Oct 032008

Diary of a Distiller: Chapter 20 – Ups n Downs

Wow, the twentieth chapter of my journal, and still no distillery! Whodda thunkit? Well, it won’t be much longer now. (Fingers Crossed, as well as toes, eyes, lips, legs… I must look like I have to pee REAL bad.) Anyway, I always loved to climb, as a kid, and then a teen, I would scale the highest trees in the neighborhood, always trying to get my head above the canopy. I only fell twice when branches broke. The first time was on a young willow tree when I was in 4th grade. I slightly twisted my ankle and learned that willows have weak branches for their size. I promptly went to the library and read up on trees and learned to identify them and which were strong or weak. I also moved on to climbing the sides of buildings, radio antennas, and anything else that was possibly climbable, and a few things that probably weren’t. There were no rock-climbing areas near me, so I really got into tree-climbing, sometimes even using safety ropes, and what later became known as “Buildering,” climbing buildings and other structures. The neighborhood cops got to know me by name, since they found me on roof-tops, telephone poles, flagpoles, light poles, street signs, tall fences, etc. on a regular basis.

The second time I had a tree branch break on me was when I was nineteen and I messed up my right knee real bad for the first time and was on crutches for awhile. (Note: Do not have keg parties in trees without safety harnesses. I learned the hard way.) As soon as I was healed I fell off the roof of a house during a thunderstorm. It had been real fun running along the long, low, slanted roof in the pouring rain and sliding down it; and then to bring yourself to a stop before you got to the edge. One time I tried to do a stunt from a cowboy movie and grab the gutter as I slid off, and do a drop kick onto a friend. Oops! There went my other knee. That was a great summer! As I got older I started working for Outward Bound and was always up in trees on challenge/ropes courses and got so comfortable I could make it through these airborne obstacle courses 30-60 feet in the air, blindfolded.

Every now and then over the years I would put in a stint in contracting and construction, thereby ending up on ladders and rooftops. Well, unsecured ladders started to scare the hell out of me real quick. I had a best friends father fall and break his neck when a ladder slipped. A fellow worker had a ladder slip and he broke both his wrists. I started getting really conservative when it came to ladder safety. Even when setting up access to a ropes course I always made sure the ladder was secured at the top so it couldn’t slip. Even after all my years going up and down ladders I am still fearful. But I also stubborn and refuse to be intimidated or controlled by anything other than myself.

photo gallery at end of post

After almost a decade of time spent mountain climbing, rock-climbing, etc. I felt totally comfortable exposed in high places. I became an EMT and an expert in high angle rope rescue. I could climb up anything and then rappel myself, or myself and a loaded rescue stretcher, back down. I could be in a climbing/rappel harness and bounce off the cliff-side or hang upside down a 100 feet in the air. But I never felt comfortable on ladders.

Well, in constructing our brewery there came a few times I was up on ladders. Inside the building when painting or when putting the vent stack on top of the kettle and securing it. That wasn’t so bad. Then outside the other day when Mike and I were up on the roof finishing the outside work on the vent stack. I felt my usual trepidation even more than normal as I headed up the ladder, loaded down with tools, equipment, and my camera. I forced myself to climb up to the roof-top and look around the neighborhood and out on the view of the Penobscot River. All the time feeling like I was going to slide off the roof or have the ladder slip and I would plummet the 20+ feet to the ground. Forcing yourself to do things you don’t want to, can be a rush, and the endorphin high after-wards had me buzzed all day.

On the roof we had to install the down vents onto the head of the vent stack, so that rain can’t get in and contaminate the brew kettle. Also to keep out all the animals, birds, and insects which would try to get in when they smell the wonderful wort brewing. When we recovered the vent stack from the old brewery there was a nice, huge, hornets nest filling the top, which was an alarming, buzzing, surprise. Something we wanted to prevent happening in our location.

While installing it we learned that the vent stack is ingenuously set up so that any condensation inside is collected and sent out a relief tube and down the drain, instead of dripping back into the brew kettle; while steam goes up and is released out on the roof. Hopefully, to lightly perfume the neighborhood with the faint aroma of beer making. Great advertising!

So we finally got the steam boiler we have been looking for since June. Parts scatter the basement of the winery, and we will be helping the boiler team install it next week. We’re doing as much of the work as possible to help the boiler guys, to save on our costs. The original quote of around $30,000 for the boiler, parts, 3 inch steam pipes, and full install; will end up coming to around a third of that by our doing so. A huge savings, for doing a lot of the work ourselves. We all have experience in construction and contracting, so under the watchful eye of the licensed boiler man, with much inspection, we will get the job done.

After we finished building the vent stack for the brew kettle. We (mainly Mike, with me watching, handing him a tool, pulling some wires, making an obvious comment, or getting in the way), also worked on electrical wiring and internal electronics of various pieces of equipment; controllers, pumps, switches, etc. Many of which were faulty with electrical shorts, or damaged through the severe mistreatment they suffered over the years. We are getting past being amazed at how poorly the equipment was treated. Now we have come to expect not to expect parts to work, or have been well kept. Even simple things like the face plate of the control of the transfer station/chiller plate, is gouged and scratched as if someone beat it with chains. I can’t figure out how there could even be a single scratch in such a place, let alone such abuse.

Every time we replace a part it is with the newest, best, cutting edge, stronger, longer lasting piece or part we can get a hold of. Preferably as inexpensively as possible at the same time. Quality comes first, but we like to squeeze our quarters until the eagle screams. We are trying to put together a great facility on as low a budget as possible. So we have kept on working on the Bionic Brewery and every now and then we yell the second mantra… “More Power!” Because you can never have enough power!