Homebrewligan Fantasy...to Keezer (Kegerator if it's a fridge you have!)

Hole saw next to attempted hole.

We are in the process of building on a bar to the back of our place, something that can be used for small events at the Bn'B.  We've named it The Bird Blind Bar because we mostly use the enormous 5 1/2 x 8 foot window that looks into the backyard garden for birding...whilst having an alcoholic beverage or two.  So, for months now, I've been using a fairly large portion of my paycheck to purchase the parts and finally got them all and convinced my buddy Adam to help me put it together for the obligatory East Side Pie and beers.  He had the essential tools: a hole saw, the drill and the gumption needed to bore through solid metal.  Beer is a great motivator.

This photo shows what several minutes of right handed pressure looks like...it was actually smoking and I was worried that when it finally pushed through, the force would break the plastic backing that lines the interior of the chest freezer.  For those of you who might not know the terminology, a keezer is simply a chest freezer (in my case a Holiday brand) that has been converted into a keg beer dispensing unit...as a refrigerator that does the same is referred to as a kegerator.  Once the kiddos were off to college, we really didn't have a need for a large freezer, but having draught beer at home for company, or for events, has been a real fantasy!  (Oh heck, it's a fantasy--parties not necessary.)  This isn't a quick DIY project though, unless your resources and time are limitless...this has been a plan in the making and as you will see, still isn't quite there.  But is it worth it? Of course it is!

Adam and I work at the Austin Home Brew Supply together and he's been brewing for nearly a decade... mead, wine, beer etc and he writes the blog for the store and is the customer service guru.  A good friend to have! Plus he has a heart of gold and a wicked sense of humor...add beer and pizza to the mix and you might think this project would soon head south...but we're a 'get it done' team!  As you can see, he eventually burst through for the double tower, and went onto the second hole, which took half the time!  I lined the hole with duct tape to prevent the scratchy metal from rubbing the tubing and also for extra insulation.   The second hole is for a single draft tower...mostly to accommodate  the folks who don't like beer with an alternative: cider, mead, kombucha or maybe a wine cooler...something like that.  

 You can see that the next step is screwing and securing the draft towers...this happened very quick!  The two towers are made by different companies and if you're going to try something like this, I suggest you pull everything out of the box and check them out.  The double draft tower in my set was much nicer, having shorter pointed screws that hid the installment, whereas the other tap had 5 inch, flat tipped screws that required pre-drilling and harbor ugly bolts that both protrude into the keezer.  Only I see them, but still...they're ugly and awkward and a pain to install.

The Cluster "Fuggle" inside the Keezer...

Here's the mess that's inside.  3 kegs (2 Cornelius and one Pin-lock) along with the CO2 cannister which is a fracking nightmare to adjust.  The CO2 regulator doesn't have a knob like I'd assumed they all had.  It has to be adjusted via flathead screwdriver...and as you can see, with the snug space...it's a pain in the backside.  The next step is to try and figure out how to bore through the wall and put the CO2 on the outside so I can adjust it more easily.  This is really no small matter.  Drilling through the top of the freezer is easy by comparison because there are no coils in the lid...I'm still trying to find a map of the coils so that when we drill through the side, for the shank, we don't hit something!  For the time being, it takes two people to adjust and get the dang thing out of the spaghetti hole of beer line and CO2 tubing...again, is it worth it?  Hell yeah!

Fatboy "Bud" Floyd slurping up the beer suds!

The great thing is that the timing was perfecto...I had two homebrews ready to keg and carbonate...how to do that effectively was a new game for me.  Finding a PSI chart online is easy enough, because if you ask 10 homebrewers what's the serving rate, carbonation rate and time or any such technical question you will get a different answer from each Homebrewligan! The above photo is my El Dorado double hopped IPA that I made some 5 weeks ago and it was ready to drink...but needed to cool and carb.  Fatboy, my beer loving Boston Terrier was happy to help clean any spillage that occurred, he's great that way.  The other was my first completely solo recipe that I was inspired to create for my friend Marc Opperman who gave me a mess of organic Republic of Texas oranges!  I call that one The Republic of Tejas Orange Ale and it smells divine!

There you have it, the Keezer was built...in the course of an afternoon.  The beer was ready, so we loaded everything up and poured a sample...a warm but tasty brew to celebrate!  This isn't an over the top difficult project to do, but I was very, very grateful to have Adam's help...he answers the phone at AHS, and helps folks through such projects on a daily basis...which is good for you and was great for me!  Some gals love shoes, diamonds, fancy dinners etc...but to me, this is pure luxury!  Cheers!

Adam Lipscomb of AHS!

