 |
Hello, my name is Oki. I just got into homebrewing a few months ago, and it has become my passion. I am currently in the Marine Corps, so my brewing area is kind of limited. I do what I can, though. This is my brewery. |
Actually it is just for storage and fermenting. Since the temperature here in Okinawa is so hot, I have to do all of my fermenting in this fridge. I had to cut the shelving out of the door to allow the carboy to fit, but that's ok. I have a Johnson controller mounted on the right side. The three drawer buffet it sits on is where all of the small items used for brewing are kept. I put the fridge on top of it for easier racking. |
 |
I currently use two 14 gallon stainless pots for brewing. When I can afford the third one, I plan in building a RIMS. I have started putting together a 5 gallon Gott mashtun for the evolution to all grain. I also use a 160,000 btu propane cooker to heat the wort. It works great! |
 |
I had a small problem with the pots. They come with stainless steel nipples that are tapered. Although they looked good, they were tapered and I could not get the transfer tubing to stay on them. After I dumped about two gallons of wort on the balcony, I decided something had to be done. Luckily, I have some friends that work in the machine shop, and they were persuaded to help me out. The nipple on the right is the replacement for the one on the left. Those guys really do some good work! It works like a charm. |
 |
This is the boiling setup. Nothing too fancy, but it gets the job done. Here is the wort after steeping 3/4 lb of crystal. |
 |
Again, after the LME, DME, and honey. |
 |
I have been able to design a unique chilling system. It seems the Okinawans use a special pump system to get water into their washing machines. I have adapted one of these pumps to pump ice water from the sink in my kitchen, through the window, to the chiller and pot located out on the balcony. |
 |
Here you can see the hose going out the window, and the 'power box' for the pump. |
 |
Here is the pump doing it's thing. I have a small chest freezer where I freeze four buckets of ice. I can cool to about 70F in about 20 min. I just let the chiller water run into the drain on the balcony. |
 |
After the boil and chilling, it's time to transfer the wort into the carboy. The new spigot nipple in action! |
 |
I use a plastic wort aerator. It doesn't seem to do much, though. I usually still rock the carboy for about 3 minutes. |
