Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Significant Upgrades at Boats 'N Hoes Home Brewery!

Hi all.  I have had some significant upgrades here at my home brewery and I can't wait to tell you about them!

First of all, I have officially jumped into the All Grain fold with a 10 gallon Rubbermaid Mash Tun and copper wort chiller.  I already had the capacity to do a full boil, I just lacked a way to cool it off fast enough.



My first All Grain has been in the fermenter for just over two weeks now and will be going into bottles soon.  I hit all my gravities and fermentation is done, just giving my yeasties a chance to clean up a little.

Also, my wife is currently working on getting a real website going, boatsnhoesbrew.com and will be much more bad ass than this cookie cutter blog and much more personal.  I can't wait to get it up and running!  I hope to see you all there soon!
 

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Time for a home bar build...

You know, I got to thinking about a two weeks ago that I needed to build something.  What does every home brewer dream about having in their homes?  A bar to drink their home brew at!  I don't have a ton of space to go crazy, so to get this one by the wife I had to think small.  Then it hit me... what if it was small enough to fit in the space allowed, and could be taken apart and moved easily upstairs for entertaining guests, then tore apart and brought back down to the man cave where it would spent most of it's life?  How could she possibly say no to that?  Well, long story short, she dug the idea.  

So now I have to figure out how to do it.  I drew inspiration from my uncle David, who can build anything with wood.  Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to hear he figured out how to build a wooden wood burning stove.  I also drew inspiration from my uncle Ben.  He's not really my uncle per se, he's my wife's dad's sister's husband.  Close enough.  Anyway, he has a cool 8 foot bar in his house he bought at a furniture store for more than I want to spend.  I also don't think his travels as well as mine, but I admit bias since I built the damn thing.  

I know you are all dying to see it, so here goes...


I figured the base would be the best place to start.  Nearest the camera is the front, where the step will be.  The slots on the sides will hold the side and front panels in place.  I imagined building 5 separate pieces that fit together.  A base, two sides, the front, and the bartop.  Wait until you see how I keep everything together... 


Here I am test fitting the left side of the bar.  Nice and snug so it will stay in place, but not crazy hard to get it out.  Just how I wanted it.


Here is all five pieces framed out and they seem to be fitting together nicely.  Now to add some hardware and trim it out...


 This to me is the genius of the bar.  The silver latch on the bottom half of the picture holds the front to the sides, and the two towards the top of the picture hold the bar to the sides. 

  
Here is the arm rests coming together.  To the untrained eye, it almost looks like I know what I'm doing.  (Keep quite uncle Dave, this is my moment!)


   Here we have the bar together, trimmed up, footrest and beer gutter in place, all I have left to do is finish the wood.  Still debating on how to do it, but it will most likely be stained as dark as humanly possible.  My strength is framing, not finishing.  Coincidentally, as I took this picture I had about an hour before guests arrive to watch a football game and drink some home brew.  Let's see just how portable this thing is and get it in the house!


Here it is in the upstairs entertainment spot.  Now you can see why I want to finish it dark, to match the wonderful hutch my wife got.  I was happy with how manageable the pieces were by themselves, and how solid the bar really was when put together and clamped down.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 

Now I need to start getting ready to brew, it's been too long!  Thanks for reading.