Good....to the last drop!  Currently, we've made a melomel for the third tap next year, but are also making an organic hard cider to put on tap as soon as it's ready!

Happy home brewing and Cheers!
~Cheryl

Beer Necessities' Sarah Eshelman

Sarah Eshelman of Beer Necessities

Sarah is the energy behind Beer Necessities, a ladies only beer connoisseur Meetup group that started last September and has grown to 80+ women aged 22-69 in just 5 months.

I had lunch with Sarah last week to talk about the group and propose some linked events with Austin Bed & Brew and Austin HomeBrew Supply.  She rode her bike to my place to see the Bn'B, then we raced to my favorite local craft beer spot Black Star Co-op ...I drove.  It was a tie.  She's that fast.

I went to the second meeting after stumbling upon a notice in my Facebook feed.  The invitation was to meet at Craft Pride for a "women in the industry forum."  I had never heard of a "Meetup" or visited the popular Rainey Street area and had no idea what to expect.  I was early and got to watch people slowly file in, get a beer and recognize other lone-women.  We had about an hour to visit, then the 4 person panel began with introductions and a Q & A. It was very informative and fun!

I knew no one but found it quite easy to talk with other women about the fabulous beer selection, brewing process and our interest in meeting other women who find beer our beverage of choice.  The group is large but has a core group of about 25 that show up to the events.  Sarah keeps the events varied and the locations moving. It turns out that the first meeting was at her favorite spot, Hopfields just a few weeks before.  Events run the gamut of activities from informative gatherings at breweries or pubs to activities like March 7th's Twisted X run benefiting Thundering Paws Animal Sanctuary in Dripping Springs; this past Monday night's gathering at Which Craft for a pairing of Boozy's Cupcakes with craft beer and the upcoming home brewing demonstration at AHS.

I asked Sarah how this all came about and it turns out that she was visiting a friend in Chicago, who is part of the 'mother' Beer Necessities group started there by Rachelle Matz.  When Sarah got back to Austin she decided that we needed a group like this here.  She checked in with our local Bitch Beer guru, Caroline Wallace to make sure something similar didn't already exist...and so it began.

Recognizing the need for a group like this is only part of its success, most of it is due to Sarah's efforts, stellar personality, and the fact that she's really very knowledgeable and sincere about her love of the elixir known as beer.  Sarah attributes her interest in beer to her father, Robert.  She describes him as a "North Carolina Hop-head."   His work took him to Belgium several times a year and with each visit he became more excited about rare beers and shared his stories with his eldest.  They're a beer drinking team and he comes to Austin to hang out with she and her friends reveling in the array of delectable beers we have here to savor.  He's fond of saying "I got my daughter into beer, but she's surpassed me."  With the whirlpool of activities she organizes, I'd most probably have to agree with him.

So, just who is Sarah Eshelman?  A dynamic RTVF, UT grad working as a producer, editor and consultant for various organizations and her own Sarahedits.com  She's a strong, uber healthy beer fan, thinker and a true feminist who sees the changing landscape of women in a positive light and recognizes that the majority of our group have self-opted out of the traditional female role-motherhood.  The older ladies in the group, myself included, mostly have grown children but the younger to middle range have opted out.
 
Sarah loves 512 Brewing Co. and when I asked her about her favorite "backup beer" she went on a roll: Founder's Dirty Bastard, Rahr's Iron Thistle, coffee beers, Scotch Ales etc. etc. Since we were at Black Star I asked about her favorite house beer and she said "any of the Dockhand series."  She basically loves variety and adventure and sharing her love of beer with other women!

I always look forward to the Meetup, even though they occur more than I can attend...usually twice monthly. If you have ideas or interest in Beer Necessities, follow the link and get involved!  Sarah has home brewed in the past and plans to get back to it soon...she's a gem!

Cheers!

~Cheryl

Fat Tuesday with Fett Vater (Fat Daddy) Homebrewligan Extraordinaire!

Good morning beer fans and a Happy Mardi Gras to you!  I'm currently sipping on one of my own beer-gone-bad concoctions, it's my Lavender Saison, a recipe from Austin Home Brew Supply that I decided to "doll up" with an infused tea from all of the fresh organic lavender plants that I had in full bloom at the time.  The result:  a beer that pulls back the memory of having your mouth washed out with soap....only with a high alcohol content, which barely makes up for the burps that follow.  My fix, which is actually one of my favorite breakfast drinks now, is to juice a Texas Ruby Red grapefruit and top it off with the aforementioned disaster.  It's bright, fresh and goes with any of your more delectable breakfast foods.  I had a 3 minute poached egg atop one slice of dark brown rye, toasted with cream cheese, thinly sliced red onion, lox, capers and fresh squeezed lemon.  Perfection, if I do say so myself.  Which brings up something I've been milling over...breakfast beers?  What is your favorite?  I was going to share this concept with some my co-workers when I got shut down by their opinion that a breakfast beer was dark and brewed with coffee.  I held my tongue, but I'll speak my mind here.  Don't mess with coffee in the morning.  I like mine strong and organic with full-on 1/2 and 1/2.  I like a coffee porter in the afternoon when I'm getting pooped.  But I like coffee in the morning, to be just that...coffee.  Feel free to share your thoughts!  There is no wrong answer.  Beer-good.

