I spend an almost ridiculous amount of time online looking up equipment for my planned nano-brewery. I am always clicking links, checking out message boards and generally trying to find the best price (along with cheapest shipping) for what I need and want. This is how I stumbled across Bubba’s Barrels. I was shopping for brew pots when I first came across his website. The prices were almost too good to be true. I clicked the shipping page to get an idea of what that would cost me and to my surprise, they were located right here in Knoxville. I called and spoke with Carl the owner and made plans to come check out the equipment they offered. Bubba’s Barrels is located on Pembroke Avenue, just a few short miles up Broadway. When I went for my first visit, what I noticed was both the quality of his products and his enthusiasm for what he does. All his brew pots are made out of 304 stainless steel food grade shipping barrels. He even makes conical fermenters as well. To be honest, I did not end up purchasing a brew pot from him, but not because anything was wrong with them. I had my heart set on Blichmann and couldn’t talk myself out of it, even though I would have saved several hundred dollars. In retrospect, I regret my decision. Sure Blichmann may look a lot more fancy, but Bubba’s Brew pots are every bit as functional and at a fraction of the cost.
One of Bubba’s Conical fermentors
I recently saw where Carl had added some new equipment to the website. This reminded me that I had meant to get a whirlpool device installed in my brew pot. I called him up and asked when he could do this. He said to come on by and drop it off. He’d have it ready for me in a few hours. While there I spoke with him about my upgrade plans, and how I had just noticed his burner stands for 55 gallon pots. I could use another quality burner and need a good brew stand set up. I also complained about how I saw online that Blichmann uses the same standard Banjo Burner but it only puts out around 78,000 BTUs. He advised me that it’s because the regulator that Blichmann sells with their burners isn’t that powerful. Carl sells really nice, pro-grade regulators and offered to let me try out the last one he had in stock. “Take this for your brew day, If you like it, I’ll sell it to you, if not, bring it back”. I did use it and WOW, I love it. I never knew I could get my strike water and boil up to temperature so fast. I love this regulator and I’m definitely buying it. Here’s a short video I took of the regulator in action:
I did get my whirlpool installed. This consisted of him putting a hole in the top of the brew pot, bending the stainless steel tubing and installing the fittings. It was worth every penny I paid for it. If you have a brew pot and a march pump, you can’t go wrong with this type of installation. See what I’m talking about and check out my video below:
So this is it for my local vendor spotlight. I do plan on buying more equipment from Bubba’s Barrels and I will post pictures here or on twitter of my upgrades. Hopefully I can afford that new brew stand soon.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me Ratchet (at) RatchetBrews.com
Cheers,
Ratchet Brews 