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Home Photo Galleries Equipment Galleries Ben Meissner • San Antonio, Texas

My love for homebrewing began in 2002 after receiving a 5-gallon (19-L) beer kit for Christmas. Ever since that first batch, I knew that brewing beer was something I wanted to master. As my passion for brewing grew, so did my interest in building my own home microbrewery. I was able to complete this whole system for less than $1,000 — but I still have my wish list for future upgrades!

My love for homebrewing began in 2002 after receiving a 5-gallon (19-L) beer kit for Christmas. Ever since that first batch, I knew that brewing beer was something I wanted to master. As my passion for brewing grew, so did my interest in building my own home microbrewery. I was able to complete this whole system for less than $1,000 — but I still have my wish list for future upgrades!

Main Pic
I found most of what I needed for the base of the brew tree at the local sporting goods store in the grill section. The stand I purchased came with two burners and gas lines, so I only needed to add one on top for the HERMS.

The Sculpture Base
I read about the HERMS systems and decided that building my own version was something I could do. Once I had the tap connection out, I was able to cut off the top (using a plasma cutter) and I converted the top to a lid. For the guts, I used 48 feet (9.8 m) of 1⁄2” soft copper tubing.

The HERMS Tank

The Boiler Keg
The Mash Tun This was the second piece I built before the HERMS tank. As a bare minimum, I needed this and the large boiler to brew large batches (15 gallons/57 L). I had my friend Aaron (an expert welder) help.

The Mash Tun
I built a sparge arm using a small section of leftover 1⁄2” soft copper pipe from the HERMS coil. I wanted to be able to set the sparge height so I could use it for the HERMS and sparging the mash. It ended up short, so I extended the arm using the leftover copper pipe. I drilled 25 1⁄8” offset holes at the bottom of the arm to make sure it spread over the whole grain bed.

The Sparge Arm
I bought a dual coil wort chiller (3⁄8” dia. @ 25 ft. /7.6 m per coil) before I decided to build my system. For now, it works well.

The Wort Chiller

The Wort Chiller
What I really want for fermentation is a 14 gallon (53 L) stainless conical fermenter. But right now, I use multiple glass carboys

The Fermenter
It was a blast building my dream system. On brew day I decided I wanted to brew my favorite clone recipe — a Pilsner Urquell clone that has the perfect blend of bitterness and flavor (I think).

Brewery in Action

The Sculpture Base


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