I know I have said this over and over again, but it is hard to beat going to Vegas. First off, I get reward points on my credit card which I use to buy gas, pay my cable bill, pay for my truck insurance, general day to day stuff that everyone has to have. I also use this card when I am going to buy things that I have cash for already. I use the card, get the points, and then pay the bill each month, so there is no interest. So I then use the points to buy airplane tickets. Generally each time I go to Vegas, I can afford either one or two tickets, one way. If I buy two tickets out there, I only have to buy tickets on the way back. For this, I have a vacation fund which my best gal and I each dump $25 per paycheck into. I don't miss the 25$ at all, and then when it is vacation time, boom, I have a nice booty from which to loot. So that pays for return tickets.

Since I go somewhat frequently, I also get free rooms at most of the hotels out there. I can stay for free practically anywhere on the strip. So I can stay a few days at an MGM property, then a few days at a Harrah's property, and it costs me virtually nothing... room service and the like comes from the previously mentioned vacation fund. Since we have been to Vegas so many times, we also know how to get around cheaply, and where to eat cheaply, and we would have to eat if we were at home, so this is not necessarily an added expense, but again, vacation fund provides.

So that only leaves gambling money which comes out of pocket, and if you win, you leave more than you came with. It seems like a lot of times we break even on gambling, or close to it, so going there for a few days and even up to a week really is incredibly inexpensive. Also, I know preach this every time I bring up Vegas, but public intoxication is legal there, so you can drink all the free drinks you want, and then go roam the streets for hours, which I find rather amusing. Anyway, I bring this up because I will be going again soon, if I cannot locate an alternative vacation in a certain price range, and I want everyone to know how awesome it is. It is awesome.

One of the last things on the brutus clone build prior to a full water test is the counterflow chiller. A counterflow chiller (or CFC) is a contraption consisting of a long copper tube inside a larger rubber tube. As water cool or ambient temperatue water flows up the rubber house surrounding the copper tube, the freshly brewed beer flows the opposite direction down the copper tube in the center, then creating a pretty massive heat exchange. The water leaves the top of the contraption having stolen the heat from the beer, and the beer flows out the bottom of the copper tube having had the heat stolen.

I decided to build my own to save on costs, and to learn another valuable skill in copper soldering (or sweating, as it is known). so I went to home depot and bought all the parts and began the build.



Sweating copper parts is rather easy as I discovered, but making it pretty can be a challenge to a newcomer. Essentially, you heat up the two copper parts you will be joining, and then lay a piece of solder on it, and the solder get sucked into the jont, thus sealing it up.

You can find plans all over the interclouds for building one of these things, so I will not bore you with the ins and outs of the design, and get straight to the pictures of the build.

After my initial test, one of my soldered joints was a leaky, which is no bueno, so I tried to fix it, but soon found that unsoldering or unsweating a joint seems very difficult, so instead I opted to go with my good old pal JB Weld. A little JB Weld on the joint, and all was well.

After the final testing of the chiller, I was able to insert near boiling water in one end, and have it come out the other end at around 80 degrees, and this is outside in the Texas heat, so imagine what it could do during the dead of winter, when the tap water is quite cold.

At this point, I think I am ready for a full water test, which involves going through the entire beer making process using only water, so as not to waste ingredients if something goes wrong.

So your mash tun is responsible for holding your grains and your water at a certain temperature for a proper conversion, where the fermentable sugars are extracted from the grains. If you were to just leave it all in a pot, the temperature would drop too much rendering the conversion useless. There are two methodologies to address this in a Brutus 10 clone. The first would be to add a burner under your mash tun, and then simply heat the vessel when it drops below a certain temperature. The other is to insulate your mash tun. I decided to go with option B and insulate.

