Deep Six Merchandise

We've finally opened up a shop for Deep Six merchandise and are currently working on some new designs that we will be adding over the coming weeks. Check it out!

Back In Action!

I lost my house and the 'brewery' last April in a flood, which we are just now fully recovering from.. Things have turned out fairly well and I've been able to build an out-building which I will dedicate as the brewery. It will still be a few months before everything is operational, but I'm grateful to start getting back on track. You can follow its progress here at homebrewtalk.com.

Brewing System version 2.0

Recently, I decided to re-work my entire rig to see just how automated I could make it. I am a programmer by trade and wanted to incorporate that into the design. What I came up with is a touchscreen-driven PC running Windows XP, harnessed to a LabJack. The LabJack monitors three temperature probes, a PH probe (in the next release), a float switch, and toggles six solid state relays.

The touchscreen interface was designed to look very industrial. It loads each "brew" from a unique config file which controls the exact mash schedule (steps, temperatures, rests, etc) as well as the boil schedule.

Now some would argue that this takes some of the fun out of brewing. I'll argue back that 1) I am a gadget junkie and die-hard DIY'er, and 2) it is all about repeatability. I've also consistantly raised my efficiency above 90%. Read much more on this thread over at HomeBrewTalk.com.

Here are some videos of the system:

Part #1
Part #2
Part #3
Part #4

New Steam Kettles

I just bought two brand new 30 gallon steam kettles last week. I'm still not sure the plan for them, I'll figure that out soon enough, but I definitely have to get couplers welded into each one for easy draining. Now I just have to figure out how to build a 200,000 btu flash boiler to convert the brewery to steam.

Milling Station

Built a proper milling station yesterday. It is built around Monster Mill MM3-2.0 mill that I bought a few months back. Man, can that thing ever crush some grain! Read more on this thread over at HomeBrewTalk.com.

Fermentation Chambers

I recently bought two 14 gallon Blichmann Fermenators and two upright freezers that I've modified into fermentation chambers. I wanted to use freezers so I can safely drop them below freezing - ala "Bright Tanks" - to clarify the beer before racking. Read more on this thread over at HomeBrewTalk.com.

HERMS System

My new HERMS system is complete. Tested it for the first time tonight. There is always room for tweaking, but overall, I'm very happy with the results. Read more on this thread over at HomeBrewTalk.com.