I need the ocean! So I am going there. I have not been in a while since I got stuck on going to Las Vegas for vacations. Strangely, Las Vegas seems to be the absolute cheapest vacation you can take. If you go there once or twice, they start giving you free rooms, even if you don't gamble much. So I started going there over and over again instead of making some sort of annual pilgrimage to the ocean. For me, there is just something about being by the sea and seeing how vast and powerful it is. The smell of it and the sound it just takes me to a place that makes me wonder and dream, and it also makes me realize how small and meaningless life can really be. In 10,000 years, that ocean will still be there making that same sound and same smell. So in the grand scheme of things, the small things that stress people out on a day to day basis are really just stupid things to worry about. Sure, that guy that cuts you off in traffic is a real dick, but do you really care?

Anyway, so next week I am going to Vegas for vacation 8-), and then when it warms up a little more, like in a month, I am going to go to the ocean for a few days, and I am going to just sit there and stare at it for hours on end, and see what happens.

Ok, back to the Brutus 10 clone build. So, I decided to climb on the structure and jump around to see what happened. What happened? I think nothing, but at the time I think I sort of imagined that it was a little bendy, so I added more supports. The model has a single vertical support, so as usual I went above and beyond that. Overkill? Probably. Not much to say here, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. At this point, I am getting pretty good at welding. I still lay a stinker every once in a while, but they are few and far between.






So now it was time to add some wheels to the rig. I went with casters that can handle 240 pounds each. So 4 would handle 960 pounds. Again, overkill. The kegs weigh about 30 pounds each when empty. So that's 90 pounds. Under worst case scenario conditions, say I have all 3 filled to the brim with water, that's another 15 (gals) x 8 (pounds/per) x 3 (kegs) = 360 pounds. So now we are up to 450. Factor in the steel structure, and that's another probably 100 pounds. So 550, plus add hoses, connectors, pumps, buttons, lids, plumbing, etc... I could see it being 700 pounds. So 960 pounds of support from the casters should be ample. Also, I went with locking casters so the damn thing wouldn't roll away with my beer in it. So the next challenge was to mount them. I had this idea swimming around in my head as to how to do it, and when I read a a post on homebrewtalk.com about someone doing it the same way, I figured it would work well. The plan, Take some steel, drill a hole in it, and weld a nut on top of the hole, so the threaded stem from the caster can screw into that.





Is this amount of welding overkill? You decide. Do I know any better? nope. I don't recall getting a memo, or seeing any instructions anywhere on how to weld a nut to a piece of steel. Better safe then sorry I suppose.



So then I moved in to plumbing. Some people build these things where their propane or natural gas travels through one of the structural beams. I have little faith in my welding skills, so trying to weld something that can withstand internal pressure of the gas seemed like a bad plan, so from the start, I planned on having external plumbing, and standard black steel pipe seems to be the most widely accepted solution. So a trip to the hardware store later I had all these pieces.

So when assembled it looks like this.



Next, I had to mount the plumbing system to the structure. I located some relatively thick pipe hangers and welded them in place.


By the way, here is what happens when you try to weld really thin stuff, it essentially just burns away.

All in place, nice! It is really starting to shape up. Still a lot of work to do though.

Nostalgia! - I know I have talked about nostalgia quite a bit in my posts, but I am about to do it again. You know how people sit around and talk about the good times? Well, you could be having a good time right now and not know it yet, without the benefit of hindsight. As I wind down my time at my current employer and prepare to go elsewhere, I started thinking about how fun it used to be at my job several years ago. I don't recall feeling particularly fond of those times while they were happening, but looking back now, those were some damn fine times. Maybe because things suck so bad right now. So anyway, it made me think that when I get to my new job, I should try and enjoy it as it happens, rather than having to have it pass, and then think about how cool it was in hindsight. I am going to try really hard.

OK, so more Brutus 10 fun and excitement. Now that I have the top of the frame laid out and welded up, it is time to add some cross members and legs and such, and get this thing looking like a Brutus should.

Welding in the cross members is pretty simple work. I put in a total of 4 across the top, one for each side of the three kegs, and of course the outside of the frame acts as the other two keg supports.

Next came the legs. I bought a shitty 90 degree jig at home depot for 6 bucks to help hold everything perpendiculous while I tacked it in place with the welder. Once tacked, I was able to fill it in right.