I did this for a few reasons. For one, I didn't want to use any more propane than I need to. Additionally, that would require another burner, more gas piping, another igniter, more burner mounts, another wind deflector/heat shield and so on, not to mention the pain the ass of having to have precise temperature control to turn the burner on and off automatically, or even worse, manually. Lastly, heating the bottom of a vessel means unequal heat distribution, which brings up another whole can of worms. Insulation on the other hand, is rather simple, just... add insulation to your vessel.

It seem like half the world heats their mash tun, and the other half insulates theirs, so there is endless information on the interwebs regarding insulation types, and what people have had success with. I chose to go with foam rubber insulation, 3/4" inch thick. It is closed cell so it is basically waterproof, and it is soft and flexible which means it would be easy to attach to my mash tun. It has a heat flow rate (or K factor) of 0.27 Btu/hr. Without getting too scientific on you, this just means that you will lose .27 BTU per hour at 1 inch of thickness. Mine is only 3/4" thick so I will lose slightly more. Needless to say, I think the temperature will only drop a negligible amount over the amount of time my grains are in it.

The foam came in 3 foot by 4 foot sheets, so I picked up three sheets. I then just cut them to the sizes I needed and applied them to the vessel using some real nasty glue. Amraflex contact adhesive looks like snot, and has the properties of snot, so getting it on there was a bit of a challenge. Also, the adhesive is very unforgiving, so you have exactly one chance to get it on there correctly. I did not. My pieces went on crooked, so it was a challenge to make it look 'right'.

Here are some photos of the process and the final result.











It aint the prettiest mash tun in the world, but I have seen far worse. In the long run, I am not sure how well the insulation will stand up to the elements, being handled, and moved around, but worst case scenario, I can just redo it later.

I can practically smell the beer breweing already

A couple of quick pointless anecdotes before I get on to the Brutus 10 clone update...

On my 16th birthday, I got my driver's license. I begged my mom to let me take the car for a spin, as I am sure a lot of teenagers do when they get their license. She reluctantly said yes. I went out to my friend's farm to meet up and look at horses and various farm things. Later, we left the farm and headed back to my place. I was following my friend, and of course, we were both mostly driving like jackasses. My friend, who had a relatively large lead, took a quick right down a dirt/rock road, and unbeknownst to me, immediately stopped and turned off his lights. So then I come barreling around the same corner as quickly as he did, and BAM, there he was. I slammed on my breaks, but alas, it was too late, and I slid right into the back of his truck with my mom's car. Needless to say she was unhappy. I did not drive her car again for quite some time, when ironically, the same car became mine. I later totaled the car 600 miles from home in St. Louis.

When I chew small pieces of gum, I usually chew two at a time, but rather than mix the two pieces together to create a larger piece, I keep them separated in my mouth, never allowing them to touch. I am not sure why I do this, it is subconscious. I tend to chew gum all the time, so sometimes these two separate pieces will be in my mouth for many hours, then moments before I am ready to part ways with the gum, I will smash them together to form a single piece, and then deposit them.

So back to the Brutus clone build. I have made two upgrades to the system. First I added some flame shields around the burners. I found this necessary because during recent testing, I found that the wind was causing inefficiencies. Additionally, I am hoping that the rings will direct the heat directly towards the bottom of the kegs, and deflect heat away from the frame, because I found that the frame of the contraption gets extraordinarily hot after the burners have been going for a while. I am sure this is just part of the process, but I don't like it, and if I can defeat it, its a win.

So I considered building the rings out of steel, but the size pieces I was going to need was going to be less than cost effective. Plus, I really have no way of making a perfectly round piece of steel. After scouring the interwebness for a while, I came across someone else facing the same challenge, so I decided to employ their method for achieving the same goal. The answer? Cake rings! They make cake rings out of relatively thin gauge stainless steel, and, they are adjustable. Awesome! The only issue was that I had to cut a notch in them to allow my igniters to still be in place. A few minutes with my trusty roto-tool and that issue was a thing of the past. Here are a few pics.






