Sympathy for The Devil's Brew
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:36 pm
‘Please allow me to introduce myself; I’m a man of little wealth and good taste’. Coffee (The Devil's Brew) is my business, the pint I have after work is my pleasure. I ‘know’ food, and used to be able to swing a hammer.
Started brewing my own beer from kits around 30 years ago, guess that makes me a ‘geezer’, and with help from Papazian spent many years extract brewing. Pressures on time increased it became Festa Brew or Brewhouse with generous addition of hops and a weekly visit to the Pump House brewery in Moncton for a pint of IPA.
As age and mileage take their toll it has become difficult to wrestle ferment buckets and carboys (that’s the ‘sympathy’ part) so a few months ago I finally realised the wisdom of kegs and using gas instead of just passing it. Rummaging thru the rooms of valuable recyclable things (junk), that have been acquired over the years working as a ‘wrench’, turned up 5 taps, a triple tower, a couple of Corny kegs, a nitrogen regulator, Shurflow pump, boxes of valves, solenoids, boilers, heat exchangers, several carbonator pumps and motors, hundreds of brass fittings, various stainless steel stuff and a couple of unused fridges. After coming across many more items that I did not remember owning I have started de-cluttering to make more space for re-modelling the brew area.
A few weeks ago a small kegerator with co2 tanks, regulator, and kegs found their way from Kiji to my basement and with a few new goodies it is time to improve my brew. Plan to go back to extract brewing and by spring should be starting whole grain on a small scale. Looking forward to semi-retirement (but nor seeing it yet).
I have been lurking on your forum for some time and signed up recently as you seem to be a pleasant and knowledgeable group. I hope to learn a lot.
TerryM
Started brewing my own beer from kits around 30 years ago, guess that makes me a ‘geezer’, and with help from Papazian spent many years extract brewing. Pressures on time increased it became Festa Brew or Brewhouse with generous addition of hops and a weekly visit to the Pump House brewery in Moncton for a pint of IPA.
As age and mileage take their toll it has become difficult to wrestle ferment buckets and carboys (that’s the ‘sympathy’ part) so a few months ago I finally realised the wisdom of kegs and using gas instead of just passing it. Rummaging thru the rooms of valuable recyclable things (junk), that have been acquired over the years working as a ‘wrench’, turned up 5 taps, a triple tower, a couple of Corny kegs, a nitrogen regulator, Shurflow pump, boxes of valves, solenoids, boilers, heat exchangers, several carbonator pumps and motors, hundreds of brass fittings, various stainless steel stuff and a couple of unused fridges. After coming across many more items that I did not remember owning I have started de-cluttering to make more space for re-modelling the brew area.
A few weeks ago a small kegerator with co2 tanks, regulator, and kegs found their way from Kiji to my basement and with a few new goodies it is time to improve my brew. Plan to go back to extract brewing and by spring should be starting whole grain on a small scale. Looking forward to semi-retirement (but nor seeing it yet).
I have been lurking on your forum for some time and signed up recently as you seem to be a pleasant and knowledgeable group. I hope to learn a lot.
TerryM
Welcome Terry, This is the place to talk about and learn brewing, I hope you have fun here. 