So after the legs were on, it was time to get the burners in place. I figured the best thing to do was to just sort of hang them in there. So I took some 1" steel and drilled some holes in it so the burners could be adjustable and welded them to the insides of the frame on the two spots where the burners will be.

You may notice I only have two burners instead of three. Why? Well, you may remember a few posts back when I talked briefly about the mash lauter tun or MLT. The MLT holds the grains and the water at a steady temperature for a certain amount of time. With a properly insulated MLT, there is no need to directly fire this vessel. So I have opted for quality insulation versus direct heat to maintain the temperature level. I'll cover the insulation at a later date. Also, another reason is because I employ a technique called batch sparging, where I let the grains set in a batch of water at the right temperature for a certain amount of time, then drain it into the brew kettle, and then add another batch of water at higher temperature to bring on a different reaction from the grains. I will go over all that stuff later when I do a post on the maiden voyage of this bad boy.

If anyone is keeping score, I promise this will get more interesting once I get past the basic structure build out.

I was drinking a Coke the other day, and began to think about it's color. It was brown. When I pee, it comes out clearish yellow. Where does the color go? Are my guts brown now because I drank too many soft drinks? What about Koolaid and stuff like that? I guess my insides look like a rainbow by now.

Ok, so, to continue my series on the Brutus 10 clone build, the next phase was to get the structure started. Initially I was going to make the next phase polishing up the kegs to make them all shiny and awesome looking. I did start that aspect of the project, but moved on to the structure build because it is more exciting. Since the structure is made of steel, I needed to procure a few new things. First and foremost was a welder.

There are many different types of welders on the market, and they can be quite expensive. My goal was to find a welder that was relatively inexpensive, but one that would still do the job. Without going into too much detail on the various types of welders, I settled on a flux-core welder, because the device was low cost, and I didn't have to mess with separate welding gas tanks, and it would still do what I required. I went with the Campbell Hausfeld flux-core wire feed welder. The welder was 129 bucks, 92 of which was free money I received for doing surveys online for money.



Next I needed a stack of steel to build with. After a quick search around the interwebs, I located speedymetals.com, and settled on 1.5" square tubing with a 1/16" wall thickness. Is this overkill? Probably. Will it look cool though? Absolutely. This steel was $155 shipped. I bought more than I needed because I was almost certain I would screw up a few times, and didn't want to run out. I bought ten 6 foot long pieces.

If you remember from some of my other projects, I purchased a pretty nice Ryobi compound mitre, so to cut all this steel, I simply had to purchase a steel cutting blade for a few bucks.

So after chopping up the steel, I had to weld this crap together. I have welded in the past. I took a metal fabrication class in high school, and then during my college days, I took a few classes in the metal shop. So I am no stranger to welding, but I have not done it in well over 15 years. So I headed to Home Depot and picked up some sheet metal to lay some test beads.

I did more test beads than depicted here by the way, this was just when I chose to take a picture. Next, I moved on to the real welding. First step was to layout the steel, and tack weld it in place. Then finally, weld it all up, and grind it down to make it look nice.

I am trying to blow through all this pretty quick, to keep the articles short, because a picture is worth 1000 words, but there is a lot of information and thought processes I am leaving out. For example, I decided to go with 45 degree angles on the steel, so that the top of the structure would be completely sealed, and have the added structural bonus of sitting on top of the legs rather than stressing my welds by having it all done at 90 degree angles. 3 full kegs of water and grains can be pretty heavy, I'd rather not have it fall on my face.

Also, I am leaving out all the little tidbits I learned along the way, such as, it is probably a good idea to remove the sawdust collection bag from the mitre saw when cutting through steel, because the sparks fly like a mother fucker all over the place. Speaking of sparks, probably should make sure they don't fly out the sides of your steel into a gas can 8-). Also, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wear your safety goggles and a good pair of work gloves.

Anyway, I have lot of more information like that so maybe I will do a few posts from time to time during the process just dedicated to helpful tidbits, or maybe do one dedicated post filled with all that kinda crap when the project is done.

That is enough for now. If I gloss over something important, please let me know and I will try and cover it in a reply, or with a future post.

Ok, been a while. Things got real fucked at work, and I am in the process of trying to locate a new job, so I have been mentally preoccupied for a while. Anyway, time to start my series on my latest project, a Brutus 10 clone. What is a Brutus 10 you ask?