The next upgrade was not necessary, but I nice thing to have at a very low price point. How do you know how much liquid is in your vessels? Well, you really don't, so to solve this, I added vinyl numbering decals to my sight glasses. Here is how that looks.



Also, I scored some cheapo stainless steel lids for like 12 bucks each off amazon.com.



I am so close to being done now I can taste it.

A few quick updates with pictures.

1. I lowered the pump to under the cross member. This generates more drop between the liquid level in the keg and the bottom of the pump. I also added a dump valve on the output side. Between these two improvements, I should be able to prime the pump easier because of the increased pressure from the bigger drop, and being able to allow air to escape from the dump valve. I left the former mounting plate in place, because A. I didn't want to booger up the frame by chopping a part of it off, and B. I figure it is a good mount for potential future additions 8-)

2. Next I added a set of igniters to the system, for automated lighting of the burners. This way, I don't need to mess with flame lighters, I can just turn on the gas, push a button and go. This was the mystery button from the last post. Not installing an automagical lighting system is pussy.

I ran the wires for the igniters through this stuff I picked up at McMaster-Carr. It is made of fiberglass and able to withstand 1000 degrees of heat. It may be overkill, but I didn't want my wires to melt. Also, I failed to mention that the igniters are from a kit from Wal-Mart made as a replacement for grill igniters. Cheap and easy!

3. I finally painted the system. This is another stumbling block for many brutus 10 clone builders. The high heat from the burners typically will burn off normal, and even high temperature stove/grill paint. I didn't want to powder coat it, which would probably be for the best, because of the high cost involved. A lot of people go the paint route, and then just repaint as the paint burns off to avoid rusting. I have another plan to combat this, which I will address in a near future post.

It is Texas and it is summer, so the heat is around 100 and the humidity is ridiculous, so painting proved to be a challenge, but nonetheless after 5 days of sitting by a fan, the paint finally appears to have dried well enough for a test run. I think I should be able to do a full on test of the entire system using water inside of a week.

4. I built a "hop hopper" for lack of a better term. I did not invent this, I duplicated this from someone else's brilliant design. It is simply a 5 gallon paint strainer bag clamped onto a chunk of PVC pipe, with long threaded rods bolted to it. It allows the unit to sit on top of the brew kettle while the beer is brewing, with an open hole in the top, so that you can toss in whatever little tidbits you might need, such as hops, any extra grains, twigs, berries, fruit, nuts, coffee, gum, cereal, tacos, bacon, a hamburger, whatever you like. When you are done, you can simply remove it from the top, and all your junk remains in the strainer, and not in your beer.

So as you can see, once again, the system is looking nearly completed. I am stoked, and starting to plan out what style of beer to make on my maiden voyage.

**** I just realized I had a post on weldless fittings already, so I am cutting this post down to just my March pump switch****

The next challenge was to figure out a good way to wire my March 809 pump to some sort of switch or button. I went with a cool lighted blue button. Push the button, pump comes on, light comes on. Push button again and both go off. This very easily could have been a simple light switch from home depot instead, but hey, that's just not cool enough. Plus, this way I learned more stuff.

Wait a sec broham, what is that other mystery button?

Worry not old chum, we will cover that later.

I had bear of a time getting the button configured, and had to resort to asking for help on the dreaded interweb. It could have been my lack of electrical knowledge, or it could have been the plethora of pints I drank in the process of trying to figure it all out. In the end, I did get it all working properly, and I am quite pleased with the results.

So here is the progress so far. It is starting to look more like a Brutus 10, and less like a pile of random parts, every day.

It is funny how some projects start off as really kick ass, and then eventually they sort of get annoying. I wouldn't necessarily label the Brutus 10 clone build as annoying per se, but I do wish that it was completed already. I am WAY behind schedule, and it is right around 100 degrees in the garage during the day now, which makes working on it a real scorcher. I had a few personal setbacks which threw the schedule off, but I am back on track now, and hopefully I will be cranking out sweet golden nectar within a month.

