My parents moved back to my homeland of Pennsylvania last year, building their new house. My father, along with usually just one friend, did all of the principal construction; in seven months, their home was livable. No small feat! The house is gorgeous, well thought out, and expertly designed. Mrs. Absalom and I have had the chance to visit it in its completed glory for the first time this summer, and I've enjoyed spending quite a few weeks here this season.
Building to my parents' specifications allowed for some very particular design elements. My mother is a quilter; thus, she has a quilting studio with ample layout space, storage, etc. For my father, the energy went toward woodworking and homebrewing. He's set himself up with plenty of space for his woodturning and just about any other project he'd like to take on with a standalone shop; the brewing space doesn't occupy its own structure, but it sure isn't small. Based on his woodwork background, he's christened the operation the Turned Timber Brewery (TTB).
The brewery, part of the main house, is done in tile and includes lots of drainage, two sinks, and plenty of power. The table space and cabinetry are all handmade. The most exciting part of the setup, however, is the all-electric HERMS brewing rig. The system is built from specs from
the Electric Brewery; my dad ordered
the control panel components and built the box himself. The whole deal is based around three twenty-gallon Blichmann SS kettles and two March pumps, along with a hood and fan assembly to draw out the steam generated while brewing. While it can produce as little as five gallons of wort, it's designed to regularly produce ten to fifteen gallons, I believe; the batches we've done normally average around eleven or twelve gallons of finished beer. It is an absolute dream to use; there's still plenty of manual labour involved, but many of the normal all-grain processes become easier to navigate, thanks especially to the pumps. Like any new system, it's taken a while to dial in procedures--along with figuring out how to properly hook up the pumps for each step in the process, fly sparging is a new experience--but it's been an incredible experience brewing on it.
Along with the range of carboys he's collected over the years, TTB also includes two fourteen-gallon Fermenators, which tend to see the lion's share of fermentation. For temperature control, the brewery
houses a couple refrigerators: one equipped with a Johnson temp control that switches between acting as a fermentation chiller and as cold storage, the other normally used for storing ingredients and bottled beers.
Outside of that, there's the central heating system; while the brewery doesn't run entirely on its own, it's on a grid with just the garage, meaning the rest of the main house is unaffected by settings for fermentation. For serving, some beers are still bottled, particularly higher-gravity ones; in general, though, my dad's moved to kegging and is not looking back wistfully on bottling. He currently has a two-tap kegerator and will set up a second two-tap unit in the near future.
The brewing setup is nothing short of amazing, but the best part is having a chance to once again brew beer with my father. A few short years ago we were making Mr. Beer kits, trying to avoid stovetop boil-overs and cleaning my mother's kitchen like mad after each batch. A lot has changed in a short amount of time, and very much for the better. We've brewed a number of batches already, and have at least a couple more planned before Mrs. Absalom and I head back west; the batches I designed will be detailed on my personal blog soon. We've supplied beer for a couple private parties, including a 4th of July weekend bash at the new house. If only every brewday could be as fun as the ones at Turned Timber; once we depart, I'll be left feeling impiously envious for now...
- Br. Absalom
