My job is really like a family. There’s bumps in the road, for sure, but Films has always been a close knit kind of place. Once a year (except during lock outs), the family, literally, honors those employees who have grown up inside the company.
A lot of us, many of whom were recognized today for their service, grew up in Mt Laurel, and have worked for the company our entire lives. Today, the company honored those of us who have worked for 10, 20, 25 ,30, and 50 years for Films.
I wasn’t one of them. On the record, I’ve only been employed there since 2007, but actually, I’ve been working with my peers for over 12 years, since I was 22 years old. If you don’t know who is in this picture…It’s our founder, Hall of Fame inductee Mr. Ed Sabol, and his son, our president, Mr. Steve Sabol. Their dream now employ 250 people, including me and many people I consider friends.
After the pin awards ceremony, and an incredible hilarious speech from Big Ed, the master story-teller, we headed outside for a celebration banquet and some summer games.
Along with the BBQ tent, we managed to organize 12 teams to pass the time playing Baggo. Now, I prefer Washers, but as long as the game allows for one free hand to hold a beer, I’m okay with it.
It was a double elimination tournament. Consequently, this motley crew and I were swiftly double eliminated, and then drank on the sidelines ( I cried silently in a bathroom stall, but no one has to know that). We aptly named our team the “Celluloid Zeroes.” Props to anyone who gets the reference.
Back at home, regular remodeling dreadfulness.
Eh, all my tools covered in dust. So tiring. Being rich must be fabulous.
But, Monika and I got some hang out time in the backyard, enjoyed a Thursday Martini together, and looked forward to the weekend
Eno escaped. We barely cared. Everyone deserves to run free at least once daily.
Working at Keg & Barrel Homebrew Supply, I have many people inquire about the next step in home brew bottling…Kegging. Fed up with the constant sanitizing, bottling, capping, and waiting the two-three weeks it takes to “bottle-condition” (aka carbonate), many homebrewers turn to Kegging their beer.
And why wouldn’t we? You have exactly one container to clean and sanitize instead of scores, one lid to put on, only a few hours, instead of weeks, before you can enjoy a carbonated beer (more on that in another column), and possibly the most bad-ass aspect… home brew on tap in your bar. (When liquor is the center of attention instead of the TV, it’s no longer a Family Room)
Kegging is great, but a traditional Kegerator comes with the type of coupler to tap a standard, domestic, “D” style keg. How can you convert your system to accommodate your new “Corny Keg” system? Well, quite easily, and cheaply, in fact. Here’s what you’ll need
Pliers
Scissors
Flat head screwdriver
2x swivel set (either two 3/16″ inch, or one 3/16″ & one 5/16″)
2x tail piece to Male thread adapters
Yep! If you already own a Corny Keg and the taps that fit on the posts, this is literally all you need to convert your kegging system into a dual purpose server. Mind you, you’ll need the Corny taps( whether your keg is pin-lock or ball-lock) that have a MPT (male pipe threaded) tip, not a barbed tip, so make sure you ask for that at your Homebrew Store.
Your Kegerator “coupler” probably looks similar to this. The air line comes in from the side, and the beer is dispensed from the top. The lines on this one are clamped with screw clamps. Even if yours has crimp clamps, no worries. You won’t have to pry them with pliers.
Simply take your scissors and cut the lines near the coupler. Before cutting your air supply line, make sure your regulator is shut off, and the CO2 tank is closed. If you have screw clamps, remove them and save for later.
Now, unscrew the two nuts holding the old tail pieces to the coupler. Under the beer supply at the top, you’ll find a rubber gasket, and under the air supply, you’ll find a check valve. Keep both of those, as well as the nuts. The tubing and the old tail pieces you can either throw out, or slice off the tubing and save for spare parts. You won’t need them anymore for this tutorial.
You’ll now have two open tubes going to your CO2 tank, and your tower and faucet. Insert the swivel set through it’s corresponding nut and into the tubing. Remember to slide the screw clamp over the tubing first so that you can tighten it onto the barb once inserted into the tubing.
