Innovations and Contraptions

This blog post is about contraptions. Innovation, as we all know, is the key to success in just about any endeavor, and brewing beer is no exception. The craft beer world is littered with examples of inspirations from the good-idea-fairy turned into ingenious devices that make our beer making lives easier, or just plain cooler.

Randall the Enamel Animal

Take, for example, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery’s Randall the Enamel Animal, or just Randall for short. Randall is an organoleptic hop transducer module, or, in other words, a double-chamber filter that you connect to the tap of your favorite beer and fill with flavor-enhancing ingredients. As the beer travels through Randall en route to your glass, it is infused with whatever ingredients are inside the chamber. Usually, it is used to give the brew one last steroid injection of hops, but can be used for anything that will fit inside the chamber: fruit, chocolate, coffee, nuts, whatever.

The Home Brew

A very common invention that you will find in most home brewers’ houses is a standard water cooler that has been converted into a mash tun and/or lauter tun. This device is inexpensive and easy to make yourself, and is much more effective to use than any prefabbed mash tun or lauter tun you could find for sale in a store. Simple load your mash grains into the mash tun, add your hot liquor, let mash, lauter out the wort and sparge the last runnings. Done and done. For more info on what all of that meant, or for detailed instructions on how to build one of these, including parts lists, consult the Internet.

Another common contraption that is found in the homes of beer lovers everywhere is the kegerator… not exactly innovative as most of these are purchased in stores. But every once in a while, a beer hero comes along that makes something like this…

I’m not sure if the inventor of this awesome device calls it the Megarator, but I definitely would. This baby holds and regulates the temperature of nine Cornelius (corny) kegs. Hoses are run from the cornies to the taps you see fixed to the outside of the deep freezer unit. The Megarator also comes with a spill tray to keep your floor clean and a nitro-tap affixed to the ninth tap for that delicious milk stout you have in corny number nine. This thing exemplifies the spirit of craftiness, innovation and shear awesomeness.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!