We're all capable of an impulse purchase when it comes to brewing. Often, we'll also come up with some fantastical trail of logic that justifies the purchase, albeit somewhat tenuously. For example, I knew I could make good beer with my 28 litre plastic boiler. I did make good beer with it. It never let me down. It also never boiled over.
However, as I sat with my finger hovering over the buy button for a 56.7 litre SS Brewtech stainless steel boiler, I comforted myself with the fact that although the plastic boiler had never boiled over, this certainly wouldn't boil over with a 23 litre batch.
As I say, tenuous but enough to justify the investment. However, my latest purchase isn't based on a tenuous whim. It's a solid well-considered absolutely sterling 100 per cent sensible impulse purchase!
We all have to clean. It's a part of the brewing life. Some pretend to enjoy it, claiming it's therapeutic, but it's not. It's rubbish. It's even worse when you're using a sink designed to wash a tea cup. My brewery had one such sink. I loved brewing, but every brew day ended in misery as I slopped water all over the place and spent up to two hours trying to clean everything.
When I replaced our kitchen I kept the double sink and units, and after a while I installed them in the brewery. Now I had three sinks, each designed to wash a tea cup. I actually felt quite good about myself. Three sinks; get me!
I popped around to ma mates for a beer and he asked what I'd been up to. I told him I'd plumed some sinks into the brewery. He pointed out that was a coincidence as he'd just had a sink put in his laundry room. I went to look at it, and I was actually somewhat aroused (plus feeling a healthy dose of inadequacy at the same time). I knew right then what I had to do.
As he poured the beers I borrowed his lap top and found not the same sink as he had, but a double one. The sealant wasn't even cured on my newly fitted sinks before I had replaced them, and it was an investment made wisely, because ... well, it was.
Behold...
A fermenter fits in each sink; actually, two will go in at once. I can also run free hot water into them from the immersion chiller, thus not wasting the water. Plus, if I get a dwarf stripper in for a brew day and the Missus pops along, she can hide in the sink (the stripper, that is, not the missus).
Some times when a fool is parted from his money, it's all good!
However, as I sat with my finger hovering over the buy button for a 56.7 litre SS Brewtech stainless steel boiler, I comforted myself with the fact that although the plastic boiler had never boiled over, this certainly wouldn't boil over with a 23 litre batch.
As I say, tenuous but enough to justify the investment. However, my latest purchase isn't based on a tenuous whim. It's a solid well-considered absolutely sterling 100 per cent sensible impulse purchase!
We all have to clean. It's a part of the brewing life. Some pretend to enjoy it, claiming it's therapeutic, but it's not. It's rubbish. It's even worse when you're using a sink designed to wash a tea cup. My brewery had one such sink. I loved brewing, but every brew day ended in misery as I slopped water all over the place and spent up to two hours trying to clean everything.
When I replaced our kitchen I kept the double sink and units, and after a while I installed them in the brewery. Now I had three sinks, each designed to wash a tea cup. I actually felt quite good about myself. Three sinks; get me!
I popped around to ma mates for a beer and he asked what I'd been up to. I told him I'd plumed some sinks into the brewery. He pointed out that was a coincidence as he'd just had a sink put in his laundry room. I went to look at it, and I was actually somewhat aroused (plus feeling a healthy dose of inadequacy at the same time). I knew right then what I had to do.
As he poured the beers I borrowed his lap top and found not the same sink as he had, but a double one. The sealant wasn't even cured on my newly fitted sinks before I had replaced them, and it was an investment made wisely, because ... well, it was.
Behold...
A fermenter fits in each sink; actually, two will go in at once. I can also run free hot water into them from the immersion chiller, thus not wasting the water. Plus, if I get a dwarf stripper in for a brew day and the Missus pops along, she can hide in the sink (the stripper, that is, not the missus).
Some times when a fool is parted from his money, it's all good!