Make sure you leave a little space between the tubing and the nut on the swivel set. This is what allows you to be able to tighten the nut without twisting the hose. It’s called “swivel” for a reason.
With those secured in place, simply screw them tight to the taps on your Corny keg and you’re ready to dispense your favorite beverage.
Replace the check valve and gasket on the coupler, and attach the new MPT tailpieces to the coupler. You’re now ready to switch back to the old, traditional coupler when you run out of home brew and want to drink a Miller Lite.
Simply unscrew the air and beer lines from the Corny taps and attach them to the “D” coupler. Tap your favorite brew!
UPDATE!!! Here’s another way to do it, if your home brew store carries the parts. You can get tailpieces that fit onto “D” Sanke couplers that are Cornelius/home brew keg posts.
Once screwed on, you’d be able to simply leave your corny disconnects permanently attached to the beer and CO2 lines, and either connect them to a corny keg system, or right onto a regular keg coupler.
these posts cost around 40 bucks a set, not including the disconnects seen in this picture, but they save you from having to find a wrench when you want to convert back and forth, and save you a bunch of time as well. The only advice I can give here is this: I would still recommend that you have threaded swivel sets on the beer line, instead of a barb and clamp. That way, when in come times to clean out the beer lines, you can simply unscrew the disconnect from the swivel set and run BLC through the lines.
THIS POST HAS BEEN, BY FAR, THE MOST READ POST ON MY BLOG. PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT TO LET ME KNOW IF MY ADVICE WORKED FOR YOU, AND IF IT WAS HELPFUL. THANKS AND CHEERS!
Random pictures from the third story of NFL Films. It was originally supposed to be finished out with more office space, but money ran out, and so now it’s just a big junk drawer of abandoned technology, old sets, and crap.
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This is a picture of my (kind of) new desk at work. I’m not official working in this new department, but I’m there two days a week, and I almost know what I’m doing. Hopefully, someday, this will be my permanent one. Yes, they are all my computers, and notice, there is no film on my desk.
Well, I was there. Saw them win to force a game 6, but alas, the lost in that game anyway. It was a damn fine try, though. Here are some shots from the last minute seats me and Jim scored for free (150 face value a piece).
There’s always a pre-game before a concert. Monika and I split a Sam Adams Belgian Ale, kind of similar to Victory Golden Monkey, a perennial pre-game favorite.
my beautiful bartender before we left for the show.
we wanted more friends to come with us to see Spiritualized, but they are kind of an obscure band. And, it would be hard to live up to the last time we saw them, at Radio City Music Hall with Kreg and Kat.
Of course, we took the Patco into Philly and down to the TLA. There was only one opening band, so we left pretty late. I hate to have to wait through 2 plus hours of crap just to see the main band start at 10:30 at night.
I don’t know how, but we just walked up to the stage, row three, because it wasn’t too crowded, and watched the show from right in front of J.Spaceman. Great show, sounded amazing. Monika buddied up to the lighting guy at the end of the night, and scored the set list from him, which is now hanging in my studio. Been seeing this guy for almost 20 years now…it’s amazing he’s still alive.
In the vault at NFL Films, we have this old chart of shows. We hung it up just so visitors could look at a piece of history. It’s really just garbage, but, eh, people seem to think it’s cool.
Since Kodak went out of business, er, I mean declared bankruptcy, we bought a shit ton of film from them just in case Fuji couldn’t keep up with our demand.
Kreg painting his new molding. He’s been remodeling his house in anticipation of guest coming in for his wedding NEXT MONTH!!!
We had to stop by our local “motivation office” for some liquid refreshments.
Cinco de Mayo. An annual event that is usually spent at a Mexican Restaurant eating crappy, over-cilantroed chips and salsa and swilling Coronas, Dos Equis and Sol while wearing a loud sombrero and fake, “dirty-mexican” mustache. In New Jersey, that is.
Need I say anything?
