Upgrading Alibaba

Speaking of modifications, (weren’t we?) the keg washer that was included in the purchase of the brewery is of the ‘alibaba.com’ sort, ie junky Chinese-fabricated, and included neither a pressure gauge nor a heater for the detergent tank. Not ideal,… Continue Reading…

Saving My Button Finger

So, in measuring volumes with the mashtun flowmeter, it quickly became apparent that some streamlining was necessary. To reset the total gallons on the the mashtun flowmeter required like 15 keypresses through 3 menus, instead of the more typical ‘push/hold… Continue Reading…

A Tale of Two Partners

On a recent Saturday morning, one partner hung drywall in the brewery. Another effed around. OK, it just looks like effing around. I’m starting final assembly on the grant fountain; today I installed the water manifold in its final position.… Continue Reading…

Bringing History To Life

Apologies for the cliche, but in my defense, I’m misusing it anyway. About 2 years ago, our friend Susan forwarded us an email from Matt Becker, of Brewery Becker in Brighton (My comments bolded): Fwd: [AABG] Anyone want some stuff?… Continue Reading…

Reunited

This is Perry. Remember how all my gadgets have names? This is a peristaltic pump unit, Perry for short, that I put together for unattendish* yeast collection from the fermenters at Kickstand Brewing Co, where I used to make beer.… Continue Reading…

Highway Star, Part 2

Since our three-wheel truck is finally legal to drive, we’ve taken it out for a few jaunts, and following each I’ve fixed some newly broken thing(s). As of now, the cooling system leaks no more, the engine doesn’t randomly shut… Continue Reading…

Who Wants A Puppy?

Who doesn’t? We decided quite some time ago that we wanted to have a puppy cannon in our taproom. Now, of course it can’t shoot real puppies, but we thought stuffed puppies would still be welcomed by most. Q: WHAAAAT?… Continue Reading…

Audrey’s Shaping Up

By fits and starts, in between all the demolition work, I’ve smoothed Audrey’s operation to a fairly functional state. I’m sure that once we’ve done a couple of brews together there will be some tweaks, but she should be helpful… Continue Reading…

Tuned For Maximum Smoke

So we used to say, back in the day, before starting up a new piece of electronic/electrical gear. If we actually did get smoke, we’d say, ‘Aww, you went and let the smoke out!’ which was an extension of the… Continue Reading…

Audrey the Auto-Doser

My brewery gadgets typically end up with names, for convenience. The carb-bot became Carl. The peristaltic yeast pump became Perry. This way, in an actual work situation one can say, “Hey, throw Perry on FV4 and see if you can… Continue Reading…