Current Brewery Setup

Here is a list of my current brewery setup.   Due to space restrictions, this allows me to do partial mashes up to 4.5lbs in my apartment.  I only use a single vessel to ferment in at the advice of Jamil Zainasheff's book "Brewing Classic Styles".  I typically do a 8 to 15 day fermentation.  I only rack to a secondary 5 gallon glass carboy to dry hop or add fruit.  Using this setup, there is no need to use an auto-siphon or racking cane. 

Mashing

• 2 Gallon Rubbermaid Cooler retrofitted with 3/8" brass valve (to avoid having to hold the spout open during runoff)
  
• 9" Vegetable Steamer insert acting as false bottom (works great, easy to clean)
  
• 2 Gallon 18/10 Stainless Steel pot for strike water
  
• Taylor digital read probe thermometer
• Digital read scale for measuring grain, hops, irish moss, priming sugar, etc.

Boiling

• 22qt 18/10 Stainless Steel Brew Kettle (able to boil 4 gallons without worrying about boil over)
  
• 24" Brewer's Spoon (Plastic)
  
• 25' Wort Chiller with indoor faucet attachment
  

Fermentation

• 6 Gallon Better Bottle ported with valve
  
• 5/8" tubing connected to top of a 5 gallon water bottle as a blow off tube
  
• Traditional 3-Piece airlock to replace blow off tube
• 1/2" tubing used to rack from Primary to Bottling Bucket

Bottling

• 7 gallon plastic bucket with the hole for the spigot dropped 1" to allow more beer to be bottled without tilting
  
• Bottle filler attachment using 1" of 3/8" tubing to prevent having to hold the bottle filler
  
• 90 bottle bottle-tree (a must have!)
• Sanitizer Injector (makes sanitizing extremely simple)
• "Emily"style capper
  

Sunset Grill, Boston, MA - 8.30.2008

Visited Sunset Grill (www.allstonsfinest.com) with Emily and her roommate Dyan. I was able to try the following beers:

Ommegang Rouge (Flanders Style Sour Ale)

This immediately reminded me of Rodenbach Grand Cru both in taste and appearance.  It was served in a tulip glass and had no head whatsoever.  When held up to the light, there was a deep red color shining through.  The taste was definitely tart with a mild horse blanket flavor.  

Sierra Nevada Tourpedo (Pale Ale)

I asked a clerk at a local beverage store about this one as they had it available for growler's.   He said that he hadn't had it but thinks it was "hoppy".  This wouldn't surprise me coming from Sierra Nevada.  The taste reminded me of a less bitter version of their traditional Pale Ale.  I wish they made this available in bottles.

Hacker Pschorr Dunkel Weizen

I could barely detect any clove or banana type flavors in this one.  Huge amounts of malt.  Very drinkable.

Afterword, we visited a local beverage store and Emily picked me up a bottle of Southampton's Abbot 12 (750 Series).  This tasted like liquid raison juice.  It was overly sweet although I don't believe I've had many Quadrupels.  I would not get it again but it was worth trying.