Barley Legal Big Brew Day (aka AHA National Homebrew Day). An annual event held by my Homebrewers club in Maple Shade on National homebrew day where a few hundred friends get together in a parking lot, make beer all day, and serve for free to anyone that shows up delicious, home made beer.
In 2012, the two collided last Saturday under an overcast sky at Iron Hill Restaurant in Maple Shade, NJ.
Monika, Craig and I left early because we had volunteered for the first hour of admissions desk duty…taking donations, selling raffle tickets, selling merchandise and id’ing and wrist banding all the brewers.
There were about 30 different stations where people were brewing and serving. Club members are pretty ambitious, so everyone set right up and started brewing as fast as you can.
We met up with Gina and Scott from my homebrew store and we had planned to do a joint 12 gallon brew of raspberry cream ale. President Obama showed up as well, started out with a beer, ended up having a few cigarettes, lost the suit for a Barley Legal t-shirt and caught a serious buzz.
One of the assistant brewer’s got up super early and got to Iron Hill to run a batch of Mash for us in the morning. This cuts brewing time for brewer’s in half. Basically, it cuts out the first step, which is basically pouring hot water on grains and waiting for two hours. This is us all lined up to get our sweet wort.
This is a member getting his “keggle” filled. That’s a converted half-barrel keg made into a brew kettle. The smell inside a brewery while mashing and sparging is simply delicious. No, it does not smell like beer. It’s not beer yet!
This still isn’t beer, but it’s a start. We had previously steeped grains, oats and rice and drained them into our keggle. Got it up to a roiling boil and stirred in some hops.
propane, huge amount of boiling water, and drinking high alcohol content beer. It’s amazing there aren’t any accidents on Big Brew Day.
well, almost none. Mike, from Isaac Budd Farm, brewed all day, then dropped the glass jug it was in, and lost it all.
Kreg keeping a close watch on our two keggles…er, one keggle.
This brewer was doing all the brewing himself, as opposed to having the brewery help out with the first step. As you can see, it get’s a little more complicated. But, it sure is a lot of fun.
We tried to finish up early so we could hang out, have some food, give out some of our beers and try some of the other brewers’. On tap, we had an American Cream Ale, Russian Imperial Stout, Magic Hat #9 Clone, and my Iron Brewer Contest entry, a Mint Chocolate Chip Dessert beer.
We mingled for a few hours. Craig, Scott and I smoked a few cigars. Then, the raffles started, and we hung out listening to numbers being announced for an hour or so while prizes were awarded. I didn’t win anything, but I didn’t really try, either.
Kreg found someone with a guitar and jammed on that for a while. I think at this point he was really feeling the scene. Afterwards, we helped clean up the site for about an hour before heading home.
My beer is bubbling away in the kitchen as I type. Should be ready in about two months. Just in time for Summer. Hope it turns out well. After all, we made it while drinking. If it does, hope you can try a sample with me! And, if you weren’t there, try to make it out next year. It’s always a great time with great people.
Special thanks to Beer-Stained Letter for some of the pictures you see above, and for being the un-official photographer of the day. And a shout out to Happily Hopped, who kept the first picture up on his blog long enough for me to steal it for mine.
Oh, and another special thanks to the officers of the club: Evan, Cleteor, Ryan and Devin. They worked hard as hell to make this all happen.
Please take a look at this video. It’s only 18 minutes long, and explains what’s wrong with the food industry in this country today. I know I’ve posted movies before. Some of you might not want to see slaughter houses, or sit through 90 minutes of slanted documentaries.
I can understand why. But this one is very different.
Robyn O’Brien was just like every ordinary American eater and mother. She wasn’t a health food nut, or a vegan, or an organic non-GM eater, and never thought there was a problem with food in America. Then something terrible happened which lead her down a path of discovery about the truth of modern food in America.
I highly encourage all of you, but especially the skeptics who think genetically-modified is fine, organic is expensive and un-needed, and kids with allergies are the result of paranoid parents, to watch this video with an open mind. It doesn’t come from PETA, but instead, someone just like you.
On The Verge of Tears 