DIY or Buy?

In the chest of every home brewer beats the heart of a hardcore DIY-er.

I believe this to be true even in the age of blinged out, fully automated, shiny turn-key systems manufactured for and specifically marketed to the home brewer.  As, not one, but multiple manufacturers have built a business around this, there obviously must be a market for these systems.  Somebody has to be buying them.

I definitely understand the Red-Ryder-B-B-Gun-with-a-Compass-in-the-Stock allure that these systems hold.  I feel it too.  Yet there is a certain satisfaction gained from building your own system from pieces of stuff that may or may not have ever been intended for the purpose you're giving them, and from constantly evolving it with new or replacement pieces solving one problem or another.  That satisfaction is surely traded away by those home brewers choosing the turn-key option.  Right?

I mean the very act of home brewing is the essence of DIY.  It is equal parts science, craft, and art; and it's a true labor of love.  What could be better than drinking a beer that you made with your own two hands?  Well... maybe knowing that you produced that beer (with your own two hands) on a system you hobbled together (with your own two hands) over 15 years out of pieces of stuff that were never intended for the purpose you've given them and combined with other pieces of stuff that were also not designed for the purpose you're giving them.  That, or having a shiny blinged out mini version of a commercial brewery in the basement of your home.  Either one.

It's time for me to come clean on one thing.  I am not handy around the house.  Ask my wife and she will happily confirm that I am the farthest from.  Toilets run, doors creak, and light bulbs remain burnt out far too long as she gently nudges me with reminders that I should really take care of that.  She is eternally patient.

Mash and sparge, circa 2013

Yet, when it comes to my brew rig, I seem to be tinkering constantly and tweaking it to solve one problem or another.  It began its life as a B3-200 basic all-grain system from Beer Beer and More Beer, circa 2003.  This is the basic "two re-purposed Igloo coolers retrofitted with thermometers" deal, and back then the only alternative to Doing-It-Yourself.  I think I spent about $500 on that combined with a hand-fabricated 15 gallon stainless kettle, a Bayou Classic burner, a copper immersion chiller and some extra tubing to tie it all together.  That rig operated in its original configuration for a good eight years before a single modification was made (I barely disassembled any of the parts- see previous paragraph for the reason).

Boil and knock-out, circa 2013

(See this post from 2013 for a run-down of the system at that time.)











Eventually, a better valve was added to the kettle, plastic fittings were upgraded to stainless, and in 2013 I gave the entire system its biggest overhaul to date- adding a counterflow chiller, Blichmann burner w 24" leg extensions, punching holes in the kettle for thermometer and (DIY) whirlpool attachment, modifying the mash tun for sparging with the lid on, and replacing all the vinyl tubing with high-temp silicone tubing with quick-disconnect fittings.  Later, I built a two-tier stand out of builder's grade 2x4s, replaced the Igloo HLT with an 8 gallon Bayou Classic kettle and second burner.  The ghost of that original B3-200 still remains, I guess, in the original Igloo shell of my mash tun and that 15 gallon Boil Kettle.  That BK I think will last forever, but I'm afraid the mash tun may be at the end of its days.

Along the way there have been many other little tweaks, additions, and upgrades.  I won't list them all here, as I'm sure I can't remember all of them, but this janky Frankenstein's monster of a brew rig works pretty well for me right now.  It's not perfect; it's an obnoxious eye-sore on the patio that my wife can't stand, but at least it's capable of producing beer that comes close to palatable.  And I enjoy it.  What more could I ask?

Brew rig circa 2018

Building sparge water in the HLT

Whirlpool cooling