Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Clara St. featured on NPR

I was interviewed for KQED's California Report along with fellow homebrewer, Richard Brewer-Hay from Elizabeth St Brewery in Noe Valley, San Francisco. The show was mainly interested in homebrewing during the recession. I have to say, I don't really save much money making my own beer. Renting the warehouse, the initial cost of the equipment, throwing away bad batches, not to mention all the time I spend brewing, it all adds up. I definitely save money and time if I just bought beer from the store, but it just wouldn't be as fun.

Opening a brewery in a recession is other story. I think opening any business in general in this economy is tough. However, I think beer businesses (especially micro breweries) are receding a lot slower than most businesses. Science research, for example, is very slow. So the bottom line... now is the time to open a brewery.

Check out the radio piece!
http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R910161630/c

From Clara St Brewing

From Clara St Brewing

Monday, January 18, 2010

Pulished on Wired.com for hacking a kegerator

My friend Tim and I created a Tweet-a-Beer device for a kegerator. Every time a beer is poured from the tap, the amount poured is sent to a computer and twittered to the world! Tim created the magic software and I installed the hardware. Check out the article!

From Clara St Brewing
Tim vs. BeerRobot
From Clara St Brewing
Tim pondering how the pressure sensor outputs can be interpreted by his C code.

From Clara St Brewing
Me goofing off after testing too much beer!

teaching the craft

Back in November I helped teach a FREE workshop on homebrewing with the UCSF Brewer's Guild. We held the workshop at a neighboring warehouse space called Langton Labs. We had about 40 people come out to learn about beer. I had a nice simple Pale Ale on tap. It was a success! Here are 2 pictures of the event.
From Clara St Brewing

From Clara St Brewing

Welcome to Clara St. Brewing Company

I've been brewing in this warehouse space for 6 months or so now and I think its time to document my adventures in brewing to organize my thoughts and also show the world that anyone and everyone can brew!


Below are some pictures of my brew beginnings: A 3 tap kegerator, 10 gallon Sabco Brew-Magic System, a grain mill, a heat exchanger (which caused many bacteria problems), a converted keg fermentor, a converted keg serving vessel, 5 carboys, 5 buckets, 5 Corny kegs.

From Clara St Brewing

From Clara St Brewing


Bring on the brewing adventure!