Join with us on our adventure as we build East Alstead's first brewery and what is quite possibly the only off-grid commercial brewery in the United States. We feel that what we brew and how we brew it are equally important. If you would like to help out with this project, contact me at: tim@belgianmare.com.




The Belgian Mare Says Hello!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Boiler Room


As of late, I have been concentrating my efforts on building the wood-fired boiler that will be the heart of our brewhouse.  This has been quite the adventure as I have, with some advice from 19th century brewing texts, designed the boiler myself, from the ground up.  Further, construction required the acquisition of bricklaying skills.  Fortunately, the good people of Whitcomb's were more than helpful throughout construction. Admittedly, this whole process was a bit scary, if I messed up here, going back would not be easy.  In the end, the results were better than expected and quite acceptable for a first effort, if I do say so myself.  And I do.

The bricks are standard fire bricks.  The cast iron door is from a barrel stove kit.   The tank is a stainless steel sap tank that was modified to my design by Perley Lund and  for which I had a lid constructed by Ray Britton Sr.  Both are excellent craftsmen..

The next step is having a scaffold built for the mash-tun!

The pictures below show the evolution of the boiler! Cheers!

The base of the firebox is in place.  Note the outlet with tri-clamp fitting that Perley welded on.

The boiler tank is set in place.

The brick work is finished and the cast iron door is in place.  Success!

Rear view of the boiler.