Sibling rivalry. I believe these two words will go far in explaining what motivated me to build this contraption. You see, my younger brother started homebrewing after I did, but then he went nuts and built the Dead Turtle Brewery. Take a look and see if you don't think my jealosy is justified. I was positively green (I'm still a bit covetous). 

I'd been making all-grain batches for a while using a 10-gallon Gott cooler for a mash tun, and a 12-gallon (48 quart) Thermos brand box-style ice chest was my hot liquor tank. I had one converted keg for a kettle, but I also used it to heat all the water for infusions and sparging. This was an extremely hectic arrangement, especially around mashout time when I had to boil water to get the mash up to mashout temperature and have more water ready to sparge almost immediately after that. It was also quite clumsy (and dangerous). I had to lift the hot liquor tank up in the sky while it was full of water within thirty degrees of boiling. It was precariously perched on a stack of boxes and junk to get it over the mash tun, which was up on the workbench over the kettle which was on the floor. Brewing this way would take the vim and vigor right out of your day -- well, mine anyway.

By the way, "femto" is a prefix that means one-quadrillionth or 1/1,000,000,000,000,000.  Some breweries are megabreweries.  Some are microbreweries.  Mine's a femtobrewery.

Note: Most of the images on these pages are shown half-size to accommodate dial-up connections. To see them in their full-sized glory, simply click on them. If clicking on a photo doesn't take you to a larger version of the picture, you're seeing it full-sized already.

Caveat: Before we go any further, as Norm Abram would say, "Let's talk a bit about shop safety. Be sure you read, understand and follow the directions that accompany your tools ..." or something like that. Don't blame me when you cut off your finger. Saws are supposed to be sharp, as are drill bits. Be careful, for crying out loud. Wear eye and hearing protection when it's appropriate. Drink your homebrew when you're done flinging sharp, hot shards of metal around the garage. 

Unlike Norm's show however, there are no measured "drawerings" available from me. Now get out there and burn up your drill motor! They'll make more.

Hubris Ergo Homebrew!