My Homemade Brewery
Below are some initial pictures of my homemade brewery. Generally, stainless steel is the way to go.
In the foreground is the stainless steel mash tun. It is wrapped with an electric heating wire which you can see hanging off the back to the left, and about 3" of a fibrous insulation (not fiberglass - too itchy) and then finally with a foil faced bubble wrap. Keeping the temperature in the mash tun steady is the name of the game. Behind the mash tun is the hot liquor (water) tank. It is fed by the 1/2" copper pipe above it. This pipe goes directly to my indirect-fired domestic hot water heater in my house so I can fill my hot liquor tank with 125 degree water and only have to heat it from there (as opposed to heating cold water). The hot liquor tank is sitting on top of a propane fired burner stand. The brewery is currently not operational but is in storage. I always roll the whole set up over to an open, concrete bulkhead in order to maximize ventilation and minimize fire hazard.
Here is a close up of the bottom of the hot liquor tank on its burner stand. Note the dial thermometer to indicate temperature of hot water.