Hooray beer!

I took a break from the Brutus 10 clone build, through no fault of my own. I am back on track now though, and should have an update or two in the coming days. In the meantime...

I was at the store the other day purchasing some lovely alcoholic libations. There were two old people in front of me. They were REALLY slow, and they were really old. They were also pushing the limits of the "15 items or less" rule as stated by the sign. Listen Mortimer and Helen, if you have 14 tubs of denture cleaner, that does not count as one item, unless perhaps they are contained within some sort of jump pack, and are sold with one price. [This applies to everyone by the way] There were also several patrons in line behind me, and they were quite impatient. They were making snide remarks under their breath, and sighing heavily to display their discontent with the situation.

I started to think that perhaps as I have gotten older that I am just more tolerant to these kinds of predicaments. I did not care in the least bit that these elderly folk were jamming up the works at the local Kroger. I didn't care that they were probably buying more than 15 items in the clearly marked 15 items or less lane. Awesome, I am getting older, and therefore more mature, I am beginning to understand more and more how the world functions, and how humans grow and learn and adapt.

But then something else occurred to me. The impatient people behind me were older than I am, so rather than reveling in my new found skill of tolerance to meaningless situations that do not merit ill will, I came to realize that in general, people are just assholes, and that I had basically stayed the same. I am not an asshole. I suppose I could portray an asshole as a character if I chose, but I would be basing the character on people in line at the grocery store, and nothing inside my self. I suppose that, in and of itself, is a self realization, so it was not a total loss.

Completely different subject....

On the way home from work the other day at 6:30am [YEAH, AM], I saw a lady walking down the street. I mean she was IN the street, walking against the oncoming traffic. On the other side of the road, lay a perfect quality, recently renovated, nice, smooth sidewalk. This is rush hour traffic sweetheart. Well, as much as rush hour can be in a relatively residential part of a small Dallas suburb. Why would she do that?

I looked at her face as I drove by, and she appeared to be a sane, lucid, normal lady, approximately in her mid 50s. She did have a big ass, but her perhaps that was why she was walking in the first place. I could not associate the size of her ass to why she was walking in this fashion. I was, and still am, baffled by this. The only theory I could muster was that she was a crazy. A bona fide street walkin' crazy, and that her disguise was that of a "normie".

Whenever I see things like that, I always daydream that later, on the evening news, I will see a report of that same lady having been run over and killed. This rarely happens though. Or does it? What if my daydreams killed people? Hmmmm....

Been a few weeks. I have suffered a tremendous loss. We had to let our sweet baby Quasar kitty go. He had advanced heart disease which led to kidney failure. This caught us completely by surprise, because he had no symptoms, until one day he looked a little bit skinny. He had not been eating. We took him to the vet, and he weighed less than 7 pounds, after weighing around 10-11 pounds the majority of his life. The vet gave him some subcutaneous fluids and some pills to make him hungry, and drew blood for testing. The next day, the news was dire, and we were left with no choice but to have him put to sleep. I know beyond any doubt, that this was the absolute best, right, and only thing to do, but nonetheless, this devastated us to the core. We feel lost and empty without him.

We do not have children, so Quasar was our child. We loved him, and he loved us. We talked to him as if he was a normal family member, and he talked back. When we left the house, he would walk us to the door, and he would be right there when we got back, ready to greet us, and show us that he was grateful that we were back. He was a part of everything we did. He was our best friend. He was also more than that. He symbolized a constant in our lives. A symbol of continuity. He was a fixture that represented happiness and solidarity. I don't know if any of that makes sense, but it is hard to put into words. We saw him every single day, talked to him every single day, played with him every single day, and enjoyed his company every single day. So we will never completely overcome the lack of his presence.

