I love to build things with my hands.  Some of my favorite memories as a kid are working in my grandfather’s workshop crafting whatever I could, mostly swords.  When I decided to take on home brewing, I was thrilled to learn that there are a lot of things you can build to improve your setup.  I hadn’t built anything since we had moved into our new house, so I decided to take on a new project and learn some new skills.

Homebrewtalk.com is an amazing resource for everything a home brewer could ever need to know.  Bobby_M, a member of the site, has contributed a wealth of great DIY instructions and videos.  I decided to follow his build of a Counter Flow Chiller.  The one hurdle I had to overcome was that I have never soldered copper before.  I have soldered plenty of electrical components so I figured the same principles applied.  I have also watched This Old House and Ask This Old House enough that I figured I had absorbed the knowledge at some point.

First step was acquiring parts.  Thankfully everything was easy to find at Lowes.  The most expensive element was the 50′ of copper refrigerator tube.  The build recommends 25′ but that didn’t exist and I didn’t want to go any smaller than 25′.  I figured a 50′ chiller would work really well, so why not.

I also picked up a 50′ foot rubber hose, fittings, hose clamps and a couple of soldering supplies, including solder, a pipe brush, some flexible sandpaper, and flux.

Now, as I said, I have never soldered copper before.  Turns out you need a little practice to get good at it.  I blew through two ‘T’ fittings because I over heated them.  I kept applying heat all over the pipe and coupling, but the solder didn’t want to flow into the joint like I thought it should.  Turns out I should have concentrated more of my heat on the bigger component, the fitting, instead of putting the heat all over the place.  I also didn’t have the torch close enough to the fitting, so it took longer to heat up the pipe, which meant the pipe was exposed to heat for longer.

I went and watched a couple of videos on Youtube, figured out what was wrong, and got a few more parts from Lowes.  The second time around went much better.  I was able to get the solder to flow into the joint.  I haven’t tested it yet, but I think all the joints should be water tight at this point.

After a couple of evenings working on the couplings, I moved onto getting the refrigerator copper inside the rubber hose.  This is where my plan for a 50′ CFC completely fell apart.  No matter how much soap and water I fed through the rubber hose, I could not get the copper to get all the way through.  I knew looking at it that I had 25′ through no problem.  I decided to save myself the trouble and cut the copper tubing in half as well as cutting the rubber hose in half.  I was finally able to get the copper threaded through the rubber hose, which meant all that was left to do was solder the connections to the refrigerator tube.

After a weekend and a couple more evenings I finally have it finished.  I haven’t had the opportunity to test it yet, but I am hoping that everything is going to hold and I won’t be leaking tap water into my wort.  All in all, this was a fun project. I feel I have learned enough to get by with soldering copper and should get better with some more practice.  Looking forward to building some more things in the future like a Mash/Laurter Tun.

My first festival.  I almost went to this very festival last year but the oppressive heat kept me away.  This year, however, the weather was great so I was able to make it to Opti Park located in lovely Broad Ripple, which is just north of downtown Indianapolis.  The line waiting to get in was impressive, stretching down two city blocks.  It moved quickly and soon I had my commemorative tasting glass ready to take in as much as I could.  At first, it was a bit overwhelming.  There were a lot of breweries there that I knew and loved and even more that I had never heard of.  The first stop was the Hoppalooza tent, which was serving up 20+ different IPAs.  I chose the 21st Amendment offering which was a mistake; it was overly bitter and didn’t impress me at all.  Not the best start to the day.

I then jumped into the line for Bells brewery and was happy surprised to find them serving something I hadn’t had from them.  Poolside, which is a cherry wheat beer, had a nice grapefruit color to it, but was a little too sweet for my liking.

I jumped around to several different big name breweries, at least here in Indiana.  Barley Island and Upland were definitely on the top of my list.  Barley Island was serving up a limited run Single White Friar which was exceptional.

Upland tapped their Van Winkle Bourbon Barrel Chocolate Stout which was really good.  Had so much punch but still managed to let the chocolate shine through.

Some other standouts included Sun King’s Dry Hopped Osiris Pale Ale and Left Hand’s Imperial Stout, both solid offerings.

I had an awesome time even if it was a bit exhausting standing in line all day.  Besides the tastings there was also a cornhole tournament, which I went in on next year, food, and plenty of shirts and merch to bring home.  The list of breweries was well rounded with some big hitters as well as some small local breweries, a great collection of what Indiana has to offer to the craft beer world.  If you in or around Indy next year, I highly recommend stopping by, but get your tickets in advance, the event sold out this year.