Homebrewing Relaunch

Fits and starts... That is a great description for all things brewing in my life! Whether it's this blog, my YouTube posts for Homebrew Wednesday, or brewing itself, maintaining momentum has been a problem.

This past year marked many changes for me. I found myself with a couple of new side jobs as well as new and increased volunteer roles in several non-profit boards and organizations. My kids are getting older and more involved in activities, and since they're not quite old enough to drive yet, that means I get to do my share of shuttling them around. They both started ice hockey this year - 7+ months of fun! Since they were playing, and I felt like I was living at the rink anyway, I decided to jump back in as well (it had been over 10 years since I had skated or played).

And then I separated my shoulder in a game last November. If I wasn't brewing because of how busy I was, the shoulder injury was the final nail in the coffin... I could not lift anything or put any strain on my shoulder, so brewing was out. Fortunately, lifting 12 ounces to 1 liter was still a possibility!

As we moved into late spring, I started getting the brewing bug again. I began lurking on forums: the AHA Forum, HomeBrewTalk, Northern Brewer, More Beer, the Brewing Network... I got caught up on brewing-related podcasts - old stand-bys and new ones as well: the Brewing Network (the Session, Dr. Homebrew, the Jamil Show, the Sour Hour), Basic Brewing Radio, and Experimental Brewing (my new discovery!). And then I dusted off the equipment and I brewed.

After over nine months of brewing sloth, I brewed three beers in the month of June! My brewing passion rekindled, I brewed a German Pils for my outgoing commander, a Best Bitter, and a Dark Mild. The Brew Garage is still a huge organizational mess (that might be part of what demotivated me in the first place last year), but I am chipping away at that in between other projects.

Beer had been in my sights all along, but with the homebrewing beast reawakened, a good portion of my thoughts have turned to brewing! What recipes do I want to brew next? Do I want to try anything new? Which old stand-bys do I absolutely want to have on tap right now? What new projects might I work on? Notice that I have not mentioned cleaning or organizing... It has to get done, but it is certainly not what I fantasize over!

I have been considering upgrading my portable dispensing system for years. I moved to kegging about 7 years ago - 3 years into the hobby. I had the space for extra refrigerators/freezers, so kegging made a lot of sense (and is a lot less work than bottling!). Once I was kegging, I added a paintball CO2 regulator and a few 20 oz. paintball canisters - Voila! Portable draft beer! I used either an old cooler with the lid removed (2 kegs) or an empty 15 gallon liquid malt extract drum (1 keg) to keep the kegs on ice, pushing the beer with CO2 from the paintball rig, and serving with picnic taps (aka "cobra" taps).

This is a fine setup. It is simple and serviceable. It is really about the beer right? I guess. But to me, it has always been kind of like most teenagers' first car... Most teens dream of something fancy or sporty, but end up saddled with economical. A car is a car, and having wheels opens up a whole new world. The same has been true for my homebrew portable dispensing setup. However, just like how I dreamed of upgrading my 1962 Mercury to a muscle car (which I eventually achieved, by the way), I've been fantasizing about a slicker beer serving setup for occasions when I take my beer on the road.

The assembled jockey box

The Along with the other brewing-related activities I had relaunched, I was also trolling Craigslist. I was planning a jockey box build, and weighing the pros and cons of stainless coils vs. aluminum plates, when a complete jockey box popped up on CL for about the price I was looking to pay for a cold plate by itself... I could not resist! I stopped the debate waging in my mind, and purchased the jockey box from an older gentleman who has given up brewing.

It came complete with everything I needed to serve from two Sankey kegs (the keg fitting used by most commercial brewers), short the CO2 tank. This is fine, because as I've mentioned, I already have a great portable CO2 system; I can repurpose the full size regulator or keep it set up from Sankey kegs. The gentleman described his cleaning and storage techniques - which seemed adequate - but I gave it a thorough cleaning and sanitizing anyway. He had it set up (probably the tavern owners from whom he bought it actually) with black beet lines. Black lines look super sleek, but I really do prefer clear... I like to see the beer flowing through the lines (Is it foaming excessively in the lines? Is the color what I expect? etc.), and I like to have the visual confidence that they are actually clean (I can easily see if there is beer stone or any other discoloration in the lines). So I ended up replacing all the beer lines. Other than that, it was ready to roll!

The inner business

I used the jockey box to serve up two of my homebrews at a big picnic (a change of command/unit family day), and it worked great! In fact, a friend who owns a pub brought her own two-tap jockey box (with stainless coils) to serve an IPA and a Cider, and my setup seemed to be a little less finicky - she had a lot of foam problems with the IPA. I purposefully put in extra long lines in mine in hopes of minimizing foaming issues; I did no math or scientific process, but I've got 5-footers going from the keg to the cold plate, which is 10-11 feet internally, and then 8-footers running from the plate to the taps. In my experience, longer lines help equalize the pressures and result in easier (less foamy) pours with decent head.

I hope to be covering tasting notes and recipes of these three beers, along with a modification project for my jockey box (I acquired another steel-clad cooler and am looking to make a modular, stacking setup) in upcoming posts!

Cheers!