The Shop

Some time ago I went through all my old Hot Wheel cars that I played with as a kid. I researched their worth, cataloged them and posted them for sale. I did the same with my old comic books. The proceeds purchased 2) 1/2 Barrel Conical Fermenters with built in chilling coils. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the newest addition to The Shop, the twins - Shovel & Knuckle. (Shovel is currently not wearing a jacket, otherwise hard to tell them apart.)

The (not so) great yeast freeze of 2020. Lost all of my yeast supply. Replaced the stat in the bar after the box dropped to 19 Degrees F.

When the fermenters are full. I'm trying to make the best of this shelter in place phenomenon and the extra time I seem to have on my hands by going through different sections of The Shop and cleaning/organizing. I had 18 drawers that held thirty years of accumulated nuts, bolts, screws, washers, nails, studs, cotter pins, clamps, grommets, widgets, thingamabobs, doo-hickeys, chrome muffler bearings, blinker fluid - you name it! The problem - it was so disorganized I could never find what I was looking for when I needed it. I dumped each of those drawers on an old towel and sorted everything! I labeled the drawers and I threw away stuff I would never use! Yesterday, while working in The Shop, it was a pleasure to pull open one labeled drawer and find the molly screw anchor I needed. I should've done this years ago!

Once again, The Shop has the honor of hosting preliminary judging sessions for the California State Fair Homebrew Competition. This year, like last, we are judging style 21A & 21B. My favorite! We must be doing something right. Here are some of the 80 entries we need to get through by end of week!

Time for a fermenter upgrade - Coolstix tri-clamp set up!