I've been into homebrew pretty much since i developed a taste for beer and my dad used to brew alot so he showed me how to do it. I've recently moved into my own place with a couple of friends, and we have a laundry and undercover patio area which they don't really use. So I decided to convert this area into a brewery and bar.
The first step was to put down some brews and get some beer going so I did this a few weeks ago.
Then with the help of my dad we built a nice bar bench, it's mainly pine with a jarrah stain and 2-pot esapol finish. It came out pretty well and i'm very happy with it. Just need to make sure kents keep their beers on the bar mats so the finish on the table doesn't get wrecked.
Secondly, I decided that i was fed up with bottling home brew. For those of you who have brewed before it means cleaning out all the bottles, then sterilising them, then priming them, filling them and capping them. If you do a couple of brews at a time it's practically half your day gone. The solution.... KEGS!!!!! So I present to you some photos of my new bar and homebrew setup...
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The Bar
The Bar 2
The beer taps!
The brewery
I currently have two brews fermenting. One is a bitter ale with some extra malt and hops and bits and pieces. The other one is a belgian ale with wheat malt and saaz hops - should be very nice!.
The keg fridge
This holds all the good stuff, the Co2 bottle and regulator, the line goes through a hole i cut in the side of the fridge and filled with expanding foam. It all worked out pretty well in the end
The kegs
Currently two kegs on tap, one is a extra special bitter which is about 7.1% alcohol and has a decent kick to it, very yummy and a nice creamy head. The other one is a pilsner which I haven't tasted yet because I only gassed up the keg today.
There are room for four kegs in the fridge but currently I only have the two that are on tap and some glasses to keep them cool. There is room for bottled beer or more glasses in the vegetable crisper. The freezer currently has ice cubes and some gin and vodka and a few bits and pieces in it.
The pour
Finally, the final result - 38 litres of beer at 5degC on tap any time of the day with the potential for another 38 litres cold for keg changeovers. The beer on the glass is the extra special bitter. In retrospect I think i'll use a secondary or finings to get rid of the cloudyness of the beer, though it could just be because the kegs haven't had time to settle properly.
So anyone else here into homebrew?