Beer: Brewing and the Keggerator

I have not shot my first wedding for the year, but I absolutely can't wait for this season to start!  My first wedding is April 8th down in San Diego (Hi Clare and Doug!) Then the season is going to be picking up momentum quickly. I have a few great shoots planned in the next month or two (if this rain will ever stop), and I'll be sharing them as they come back from the lab. In the meantime, a bit about one of my hobbies.

Keggerator: Keg+Refrigerator. In other words, a convenient way to serve beer in your home. My setup works just like a tap at any bar you might go to (although mine is MUCH cleaner). About three years ago I helped my longtime childhood friend George and his father brew a batch of beer in their Minnesota kitchen. At that point I had already loved beer, but I found that this was only the beginning. Shortly after this event, I purchased my own kit similar to this at morebeer.com. Morebeer has a location in Los Altos, and the staff is very friendly and helpful.  I found that it was surprisingly easy to get started brewing!

A brewing overview:

Brewing consists of malting grains (think of making tea with grains), adding malt syrup, adding hops for flavoring and bittering, cooling the grain tea (now called wort) and then pitching (dumping) yeast in a fermenter. The yeast then ferments, eating the sugars and creating C02 and alcohol. The beer is then bottled or Kegged, aged and ready to be served. This process is no more difficult than baking a batch of cookies or making bread.  You can make any style of beer, and it's usually phenomenal!  I have brewed 28 batches of beer in three years, and I have yet to have a beer that hasn't turned out.

Here's a short clip of my Keggerator with my homebrew being poured off the tap.  Thanks to Pamela for being my hand model!



Currently I have the following beers either brewing or in keg in my home:

Simcoe Pale ale Dry hopped
Honey Wheat ale
Simcoe India Pale Ale
Seduction Stout
Russian Imperial Stout
Rye India Pale Ale
English Traditional Bitter
Irish Dry stout

...and a keg of Drakes Denoggonizer

I encourage anyone who loves beer to try brewing, as it's been a really great hobby in the last few years. Here is a great book on brewing from amazon, it has all the information you could possibly need.