Building your own brewery
Building your own brewery is relatively simple yet hugely satisfying. You need a few simple tools, some basic techniques , quality parts you know work together and some instructions.
techniques
There are a couple of simple metal working techniques you need to master:
- Drilling holes
- Making larger holes.
DRILLING HOLES
Drilling into stainless is difficult, and if the metal gets hot it hardens even more. but a few basic rules help:
Once the pilot hole has been drilled it needs opening out to accept either a holesaw arbour or QMax cutter.
- first use a sharp drill bit that will cut rather than wear a hole.
- use a slow speed on the electric drill - and slow means very slow
- cool the area with cutting fluid or water regularly
- we start with a 4 mm cobalt drill bit ( bought individually from the likes of tooled up)
- cover the area to be cut with duct tape; it makes marking out easier and starting the hole easier too.
- before you mark mark the hole very firmly with a sharp centre punch - firm enough to leave a dent in the pot
- locate your 4 mm drill bit into this dent, slowly start the drill and watch carefully for signs of the drill cutting, use a medium hard pressure
- be aware of the drill binding as it breaks through.
- Pound shop penetrating oil makes a great cutting fluid ( as does lard according to a model engineering forum I've just read!)
Once the pilot hole has been drilled it needs opening out to accept either a holesaw arbour or QMax cutter.
making larger holes |

There are two ways of making larger holes in stainless; holesaws and Qmax cutters. Holesaws are better for thicker pots above 1.6mm but are more expensive than QMax cutters. QMax cutters are simple to use , leave a clean hole and wear less than holesaws
the following instructions are for cutting a 21mm hole in a pot.
the following instructions are for cutting a 21mm hole in a pot.
- First drill a 4mm pilot hole as described above
- Using a sharp 11mm cobalt drill enlarge the pilot hole. Again take it slowly, use a cutting fluid and be aware of the drill binding on break through.
- Take the cutter apart and lubricate the threads
- Put the end of the cutter inside the pot ( the three curved 'teeth' face inwards )
- From the outside re-thread the two parts together and do the threaded bolt up finger tight.
- You'll need a long and good quality 8mm Allen key for the next section (Mine came from Aldi and they're more than good enough)
- Attach the Allen key to the bolt, then slowly turn until you feel the cutter bite.
- Then using the full leverage available rotate the Allen key a few turns
- Once the cutter is through remove it from the hole
- You may wish to tidy the hole up using a fine, round section file or a Dremel type multi-tool.