DIY Glycol Power Pack (Chiller) for Beer Line Cooling

When planning for my nano-brewery, I broke the project down into three categories: brewing, fermenting and end product storage/serving.  While waiting on some parts to get the brewing operation ready to go, I decided to move forward on the serving portion of the project.  Rather than bottle the beer - which would be a daunting task given the volumetric capacity of my brewing equipment - I decided to go straight to kegging.  Many homebrewers end up kegging once their operations get more formalized, so I figured I would just skip to the end.

Since I currently don't have any product ready to keg, I put a local craft brewery's beer on tap.  I quickly realized that the 10 foot run from my DIY kegerator to my tap tower was allowing the beer to warm up too much giving rise to foam and nasty warm beer!

In commercial tap systems, a refrigerated solution of propylene glycol is circulated along side the beer lines to keep the product cool in transit.  I decided to replicate this method.  After three attempts, I finally have a system that is working perfectly and replicates every aspect of a commercial system except one: the cost!

Homebrewing: The Next Challenge

For too long I've been a connoisseur of beer but, until recently, never engaged in the manufacturing process.  As my twitter followers know, about a month ago, I made my first batch using malt extract and a recipe from a local brewing supply store.  If I learned one thing from that batch it is this: brewing beer is easy!

I realize there are many that would argue that opinion (or perhaps even punch me for saying it) but lets face it: people have been brewing beer in one form or another for thousands of years.  Long before the Internet existed to enable us to readily exchange information, and long before we understood the role yeast played people were making passable beverages.  I contend that, with the correct application of research, discipline and DIY desire, anyone can brew beer.  Naturally that begs the question: what am I going to do differently?

Target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init on Debian Lenny after Upgrade

Apparently this "target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init" is a common issue with Debian and derivatives such as Ubuntu.  The issue manifested its self after I performed a round of security updates on my server, which included a kernel update.  I think that perhaps what lead me to this particular error was that I use a LVM based Linux software RAID1 for my boot partition.

HTC Hero on Sprint: A Week in Review

About a week ago I bought a new CDMA HTC Hero with Sprint service. Prior to buying the phone, I checked the reviews, watched some You Tube videos, etc. While the reviews were less then stellar, I failed to see examples of any of the issues people complained about on the You Tube videos. Specifically, one YouTuber stated the phone was slow but failed to show any example of this in his video. Later in the video he launched a task manager only to show about 15 different processes running simultaneously! I think my Core 2 Duo laptop would run slow with 15 apps running concurrently!

Many reviewers feel the need to complain about a product, or they somehow aren't doing their job. I plan to simply serve up the facts and observations I've gained with a week of actual use:

Waking Up to X10, Linux & Cron

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am not a morning person.  Maybe it's the shock to the system brought about by an alarm clock blaring, naturally followed by the squinted eyes when I flick the lights on.  Especially in the winter when the days are short, waking up before the sun is a pain, but a necessary part of life.  However, using a little technology and creativity, I hope to lessen the dread of the morning routine.