He was a silly cat, so he matched our personalities perfectly. He also looked like a jigsaw puzzle of some sort, due to his unusual markings. When we adopted him in 2002, he had just been neutered, and was still reeling in the affects of the anesthesia. He was laying in his litter box. He tried to get up to engage us but was too 'drunk', and stumbled around until laying right back down in his litter. We knew right then and there, that he was for us. From then on, he always enjoyed cramming himself into cardboard boxes and plastic bags, so we made sure to always have one around for him to play with. He preferred the ones that were a little too small, so that he could barely fit inside them, much like his litter box the first day we saw him.

In the end, he remained proud and happy. I do not think he suffered very much at all. He was in good spirits and had his wits about him in his last few days. He stayed in his house a lot more than usual, but when he heard us stirring around doing this or that, he would still come out to check on us, and make sure we were ok, and that he didn't miss anything. I took the day off from work to take him to the vet, so I was able to spend the entire day with him, as well as the next day before the vet called with the bad news. He was fatigued and somewhat lethargic, but you could tell that mentally he was strong. He was still rubbing his face all over us and purring. My gal asked if she could hold him in her arms on the way to the vet for the last time. That is the image I keep thinking of over and over again. He looked tired, but still happy. He was glad to be with his momma and daddy.

A picture is worth more than words of course, so I will provide a montage for anyone who was not lucky enough to meet him, and to serve as a memorial for those who were. You can click on the images for larger versions.

Lately my house has felt really small, maybe because I have spent so much time there lately with the new shift work shit in effect. Anyway, it feels like a little fort. A fort where I stay, I look out the front door, and then walk the 50 feet or whatever to my back door and look out the back. It is starting to feel like just exactly what it is... 4 exterior walls covered by brick. That is what is supposed to make people feel all awesome because they own a house? I just don't get it. I need trees and stuff like that. I need to look out my windows and doors and see nothingness, just empty space. It has become my goal to make this happen, and I think I am setting things up pretty well to make that happen. My credit card debt is almost gone, and I have a fuck ton of equity built up as well. I would say in 6 months, I won't owe anyone anything, except for house debt, which is equity so it doesn't count, and my truck, which doesn't count because I will either always have a payment on vehicles, or I can just get something cheaper. It should be an awesome time. I will upgrade from a fort to a fortress. I have no idea where such a thing will be, but I suspect it will be duper cool.

For some reason, I stopped production on the brutus 10 clone. Not sure why, so I started up again. In my last post, I had just finished up the pump mount and housing. I decided to start on finishing up the kegs. I sort of decided to call my polishing job complete, even though the things are not mirror-like. On the mash tun, I will be covering it with insulating foam, so it does not need to be all shiny and pretty. I had the boil kettle polished to my liking more or less, and I decided to leave the hot liquor tank a little less than perfect, because A. it was really difficult to get it that way, and B. I wanted each of the three kegs to have a different look to them since they serve three different functions.

All 3 kegs need a ball valve, a sight glass, and a thermometer. The ball valve allows me to drain the kegs. A sight glass I can mark with increments so I know how much liquid is in them, and the thermometer is important so that I know the temperature of the liquid inside. It is debatable whether or not you really need a thermometer in the boil kettle because water boils at 212 degrees, and it will never get any hotter than that. I look at it as a continuity function, and just in case I ever want to use the brew kettle as anything else, now I can. So in order to install these items you need a bit that it capable of drilling through stainless steel. I went with a step bit. These are heavy duty drill bits that are beveled so that you can drill a variety of hole sizes. They look like this:



So basically you just drill the correct size hole that you need for the various parts. I needed a large hole for my ball valve and a small hole for my sight glass/thermometer combo. Here is a picture of the parts that need to be installed, and a picture of one of the holes I drilled to make this happen, to give you an idea of how the parts go together. Also I included a picture of the final product after the parts are installed.











You will also notice I installed an eye bolt through the upper lip of the keg. This was not my idea, it is pretty much the accepted standard for keeping your sight glass in place.



Anyhoo, it is coming along nicely, hopefully I will be cranking out mass amounts of beer soon.