Feedback

          Hey guys, I wanted to ask anyone out there whose reading my blog if you could take a minute and give me some feedback. This could be about anything you want, if you like a project I've done, wanna see a specific project, or know a better way to do something, hell if I need to be corrected because I don't know what I'm talking about, please leave a comment.

The reason I'm asking this, is because I really don't know who is reading this and I wanna know, or at least an idea of who my audience is. Are you a Pintrest junkie like me, or a weekend DIY warrior, or do you just like the pictures. Anyway all any positive or negative feedback will do is boost my confidence with the blog and  keep me blogging more regularly. And yes, I wanna hear the negative stuff too, growth is not always achieved by kind words.

The thing with blogging and anyone who knows me can verify this, is I hate writing! It is actually really difficult but also rewarding for me to sit and write these post. So yeah I just wanna make sure I'm heading in the right direction.

Thanks everyone, and as always never stop creating! 
        
       Also, I know the the title of my blog is Sawdust and Hops. I haven't posted anything about home brewing beer yet, and I'm sorry for that. Its coming tho, I am in the process right now of gathering materials to build a gravity tower for an all grain system. My hope is once my all grain system is operational I will be brewing more often. Extract brewing can be pretty expensive, and switching to all grain will reduce the cost considerably. 

Oak Celtic Mash Paddle

             Awhile back I did a post on a mash paddle I had carved out of a piece poplar, it was a completely aesthetic piece. The soft poplar wood is great for carving, but for a usable mash paddle it is to absorbent and fragile.  I loved the design of the poplar paddle so much I decided to remake it using a piece of oak. I'm not going to go in to a big explanation of the steps I took to create this paddle. I did however use a wood burner this time around for the decorative features. I hope whoever is looking at this page, likes what the see and if so please re-post any pictures on Pintrest or Facebook. Thanks!

Again Thanks for checking out the blog, and as always "never stop creating"

Keggle Mash Tun

Hey, so its been months since my last post. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy though. I'm going to try and pay more attention to the blog this year. I've been an extract home brewer for about a year and a half, and finally wanted to get my hands in to all grain brewing. All grain is just cheaper per recipe and it allows for more personal input of your beer.  A buddy of mine had a keg laying around his place, and was nice enough to part with it.

Now a mash tun can be made out of all sorts of things, coolers, pots, and kegs. The reason I went the keg rout was because I prefer metal over plastic, its easier to clean and it will last forever.

So the first step is to release the pressure inside the keg, this accomplished by pushing straight down  on the ball valve. I would recommend placing a rag over the ball to keep stale beer from spraying you in your face. After the pressure is released you can do one of two things. 1 is to use a screwdriver to pry out the retaining ring, this can be a pain in the ass. 2 is to use your angle grinder to make a cut s to split the ring in half, this makes it very easy to pop the ring out. You don't need the top anyway as your about to cut a big hole in the top.

Once the dip tube is removed, make a circle around the top with a marker. I used the lid off my 5 gallon kettle as a template, although I did make it slightly smaller so I could use the lid on the keg, I think it was 11 inch diameter. Your gonna want to use stainless steel cutting discs on your grinder, I barley used a quarter of an inch of my disc.

Just go slow, there is no rush. Once the top drops, take a file and some sandpaper to the cut edge and smooth out the edge. Be careful metal splinters suck!

Next step is to install the valve, this is just as simple as drilling a home and tightening down the valve nuts. I'm not going to go in to great detail about this step because its really simple.

Just make sure you don't make the hole to big, because if you do your in for some extra work to correct the mistake. I suggest picking up a caliper at Harbor Freight for $3, Trust me you'll use it more often than you'll think.

Go slightly smaller, and ease it to the right size.

Pre-drill a hole to make the bores work a lot easier.

If your using a valve from a brew shop, its pretty standard install. 

And last but not least, do leak check and that's it.

So you might have noticed I didn't install a filter, and there is a few inches from the drop tube and the bottom of the keg. I still have some fine tuning to do before I cook up a batch.  I opted out of a false bottom, so I will do an update when I put on the filter.

Thanks for reading and looking at the page, I hope you got something out of it.