Anyway...back to the present blog.  It's been way too long since I sat down to bang out a few musings  on brewing and quite a bit has happened since last I did.  Namely, I began working at the home brew store here in Austin and have brewed many a beer since and have slowly been using my whole paychecks to purchase the pieces to convert my chest freezer into a keezer.  The affable fellow I'm writing about today is the reason I got hired, is the source for inspiration and help with the keezer and one of my newest favorite people in town.  Adam writes the blog for us at Austin Home Brew Supply and has been brewing for 9 years.  

The thing about home brewers that I love is the absolute uniqueness of their process and their being.  The more I get to know them the more it is absolutely impossible to categorize them...not that I would aim to do so, but it's like the adage about brewing itself: if you ask 10 homebrewers a question, expect 10 or more different answers.

Adam knows so much about beer it's insane.  Yet, he admittedly says that when it comes to brewing, he mostly does it off the cuff...and that's what I wanted to observe.

Adam and Django on the deck, straining da beer.

I showed up around 1 in the afternoon and he had everything sanitized and the propane set up on the back deck. We popped open a few beerz and got started, while listening to Megan Lynch (new to me and man what a voice) and talking about well, everything.

Adam's first homebrew was a Shiner Bock clone, something I can hardly imagine him drinking now,  the reason being, he knew the taste and wanted to judge his home brewing accordingly.  He sez it was drinkable.  I've yet to brew a bock so what do I know?   He brews a few times a month and picks something up new from the grocery store each week...which is one of the great things about beer culture right now...so many new beers to explore and love!  Yes, I'll have another, thanks!

I'm going backward in time with these photos,  sparging on the left and the glorious wort on the right.

By the time we got to this stage though, I was keeping up with Adam on the beers and as strong of liver that I am, I forgot to take notes or anything...doi.

Sure, I'll have another beer.

Adam and I are both parents and we swap war stories occasionally and he keeps us in stitches at work with tales of his youngest, Danger Boy.  When I asked Adam the obligatory question all home brewers wanna know...do you have a disaster brew story?  Adam had more than one...this alone might deter the average novice, but not Adam.  He learned the hard way the value of proper sterilization and had to replace all of his plastic tubing.  Another time he used the chloramine rich city tap water, creating a lovely old band aid off flavor.  Ew.   But the best story, the one I'm sure I'll never-ever hear again involves Danger Boy.  I get a kick out the antics of Danger boy...things horrifically scary like when he opened up the gas line on the propane tank and let it all drain out, or when he sliced open the outdoor hose and turned the water on...there wasn't an explosion and Adam caught the water before flooding under the house...but the attack on beer is too much, and, should be a warning to all folks who have imps and tricksters as spawn.  Danger Boy simply popped off the air lock and poured catfood into the precious beer, spoiling it for homebrewligans and felines everywhere.  Hide your beer, place it out of reach, do whatever is necessary!  Still, Adam brews.  Why yes, I'd like just one more!  

I had a fantastic time, laughed so much and drank so much I hardly remembered to ask all the questions I'd come with, but this last moment cracked me up most because of the shear joy of being squirted unexpectedly!  We both got it in the face!

There will be more Adam blogs to come...I love his beer, and I love his Home Brewery name...Fett Vater, Fat Daddy or Big Daddy...which fits in perfectly on this most hedonistic of silly holidays!  Thank you for the fun and for letting me hang out and learn more about brew and more about you!

Adam and the Mrs. at Flying Saucer

Adam is a sci-fi fan and loves to give his beers names that spin off of his favorite stories and characters.  The first beer I had of his was C3PA, and on this day he brewed an El Dorado hop-heavy IPA...I'm still waiting to hear the name he'll bless it with!  Adam blogs at Austin Home Brew Supply and does customer support.  He and Melissa live in Round Rock, both have theatre backgrounds and are currently engaged in raising some very interesting and talented kiddos.  They're such a great couple!  

Happy home brewing and...

Cheers! 

~Cheryl