tofumanchu
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2018
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 4
After a hiatus of about 20 years, I decided to get back into homebrewing. I had a great time reminiscing about past brew days while pulling out the old gear. It was about then that I looked at the bottling bucket, capper, and cases of bottles and immediately remembered one of the reasons I quit in the first place! Ugh. I hate washing bottles.
Not to worry, I thought -- I am in better place financially now than I was back then; I'll just spend a few bucks and do some kegging this time around. It'll be much better that way. I got a dual regulator for serving and charging, a handful of kegs, a 9 cu. ft. chest freezer, tubes and fittings, a temperature controller w/ ceramic heater -- the whole shebang. I couldn't have been happier. Of particular note, I bought some picnic taps to tide me over until the holidays, at which point I will have the time to build a nice collar and I'll have myself a proper keezer. I was happy. This is gonna be fun.
I decided on a nice robust porter recipe to get things started. I went to the LHBS and got all of my supplies, did my first BIAB brew day, and aside from some very minor hiccups, ended up with a fermenter full of very tasty -- if only a tad astringent -- dark brew. I racked it to a sparkling clean and sanitzed keg, set it to serving pressure, and popped it in the keezer to do its thing.
After what seemed like the longest I have ever waited for anything, today was the day. I could taste that beer in the last few hours of work. I rushed home and grabbed a pint glass. I filled it up with foamy dark goodness and took a big drink. It was awesome! Visions of future brews danced in my head as I reveled in the fruits of my labor. I was a beer craftsman once again!
A few hours later, after dealing with some work and family responsibilities, I was once again called back to the keg by the promise of malty delights. I opened the keezer to fill my glass, and that's when I saw it: the picnic tap had gotten wedged in the lid of the keezer. Naturally, it had wedged just perfectly so that the tap had remained on for the entire 3 hours. I stared in dismay at the sight of my shiny new corny kegs bathing in 5 gallons of delicious, yet ruined beer. Expletives were screamed, tears were shed, clean up was performed.
The priority of the collar build just went *way* up. I hate cleaning chest freezers.
Not to worry, I thought -- I am in better place financially now than I was back then; I'll just spend a few bucks and do some kegging this time around. It'll be much better that way. I got a dual regulator for serving and charging, a handful of kegs, a 9 cu. ft. chest freezer, tubes and fittings, a temperature controller w/ ceramic heater -- the whole shebang. I couldn't have been happier. Of particular note, I bought some picnic taps to tide me over until the holidays, at which point I will have the time to build a nice collar and I'll have myself a proper keezer. I was happy. This is gonna be fun.
I decided on a nice robust porter recipe to get things started. I went to the LHBS and got all of my supplies, did my first BIAB brew day, and aside from some very minor hiccups, ended up with a fermenter full of very tasty -- if only a tad astringent -- dark brew. I racked it to a sparkling clean and sanitzed keg, set it to serving pressure, and popped it in the keezer to do its thing.
After what seemed like the longest I have ever waited for anything, today was the day. I could taste that beer in the last few hours of work. I rushed home and grabbed a pint glass. I filled it up with foamy dark goodness and took a big drink. It was awesome! Visions of future brews danced in my head as I reveled in the fruits of my labor. I was a beer craftsman once again!
A few hours later, after dealing with some work and family responsibilities, I was once again called back to the keg by the promise of malty delights. I opened the keezer to fill my glass, and that's when I saw it: the picnic tap had gotten wedged in the lid of the keezer. Naturally, it had wedged just perfectly so that the tap had remained on for the entire 3 hours. I stared in dismay at the sight of my shiny new corny kegs bathing in 5 gallons of delicious, yet ruined beer. Expletives were screamed, tears were shed, clean up was performed.
The priority of the collar build just went *way* up. I hate cleaning chest freezers.
