Tuesday, April 25, 2006

The Kegerator, Part 1

One of my hobbies has taken a new twist: I have decided to go to a draft system. Homebrewing has taught me a very interesting principle: don't buy a tool until you understand why you need it. This saves you money, and it also teaches you how to proceed if the tool suddenly becomes unavailable.

My last wine #19 got exposed to a bit too much oxygen in the last stages of the fermentation. Not a big deal; the flavor changed, but if I merely pretend that's what I was going for then nothing bad happens. The brew is still good, just not what I was shooting for. But... if I had a CO2 tank handy, then I could have gotten closer to my target. Also, not having central air, it distresses me about the temperature fluctuations under which my brew is stored. Finally, I need to make some champagne. It would seem that force-carbonating is the way to go, this time at least. Clearly, it is time to go to a draft system.

The first parts arrived today. I got a Fridgidaire 7 cu ft. freezer chest, and a thermostat from morebeer.com. Here's a picture of the freezer. It should fit four kegs inside it, not that I plan to have that much on tap at once, but my bottled stuff will fit in there nicely.

On Thursday, the keg and CO2 tank should arrive....

1 comment:

Esther said...

Hey, Matt! I've been reading that magazine (did you want it back by the way?). It's really cool. It's a little hard for me to understand though because of all the computer vocabulary/explanations/etc. and I'm not a computer expert to begin with. But all in all, I'm enjoying the articles. I might investigate more on the subject when I really get into my major. So, thanks!