New Beer Chapter

I used to blog about MGB's. I loved those little cars. Still do. But old age started taking it's toll and just getting in and out of them became a chore so I sold all of my little cars and with the new found space in the garage began spending more time with my other hobby - making beer.

My first homebrew adventure began, like many, with a kit received at Christmas time. The kind that came with two plastic buckets, a few other assorted apparatus and a couple of cans of hopped extract. This was 1997.

Next came my move to all-grain brewing at the "Front Porch Brewery.

So named from the favored location for setting everything up. More room for the additional equipment, close to the garden hose spigot plus I didn't have to lug everything far on brew day. Just a few steps out to the porch and a few steps back inside when done.

The Front Porch Brewery was in operation for several years before the little British sports car bug bit me and I packed it all away to zip around the back roads of Saginaw and Bay counties with the top down.

Cars replaced homebrew for nearly 9 years when I spotted this beauty on Craigslist. On this system I learned 3 vessel brewing, how to use pumps and a plate chiller. I also used just the boil kettle to brew in the BIAB (Brew In A Bag) technique.

This is also the system that was in use when I came up with the current name for my home brewery... Gabel Road Brewing Co.

It's a work in progress.

Even though I kept this rig for only a year and a half, I managed to brew over a hundred gallons of beer with it. Not hard to do when you can turn out ten gallons in one brew day.



The one thing I did not like was the weight of the kettles. Converted kegs are heavy and the same aging issues that kept me from getting in and out of small cars also made it difficult to sling these 30+ pound kettles around for cleaning.

I also got tired of running out of propane in the middle of a brew and just plain tired of running back and forth to the party store. It got to the point that every time I walked into the store the person behind the counter would ask; "whatcha makin' this weekend?"

So back to Craigslist went the entire system and the proceeds were used to purchase this!

An all electric, turnkey HERMS (Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System) brewery from High Gravity Brewing.

This particular system consists of 3 stainless steel kettles... hot liquor tank, mash tun and boil kettle. Electric heating elements and wall mounted controller. It has two Blichmann Rip Tide pumps, cam lock quick disconnects and all the silicone hosing. (some of these items were added onto the base system at extra cost)

Since I sold the plate chiller with the other rig I added a counter flow chiller and I fond this stainless steel table on Craigslist for $100.00.


The whole thing was delivered in early October, 2018. At that time I was deep into archery deer season here in Michigan. (yet another obsession of mine) After that is rifle season followed by black powder season. Which means that except for a few hours here and there putting this system together I still haven't used it.

Depending on what the weather throws at us it may be a while before any beer is actually made. I still have to leak-test it... clean and passivate it... and run some volume measurements to build an accurate equipment profile in Beersmith.

I hope to blog more and even video brewing sessions in the near future.