All New 12 Gallon Ghetto Rig

[Jake]

I've been collecting the supplies to convert from the old 5 gallon stove top setup (where every grain recipe was just brimming on my 4 3/4 gallon pot,) to to all new outdoor 12 gallon setup with converted kegs from the scrap yard. I finally got enough supplies to brew a batch, but the system is still in progress (as you can tell from the pictures.) I just mash in the keg and sparge the grains a single time (no recirculation here... and no outstanding brewhouse efficiencies either (ie. 73%.) I have to sparge manually by pouring hot water into a bowl that is "floating" on the mash. That lets the water trickle rather than blasting all the way through the grains. The table with the heater vent is my outdoor stove top made out of materials out of my old shed (although I did have to order a natural gas burner for it.) I guess the pride and joy of the system is the "spoon extender" made out of the old stem from the keg after the top was cut off. I was going to get a big spoon, but the store was out of stock. The first brew was fun, but I (of course) ran into a couple of issues. The biggest problem that I had was that my old wort chiller made for much smaller batches was completely insufficient for the larger batch. It took about an hour to cool it to pitching temperature.