A Brutus 10 is a device used to make more consistent, and optionally larger batches of beer, quicker, and more efficiently. I have been wanting one for years, but they are ungodly expensive to purchase. I didn't want to foot the bill on a credit card, and saving my pennies takes too long. So I have decided to build one myself. This way, I gain a lot of valuable skills, I can customize it to suit my particular needs, and I can enjoy the satisfaction of producing something lovely and useful, that will last a lifetime. Plus, my Brutus 10 clone will be better than yours, until you build one yourself, so suck it.

The first thing I needed to obtain as the basis for the entire system was three standard half barrel kegs. These are your typical run of the mill 15.5 gallon kegs your mom probably saw a lot of in college.

Why do I need three? Well, one is your "hot liquor tank" or HLT. This one simply holds and heats the water necessary for the entire brewing process. Secondly, you need a "mash/lauter tun" or MLT. This is where you put the grains and extract the fermentable sugars using the water from the HLT. Lastly, you need a brew kettle, where the beer will be brewed.

Locating kegs can be a daunting task because it can be a shady unethical business. When you put down the deposit on a keg full of beer, you DO NOT 'own' the keg. The deposit is there to ensure that you return it so the distributor does not lose money. Kegs are expensive to build, maintain, and distribute. Purchasing kegs from a reputable dealer is very expensive. So, for me, the plan was to fall somewhere in between the shady business and full retail price. A lot of the ads seen on Craig's List said things like "no questions asked", or "I just need this to be gone". So I stayed away from those. Just about when I was to the point of paying full retail price, an ad came along that said basically "3 kegs, great condition", and didn't have a shady vibe. I offered the guy 40 bucks each, instead of the 50 each he was asking. Since I wanted all three, he accepted.

So, the next challenge to converting kegs into brewing equipment is to cut out the tops. This required purchasing a quality angle grinder.



Next, you need to remove the stems from the kegs. I won't go into detail because that information is widely available elsewhere. In a nutshell, you remove the retaining ring and just pull it out.



Then, you need some sort of contraption to hold the grinder vertically and cut a perfect circle in the top. I made this out of some old 2x4s I had laying in the garage. I used one of the stems as pivot point, since it fit in the existing hole perfectly. I ended up just sort of holding the grinder against the 2x4, rather than fastening to the jog, because it just seemed easier at the time, and appeared to work well.



Here is what the tops looked like after removal.



And finally, here is what the kegs looked like after the tops were removed.



I forgot to take pictures of the kegs prior to removing the tops, but if you have seen one keg, you have seen them all.

That is enough for now. For the next post in a few days, I will get into preparing for, and starting, the structural build, including my adventure into welding.

Another month gone by. I started this blog January 1, 2007, and the idea was to do it for one year. Now it is 2010, and although I don't post as much as perhaps I should, I am glad to see that I am still posting at all because it means A. I am currently alive and B. I guess I still have something to say.

So, has anybody ever tried to give you something you don't want? At work the other day, a director type tried to give me a shirt. A Microsoft shirt from a convention type thing. Great. The shirt was XL. I wear an L. In my head, I start thinking wow, I really do not want that shirt. But, this guy wants to give it to me. Bummer. Then I start thinking about my full closet, and all the shirts I already have that I don't wear. And then my thoughts turn to, this dude is a director, maybe I should just take the shirt, be courteous, and then be done with it. NO! Fuck that. In perhaps a Seinfeldian move, I try to decline the shirt offer. No thanks I say. I wear an L, and my closet is full of XL stuff I cannot wear anymore. So no sir, no, I do not desire your shirt. But then he ups the pressure. Are you sure? Its is a good shirt. I would wear it myself if I could fit into it. I thought about throwing it away, but then I thought, you could probably use it. Great. Now this guy is thinking about me. Sure, it is as he starts to think about the trash can, but nonetheless, he thought of me. How nice. But no, NO! Again I refuse. Only this time, I say well, if you really REALLY want me to have it, I will take it I suppose, but I really don't want it. Now, it is as if I am just being difficult. He had the strangest look on his face. By this time, a couple of other guys were also standing around, so I am trying to pawn it off on them. Hey, I think that guy might be the right size, and so on.

