Steve Lacey
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- Joined
- 24/2/05
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Hope I'm not doubling up on threads here, but I have a good story on a new bit of brewing gear I just got and thought it might make an interesting thread.
As many of you know I live in Tokyo. My all-grain brewing is somewhat curtailed due to space and time, but especially space. But a friend has an office that is a converted apartment, and we have some basic improvised gear and do the occasional brew there together. We have been starting to think we should equip ourselves better so have been looking around for an esky type cooler (we use a bucket wrapped in blankets now) and 30+ liter boiler (we now have to split the boil into two smaller pots).
On most Sunday mornings I go for a run in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo's version of Central Park I suppose. There is quite a population of homeless guys with semi-permanent camps dotted around the park. You could almost say they are not homeless because they have these little houses of tarp & wood construction. Seems lately the authorities have been thinning down the numbers, getting them into temporary publicly-funded housing. So on Sunday there was a whole row of them pulling down their shacks and chucking out all their unneeded rubbish in preparation to move on. My bicycle was parked near the tarps where they were throwing their stuff. When I was changing and ready to leave, one of them started talking to me about this and that. Muttering about what a tough job it was and that they would be all gone tomorrow, etc etc. Then he comes back with another armload of stuff, including what looked suspiciously like a large stainless steel stock pot. He chucked it on the pile and wandered off.
I started looking at this thing and was thinking, "shit, that's a stainless steel stock pot. But too small for a boiler...bloody grubby...but it's stainless...could we use that? hmm..." It looked to be about 20L, just too small for a kettle, but maybe big enough for a mash tun. It really was very grubby, especially a lot of dirt and mud. But I looked inside and could see, after scraping away the leaves and dirt, that the surface was sound. No rust or pitting. Finally I thought what the hell, and grabbed it and gave it bit of a wash under a nearby tap. Sure enough, it looked like it would come up clean with a more thorough scrub, so I scarpered off to my friends office with it perched on the front of my bike; only had to ride a couple of km.
Fortunately he was doing a bit of work and was there. So I brought it in and we cleaned it up completely and measured it. To my surprise it was actually a 33 cm (27L) pot, so I think we have found our mash tun. All we need is to make a wood lid and an insulated jacket and we are away. Step mashes on the stove top will be completely viable. It could even be used as a boiler in a pinch, but I think we will buy a new larger aluminium one for that.
Anyway, I just keep having a bit of a laugh about the fact that I have scrounged up something that even a homeless guy thinks is rubbish. My wife was incredulous when I told her about it and basically told me I was very lucky I didn't bring it home :lol:
Any other "good find" stories out there?
As many of you know I live in Tokyo. My all-grain brewing is somewhat curtailed due to space and time, but especially space. But a friend has an office that is a converted apartment, and we have some basic improvised gear and do the occasional brew there together. We have been starting to think we should equip ourselves better so have been looking around for an esky type cooler (we use a bucket wrapped in blankets now) and 30+ liter boiler (we now have to split the boil into two smaller pots).
On most Sunday mornings I go for a run in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo's version of Central Park I suppose. There is quite a population of homeless guys with semi-permanent camps dotted around the park. You could almost say they are not homeless because they have these little houses of tarp & wood construction. Seems lately the authorities have been thinning down the numbers, getting them into temporary publicly-funded housing. So on Sunday there was a whole row of them pulling down their shacks and chucking out all their unneeded rubbish in preparation to move on. My bicycle was parked near the tarps where they were throwing their stuff. When I was changing and ready to leave, one of them started talking to me about this and that. Muttering about what a tough job it was and that they would be all gone tomorrow, etc etc. Then he comes back with another armload of stuff, including what looked suspiciously like a large stainless steel stock pot. He chucked it on the pile and wandered off.
I started looking at this thing and was thinking, "shit, that's a stainless steel stock pot. But too small for a boiler...bloody grubby...but it's stainless...could we use that? hmm..." It looked to be about 20L, just too small for a kettle, but maybe big enough for a mash tun. It really was very grubby, especially a lot of dirt and mud. But I looked inside and could see, after scraping away the leaves and dirt, that the surface was sound. No rust or pitting. Finally I thought what the hell, and grabbed it and gave it bit of a wash under a nearby tap. Sure enough, it looked like it would come up clean with a more thorough scrub, so I scarpered off to my friends office with it perched on the front of my bike; only had to ride a couple of km.
Fortunately he was doing a bit of work and was there. So I brought it in and we cleaned it up completely and measured it. To my surprise it was actually a 33 cm (27L) pot, so I think we have found our mash tun. All we need is to make a wood lid and an insulated jacket and we are away. Step mashes on the stove top will be completely viable. It could even be used as a boiler in a pinch, but I think we will buy a new larger aluminium one for that.
Anyway, I just keep having a bit of a laugh about the fact that I have scrounged up something that even a homeless guy thinks is rubbish. My wife was incredulous when I told her about it and basically told me I was very lucky I didn't bring it home :lol:
Any other "good find" stories out there?
