This is a recap of the January meeting of the First State Brewers
The January meeting of the First State Brewers was held at the home of John Bessel. Actually, the meeting was held in the shed in John’s backyard, aka The Grateful Shed. This meeting was a lot of fun, as JoeBob was busy brewing an all-grain recipe. The Shed is really 2 sheds attached together equipped with an all-grain brewing system, large industrial-sized sink, keggeraters, heat, furniture and a stereo system. What more could a homebrewer want? See the pictures I took below:
In attendance were:
| Name | Home Brew/Craft Brew/Info |
|---|---|
| JoeBob Jacobs | Peated Porter, Red Ale, EPA, Voodoo Stout, Punkin Porter, Belgian Strong |
| Scott Bieber | Czech Pilsner |
| Mike Geiss | Spiced Winter Ale |
| Mike Langi | Stout, American IPA |
| Marty Drinan | Mikekeller Monk’s Brew |
| Don Jennings | “Shed Member” |
| Kent Spriggs | Dunkelweizen, Anchor Holiday, Lost Coast Raspberry Brown, Victory Yakima Twilight |
| Ken O’Brien | Pretzels & Pizza |
| Jeff Dobies | Stone Livitation Ale, Unibroue Maudite |
| Rob Boyle | “Shed Member” |
| John Bessel | “Shed Owner” |
| Ben Acton | “Drinker Extraordinaire Plus” |
| Carl Barbett | “Generally Badass” |
| Jeff Ramberg | Clean out the beer cooler |
| Steve Spriggs | “Brother of Kent” |
| Curt Blacklock | “Doc” |
| Tim Alexander | “OB” |
The February Meeting will be on Friday, February 19, at 7:30pm, at the home of JoeBob Jacobs.
Directions:
From Newark:
Find Rt 4 and head East
Though the towns of Stanton and Newport
After a medium sized forest (Banning Park) on your right,
you will see a shopping center.
Turn RT at the light after the shopping center (Grier Ave)
110 is the 6th house on the right, BLUE HOUSE.
From points North:
Take I95 South to the Rt141 North (Newport) exit.
Stay to right and take Exit 4, right at bottom of ramp.
Follow the above directions from there.
Here’s a MapQuest link
Antique Keg Cooler System
The weekend after the last meeting, I received a message from a lady I used to work with. Her husband’s uncle who had owned an old bar in Marcus Hook, recently passed away. She told me they were in the process of clearing out the entire building. They had contracted a salvage guy to take everything there, except an antique keg cooler system. She asked me if I wanted it. I had no idea what an antique keg cooler system even looked like, so I agreed to meet them at the bar early the next morning. Well, I was very surprised at what I found. I have never seen anything like them. The kegs go in these wooden cabinets and are wrapped with a jacket in which cold water circulates around to cool the kegs. The water is cooled by another unit that includes a tank, a coil of copper tubing and a water pump. I assume this unit operates by dumping a load of ice inside the tank which cools the water circulating in the copper tubing.
Well, I knew right away that I wasn’t going to be able to use them, so I asked if I could take them to give to a friend. They agreed. So, I loaded the coolers into my utility trailer. However, the unit with the tank & pump was still hard wired behind the bar and the electric was still on! We tried to remove it, but one huge pop, spark and puff of smoke later, convinced us to leave it where it was. LOL!
When I got the coolers home, I gave Marty Drinan a call and convinced him he needed these antique keg coolers. It didn’t take much work convincing him. ;-) So, when I delivered him the cooler cabinets, I also gave him the lady’s number, in case he wanted to go back to pick up the pump unit. As I suspected, Marty did just that the next morning.
Here’s the pictures I took of the cooler cabinets as I dropped them off. Hopefully, Marty can provide some more pics to add. I expect a full report from him at Friday’s meeting!
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: RE: Homebrew Competition April 25th, 2010
From: “Joe@ Howdoyoubrew”
Date: Thu, January 21, 2010 12:29 pm
To: Scott Bieber
Scott,
I notified Jim Kroon of the DUHaDH Craft Brewery that we would accept entries and promote the event but I would like the Guys and Gals from the club who enter to have the completed forms taped to their brew. If they don’t have internet I’ll have some forms available but I would appreciate that they not fill them out in the store during business hours for obvious reasons. I will not be checking the forms for accuracy. This is the resposibility of each brewer. We have offered to be a drop-off point. Because off space and storage issues I don’t want to accept any entries until March 1st on.
Cheers,
Joe
Joe & Marlana
How Do You Brew
Shoppes at Louviers, 203 Louviers Dr, Newark, DE 19711
T 302-738-7009; F 302-738-5651; www.howdoyoubrew.com