Why is there a puddle of foam on the center table?
The main reason that we don’t brew beer at the space is because the space is rarely clean enough to make beer without being contaminated. We are not clean hackers. Some of our members have been kind enough to make beer at their house for our SHHHs, I would love to see this happen more. Maybe at the new space we can clean the space enough to safely make beer.
The reason we can’t brew beer at the space, and have a constant keg rotation is because you don’t clean! Shit real hackers do. Clean the toilet !
Brewing beer also has a strong odour, like coffee, it’s a polarising odour. Sometimes its easier to say not now, than to sort out the mess that results.
Agree, polarizing odour, fresh is good, but stale can be quite bad. And a not so pleasant reminder of cleaning up after dorm parties at University, because I was the non-drinker.
I always though the main issue was that of licensing… micro/home brewing is legal in a residence but at a commercial location requires you conform with strict licensing and regulation, which also includes a minimum volume quotas. I’m all in for the Hacker Craft Brew but not sure VHS is in the business of beer beyond consumption
That is of course in regards to brewing at the space itself. If brewers want to discuss and hack ingredients that be awesome! but I think as Funvill pointed out, it’s rarely clean enough to do anything food related.
If we went for a UBrew license that might be in the realm that could work for VHS… I’m not sure I’m personally interested enough to do the leg work researching deeply into getting a license but for those that might be:
There’s so much cleaning involved in brewing, not just washing, you have to be somewhat paranoid when sanitizing bottles and tubes… At least for me that’s by far the most time consuming part.
Making beer without a dishwashing robot feels like too much work. I’ve always used a surgical mask too when bottling as there is mouth bacteria that can turn beer into malt vinegar.
There are some other interesting things you can do with a clean space, like growing mushrooms, I’m pretty well versed in that. I had a dedicated room with a laminar flow box when I was living with a spare bedroom but alas no more, but a poly tent made out of 1" pvc can be made for about 40$ so even in a dusty workshop… Also, footbaths go a long way in reducing contamination. My employer produced his own mushroom spawn for years in a room with only a door separating it from a filthy shop with rainforest and swamp outside. You’d be surprised what you can get away with if you have good technique, and vigorous culture with matching temperature and growth medium.
Something I’ve been wanting to try for a while has been culturing glow in the dark bacteria from squid guts, but I need pancreatin and so far have only found it in mixed supplements instead of pure. I know it’s available online, I’ve just been waiting to come across it in a health food store, it’ll happen.
So… brewing and biohacking, this is my expression of interest, a placeholder if you will. It seems a bit of a departure from the other material the club is involved in but I’m interested to see what the new space might have to offer and what others want to do. It doesn’t cost much to fail at making beer if the space is inappropriate, I guess it’s time to wait and re-evaluate.
