Has anyone ever considered adding a "swap meet" forum to the website? I know as my brewery grows and I build new equipment, I often end up with some of the old stuff taking up space. Thought maybe folks would like to put together a place where you can post what you have for sale or trade, and what you are looking for that someone else might have. Kind of a "Glen's List" if you will. Just a thought.

Does anyone have any experience with an outdoor natural gas stove? I have read confliciting information on the internet about using natural gas for brewing. I have a bayou classic propane turkey fryer set up and was thinking about converting it to natural gas. I think I can bolt a natural gas burner on my bayou classic stand and plug in my natural gas line from my bbq. My main concern is how to regulate the temperature. I couldn't find a regulator online.
Good idea? Bad idea? Suggestions?

Here's a good picture of my 10 gallon system. Everything is gravity fed. Overall ...I like the simplicity of this brewery. The HLT is on top of the brew cart. The cooler is my mashtun and it drains right into the boil kettle. I use immersion chillers to cool the wort to pitching temps then gravity feed into my fermentors.

Here's a shot of the Love Controller. I put it in a project box along with the power outlet.

Below is a description of how I use this.

The controller is used to program the exact temp I want my strike water to be at when I wake up in the morning.

Here's a shot of what goes in the mashtun. The lid is made of plastic polypropylene sheet. I've covered the bottom of the sheet with foil lined bubble wrap insulation. This works very well to keep the heat in the cooler.

All the mounting hardware is stainless steel.
The prop is just made from copper sheet and is soldered to the copper prop shaft. The prop shaft mounts to the motor geabox shaft with a set screw.

I used an elbow pipe on the heat stick so the element runs across the mashtun. This makes it possible to heat very shallow amounts of strike water.

Here's a shot of the 1500 watt heat stick, the mount bracket and the temp probe.

The heat stick will heat 15 gallons of strike water at a rate of .5 degrees per minute....so I program it to turn on in the middle of the night while I'm asleep.

The heat stick is removeable so I made a bracket to easily hold it in place when placed in the mashtun.

The black wire is my temp probe going in a thermowell. The thermowell is just a peice of copper tube that is submerged in the strike water. The temp probe slips inside the copper tube. The thermowell just slides thru a hole in the lid.

Here's a shot of my automated mashtun. I built this b/c I like to brew very early in the morning. I always set up my brewery the night before I'm going to brew. My goal the day before is to get as much prepared as possible so that brewday is less work and more enjoyable. I would typically get out of bed....walk down to the brewery and light my HLT burner. I would have to wait 45 minutes for the water to heat...then 20 or so minutes to transfer the water into the mashtun and get the temps settled down.

Well I finished the Kolsch I have been wanting to brew for a long time, and I must say this was the most screwed up brew day I have ever had on my own. The specifics are as follows:

Grain Bill:
2 Lbs German Pilsner
6 Lbs Belgian Pilsner
.5 Lbs German Vienna
.25 Lbs German Wheat

Hops:
1 Oz. Vanguard 60 Min.
.5 Oz. Vanguard 15 Min.

Yeast:
Wyeast Kolsch

I would like to start buying the equipment i will need for all grain brewing. It looks like most people use the 10-gallon Rubbermaid cooler but after that there are a lot of variations on the theme. I tend to try and buy the right stuff the first time and not continually reburying stuff that I want to upgrade.

Right now I have a big turkey fryer burner, a 9-gallon stainless steel brew pot and all the paraphernalia needed to make beer from an extract.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Steve