Storm in a pint pot… as new mini-micro brewery launched
By: JimOldfield
May 3rd, 2012
Hand-Pumped EXCLUSIVE
Those who thought “proper” beer-making couldn’t get smaller… think again. For back-shed-brewer Ken Oliver is marketing the “world’s smallest brewery” – a MINI-micro set-up that will easily fit in a corner of your home office, yet turn out 100 litres of commercial-standard ale!
Ken’s Beer Making Machine comes in at well under two grand, including his personal installation, and it has a pile of uses – from moving aspiring home-brewer on from beer kits, to allowing real brewers to trial new brews, develop their recipes and demonstrate craft brewing at live events.
Indeed, two brewers in Ken’s native north-east have already used his kit for pilot brews – with 90 per cent yields.
It all began two years ago when brewing buff Ken conceived the mini-micro at his home at Kenton, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne – initially building it from household parts!
He told Hand-Pumped: “I started off using a picnic coolbox as a mash tun, with two, five-gallon buckets… but it has now turned into a solid, stainless steel home system which reproduces the brewing procedure of most commercial micro-breweries”.
His set-up is based on of three stainless steel vessels – 100 litre mash tun, hot lauter and copper – complete with their own brew stand, which is smaller than an average office desk!
The copper is powered by a standard propane gas canister and the kit includes all the refinements you would expect from a commercial brewery – such as mash and hop filters, and a built-in sparging system (see the link below for the full spec).
Two years after initially creating the set-up, Ken – a hobby brewer for some 30 years – is now launching it commercially, with a view to further promoting the arts of the craft brewer.
Already the Beer Making Machine is causing a big stir, with his new website garnering over 1,000 hits in less than a month.
He will be demonstrating the kit tomorrow (Friday, May 4), at the Gateshead Beer Festival, starting at 1pm.
After that, he will be brewing Newcastle Brown Ale, live in Newcastle city centre, as part of the Blaydon Races event, on June 9.
And in July he aims to brew the world’s hottest beer with the world’s smallest brewery – at the North East Chilli Festival in nearby Seaton Delaval!
Ken added: “For years now, I knew I had something special, something different. I thought it was too good to be kept to myself.
“I’ve been brewing as a hobby for 27 years and got increasingly frustrated at the home-brew shops that just keep plastic buckets and tins of malt extract. What people do is buy kits and if the beer turns out horrible they never go back to it.
He added: “It is good for craft brewing demonstrations, a microbrewery’s experimental brews, for brewing clubs… or just for brewing at home”.
Ken also runs “brew days” – using his kit to teach the art of craft brewing to newcomers. Visit his site for full details.
Meanwhile, his Beer Making Machine can be your s for £1,650 – plus set-up mileage at 50p per mile!
Hand-Pumped link:
www.beermakingmachine.co.uk
