Beervana

I went to the beer festival, I was looking for the dogfish head guy, he seems to have the best job in the world, but he wasn't there. I did manage to chat to a couple of the brewers. One in particular only revealed himself as the brewer after I had described his  "Rex Attitude" beer  (Yeastie Boys brewery)  as "Like mud on a hospital floor, a combination of peat and disinfectant." I was surprised to find that this was the effect they were aiming for.

Anyway, none of this is getting our boat built.


It is however an opportunity to describe to our faithful readers (thanks to both of our Dads) what other projects inhabit my garage.


Being a good father, I have helped my sons in their various academic endeavours - in particular Jack's design tech projects. One of which was a re-cycling project. What better project than a recycled fridge a light bulb and a thermostat - the perfect environment for brewing beer. Jack built it, I took photo's of him working and he got a merit at school - the fact that he was 16 and making a brewery didn't seem to bother his design tech teacher. 

Anyone who brews beer knows that the worst part is bottling. There's a similarity between boat building and bottling - if you don't clean up immediately after yourself, the gunk, be it glue or sediment, it dries and its a bastard to clean. So, I discovered the concept of the kegorator, to use the vernacular. Instead of bottling you keg, and then you force CO2 into the keg at 4 degrees Centigrade for 48 hours and you have carbonated beer. For this you need a keg, or two, some tubes, a CO2 bottle, some CO2, a tap and an old fridge - here's one I prepared earlier.

Nice Kegs, shame about the face.

This is the 20ltr keg in the donor fridge, I picked this up from a really nice guy on Trademe for $40. The reconditioned Kegs you can pick up for about $80. The real expense is the bloody CO2 bottle, that little feller is a reconditioned unit from Porirua, a mere $220. Although it does come with 2 and a half litres of CO2. The regulator, tap and pipes weren't that cheap either.

"Kegarator"

So, here's the finished article,we have extracted 20 ltrs of Redwood Ale and 20 ltrs of Wheat beer from that tap so far. You will note I have improvised by using the floor as a drip tray.


If you look above the fridge you'll see a complicated nest of wires, an amplifier, an Airport express, an outdoor speaker (one of a pair) and a speaker switch. From my iPod, I can pipe music from here to the garage, outside on the deck or downstairs into the spa. Or any combination of the three. More on that another day. If you look closely in the foreground - there's a tub of Vaseline. Answers on a postcard....