alexpgp: (Visa)
alexpgp ([personal profile] alexpgp) wrote2014-10-11 07:50 pm

Middlin' good...

Didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but more than I expected.

Doesn't that sound like a riddle!

* * *

The highlight of the day consisted of stopping by the store that sells brewing supplies this afternoon, to take advantage of their free beer-making presentation. This, the result of having scored most, if not all, of the elements required to ferment some wort and bottle some beer at a garage sale for next to nothing. Once my immediate crazy rush is done, I think I might try out the equipment with a batch of something easy to make (although to listen to the guy at the store, pretty much all of it is easy).

As a happy aside, it turns out this place also fills paintball CO2 tanks, which is what I've been using, together with a special fitting, in a SodaStream that, similarly, was picked up at a yard sale. Although "official" SodaStream tanks capable of carbonating 60 liters of water run about $20 if you trade in your empty (or $40+ for a new unit), I'm happily getting refills for something like $3 (reusing my 12-oz capacity tank, naturally), which makes the SodaStream unit very cost-effective. Until learning that I can get a refill from a place about a mile away, refilling involved something of a drive, with a concomitant investment in time.

Cheers...

[identity profile] bandicoot.livejournal.com 2014-10-12 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
It costs me just under $25 for a bottle of CO2 at a Santa Cruz beer supply place. Of course, it lasts me about a year and a half or so. Apparently there isn't any place in the county that refills bottles - you have to do a trade.

Instead of?

[identity profile] alexpgp.livejournal.com 2014-10-12 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
Do you use the CO2 to carbonate beer? If so, do you use it in combination with priming sugar? Instead of?

Edited 2014-10-12 01:59 (UTC)

Re: Instead of?

[identity profile] bandicoot.livejournal.com 2014-10-12 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
I keg in Corny Kegs and pressurize them with CO2 using a manifold and a couple of valves. Priming sugar is for self-carbonation in bottles. I think there's a way to pressurize bottles, but I've never looked into it. A brewer friend brings bottles to various dinners, so I assume it's possible if you have the right gear. But I'm kegging to eliminate all the hassle of washing bottles, which takes a fair amount of water.