My career choice is to be in the family business which is going on 21 years. Attempting to keep my fathers dream alive and support my growing family. With this choice I have some perks, these include owning a manufacturing facility that produces thousands of shirts, sweatshirts and polos everyday. So I can produce some cool looking "Homebrew" shirts and gear if needed. In addition, I get to work with some great companies, schools and organizations.
Heading the school sales department lets me travel the San Diego region to meet with buyers, teachers and coaches looking for apparel. During one of these trips in 2006 I noticed a large group of Pepsi "Corny" Kegs outside of a local middle school. The storage area was filled with desks, chairs and other old items in addition to these kegs. I could see about 19 of these kegs piled in the back of the storage area. Knowing that Pepsi might of forgot about them, or just left them to rot I didn't want to rock the boat by asking if the school needed them.
This posed a problem, I wanted them bad. To afraid to ask the buyer due to the potential conflict it might put them into. I started to talk to my buddy and fellow homebrewer Danny. (He works in the same school district) Following the proper channels, it turned out that the school wanted to clear out the storage area and was waiting for the district to trash the items. The next day we loaded my truck and brought our bounty to my house for cleaning.
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| Overloaded with excitement |
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| Sorting the good, bad and ugly |
The kegs were filled with syrup, god only knows how old. The cleaning was a MESS. New seals, pop-its, o-rings were needed ASAP. We ended up with 23 Pepsi Kegs and one Coke keg. A couple had pin holes and one didn't have a top. But a great score. We gave a couple away to homebrewing friends and split the rest. Since then I've given away 3 or so more to homebrewers. I am now down to 12 kegs out of the original, which is good number that I want to stay at.
These kegs pushed me into Kegging and inspired me to keep on brewing. Without this score back in 2006 I think my brewing would be years behind what it is now.
Having just bought my first kegs at $30/each about 18 months ago before prices rose to $50+, let me kindly say you and your free kegs can go pound sand! =P
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, I'm curious why you say the cache of kegs helped push your brewing forward so dramatically. Was it that the extra storage space afforded you the opportunity to brew more often and hone your skills, or something else?
I have 4 ball-locks, and I initially thought that would be all i'd ever want, but now I wish I had at least another 6-8. Homebrewing is funny like that.
The additional kegs gave me the ability to brew more. While this doesn't "fix" your homebrew it does make you understand your system. Jamil always says that to be a good brewer you need to brew all the time. The addition
DeleteOf the kegs also let me taste batches side by side. I feel that brewing the same recipe over and over [and getting the same result] works wonders on my technical abilities.