What are you supposed to do in that scenario? I think most normal people would have just taken the shirt and be done with it. But why? To conform to society's rules and/or be courteous, just so that could then go home and hang the shirt in the closet for 5 years? or even worse, to take it home and just throw it away? Not me jack. I get it though, I do understand society's rules, but sometimes they just don't make sense, and I think we should try and buck the system. Don't give in to that type of pressure. In a perfect world it would have gone like this: You want this? No? OK, bye.

So these mechanisms that "civilized" society has put in place can be changed, but people on both sides need to do their part. If you are going to throw something away, THROW IT AWAY. Don't hang on to it for no reason, or try to pass it off on someone Else. Worst case scenario, have a garage sale, so people who are looking for your old junk can voluntarily come to get it. Or if that is too much hassle, keep it somewhere that everyone can see it with a sign that says FREE.

So there you have it. Follow my new rules.

I am starting a new project for the new year. I think it is one that will take many months to complete. I was going to wait until I was done, and then do a complete writeup, but I think since the task is so involved, I will break it out and do a series of posts, so expect those to start in the near future.

How come everything has to have a fuckin light on it now?

I wonder if scientists could pinpoint the exact location in your brain that controls whether or not you like corn.

Lately I have been feeling extra demotivated. I am not sure why. I can tell I am demotivated because I have a screw stuck in one of my tires on my truck. It has a relatively slow leak. I noticed it about a week and a half ago. The tire got really low one day so I aired it back up. That was maybe 5 days ago. I will need to air it back up again soon.

I have certificates on these tires from DiscountTire so all I have to do is basically go there and tell them I have the screw and a leak, and they will fix it for free, or just replace the tire for free if some some reason they can't fix the hole. So, why haven't I gone to get it fixed? No idea, other than I am just demotivated.

Things are taking a turn for the worst at work, and it may ultimately end in my needing another job. The company always makes bad decisions, based on the wrong factors, and I think a lot more of that is about to happen. I would like to blame my demotivation on this, but I just found about the upcoming changes a couple of days ago, well before I discovered the screw in my tire.

I suppose it could be that I hate the holidays. I always kinda get... something... right before the holidays. I am not sad, or stressed, or angry, or any real specific kind of emotion that might cause demotivation. I suppose it could just "a case of the blahs".

Now, before you go yelling curse words at me for using such a retarded phrase, you need to realize that "blah" IS in the dictionary. It means "A feeling of boredom, lethargy, or general dissatisfaction." I suppose this describes exactly how I feel. I have a case of those.

When I was little, this time of year always meant Christmas vacation from school, at which point I generally did nothing but sit around, because it was too cold to go outside and play, so maybe in my head I link this time of year to dullness. Who knows, I am sure a shrink would probably have a field day with stuff like that.

Anyhoo, I don't have to worry about it too much, because I know in a couple of weeks that it will pass, and everything in the universe will align again.

SHIT, I forgot to include any curse words in this post. Oops.

No one should ever claim that they read a book if they listened to an audio book version. The two things require different senses. If you listened to a book, and then a song, would you also say you read the song? Have you smelled any good songs lately? Have you felt of any cool music in the last week or so? Have you seen what pizza tastes like? Can you hear the color yellow? Unless you are one of these synesthesia victims, you can't 'read' a book if you only listened to it. I am not knocking audio books by the way. Audio books are perfect for that long drive or airplane ride. And they can be quite entertaining, and in some ways can challenge your brain similar to reading int hat you have to create a picture in your own mind, but nonetheless, IT AINT FUCKIN READING if you are not holding a book and using your eyes.

Along these same lines, would you say you talked to someone if you only emailed them? Technically you cannot, so I will generally specify. I guess the same holds true for all forms of instant messaging. Even though you are experiencing a communication thread, if you are not shaking your vocals chords and moving your mouth around, YOU AINT FUCKIN TALKIN! If you read out loud what you type in the thread, and then what the other persons types as well, you still are not talking to that person, you are just a fucking moron.

Ok, enough of that.

So it is vacation time again. Back to Vegas. Free room, free plane ticket, can't beat that. Only thing on the agenda other than a metric fuck ton of drinking and sports betting is going to see Norm MacDonald at the House of Blues. Other than that, I just plan to get all hopped up on various liquors, and just run around and do whatever.

CARNIE WILSON!