In the open sea

TRANSMITTER’S HOMEMADE FERMENTATION COOLER

YOU’LL NEED: A touring kayak WHICH WILL COST YOU: From about R10 000. Try one out on a guided tour before investing in your own. THE GIST: Touring kayaks are long – 4,25 to 5 metres – and meant to be used in the ocean or other open water. They’re for serious paddlers covering serious distance. In fact, people use them for overnight trips, taking advantage of the boat’s ample storage space to go on multiday expeditions with camping gear. These boats won’t feel as stable as a recreational kayak and will take some getting used to. Most touring kayaks have small cockpits to keep you firmly planted in your seat, even in choppy water. NECESSARY GEAR PFD, float bags (if necessary), bilge pump Paddle: A little longer than a recreational kayak paddle; 230 to 240 cm is ideal for most men. Spray skirt: A water-resistant neoprene seal that fits tightly around your waist, then spreads out just wide enough to seal off the edge of the cockpit.

Anthony Accardi (above left) and Rob Kolb opened Transmitter Brewing in 2014 in a former limousine garage in Queens, New York, beneath a bridge that spans two of the city’s most industrial neighbourhoods. They fitted the space themselves, and when it was time to stock up with equipment, they didn’t worry about the aesthetic focus that’s currently trendy in the craft beer market. It’s unnecessary, for one thing. And expensive. At every opportunity, instead of doing something the cool way, they did it the cost-effective way. Take tubing, for example. Many breweries spend a fortune on copper tubing, when much cheaper PVC pipe works fine. When Accardi and Kolb priced the fermentation coolers, which rapidly chill brewing beer so yeast ferments properly, they found that commercial models cost as much as R150 0000 – before installation and plumbing. So they designed their own using parts from an old air-conditioning unit. Once they got it working, they built two breweryscale versions with aircon units they bought for a combined total of R12 000 and installed themselves. Their saving allowed them to put their money into something more important: their beer. In the two years it has been open, Transmitter has already increased its capacity tenfold – a necessity since New York’s high-end restaurants started stocking its bottles alongside fine wines – and it won the 2016 Ruppert’s Cup as New York City’s best craft brewery. Not bad for a couple of cheap guys in Queens. When the beer in each of Transmitter’s tanks has completed the fermentation stage, it is cold-crashed: The system drops it to 1 degree over a period of just 24 hours – so spent yeast and other sediments settle at the bottom.

The condensers from the aircon units are submerged in Coleman and Igloo coolers, and the fans and compressors are mounted behind the coolers. PVC piping passes through the coolers and connects to the pumping system.

A 0,75-kw pumping unit sends glycol, an antifreeze, to the fermenters at 100 kpa.

Two 110-mm PVC tubes carry the glycol across the ceiling of the brewery. Those tubes are sprayfoamed at the ends, which holds everything in place while also providing insulation.

A three-tube manifold of 25-mm PVC separates the glycol circulation, allowing each of Transmitter’s four fermentation tanks to receive an equal amount of coolant.

Actuators at each fermenter connect to Transmitter’s Brewery Control System, an Arduino-like device that uses temperature and time parameters preset by the brewers to tell the cooling system when to turn on and off.

Kolb and Accardi can monitor and adjust the cooling process from anywhere with an internet connection.

1.

Clamp a toothbrush in a vice and cut off the head with a coping saw. Discard the handle of the toothbrush.

2.

To connect the leads from the vibration motor to the ones on the battery holder, use a soldering iron to melt and apply a small ball of solder to the end of each motor lead. One at a time, touch each lead to the battery holder and apply heat with the iron.

3.

Use a felt-tipped pen to draw wings on a piece of craft paper. Cut out the shape with scissors.

4.

Apply a glob of hot glue to the back of the toothbrush, towards one end of the head.

5.

Before the glue hardens, press the battery holder into it.

6.

Repeat the procedure to glue the vibrating motor near the other end of the toothbrush head. Be careful not to get glue on any of the motor’s moving parts.

7.

Slide a battery into the battery holder, but keep it separated from the contact point with a thick piece of paper or card stock. To make the bot go, just withdraw the slip of paper. To make it stop, slide the paper back in.

8.

Use the hot-glue gun to glue the paper wings on the bot, either on the motor or the space between it and the battery.