very similar to the manifold I built for the bottom of the Mash Tun.
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Pump Hoses
So, I was researching hose labels. When I take the hoses off the brew equipment to wash, I wanted a way to identify which hoses go where quickly. The cost of laminated hose labels are ridiculous!
What should I do? Create my own, of course! Here is what I used:
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12V High Temp Food Grade Pumps
OK, so in going with pumps in our system, we decided on these:
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12V Pump Controller
Time to detail the Pump Controller box. We decided to go with the 12v High Temp Solar Pumps for our system. We knew that we wanted to grow to three pumps and the price for a Chugger or a March pump is prohibitive.
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Hoppy Valentines Day!
American Homebrewers Association
Just a quick note to announce that Apocalypse Ales (now Ales of the Dead) is a proud member of the American Homebrewers Association!

Temperature Controller for Fermentation
Today, I will be detailing the temperature controller for the planned fermentation chamber. I had read a lot about the STC-1000 controller and see it on eBay for around $20. I started to research the module and found that is came from China and reported the temperature in Celsius. Living in America, this was an inconvenience, but not insurmountable. Then I happened across Continue reading “Temperature Controller for Fermentation”
10 Gallon Mash Tun
Now for what is possibly the easiest mod for the homebrewer: the 10 Gallon Cooler Mash Tun. This was such an easy mod that I’ll include the manifold in this post.
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