Tag: tap

Banquet draft tower – for all your office party needs

I built this banquet tap tower for Michelle’s office christmas party in December. It’s a simple block of CVG Douglas fir with a hole straight-thru for a beer spigot and a partial groove in the bottom that allows it to be attached to a desktop with a C-clap. It started out as a part of a jockey-box, but after reading a fair amount, I decided that for the purposes of a party (or a wedding), the 5-gallon kegs usually get finished before they can cool down, and having the keg under the desk in a bucket of ice would be cheaper and less foamy than trying to get a jockey box dialed in.

Anyway, it worked well, looked nice, and was fun to make with some scrap I had laying around. I re-sawed some of the CVG fir to glue to the sides so that it would be CVG all the way around. It seemed a shame to have only 2 pretty sides. I didn’t finish it – and I probably should given the wet nature of beer – but unfinished fir just looks so lovely. Personally, I like it better with the short tap-handle. Next step will be to make a matching handle.

NoPoToberfest tapped

I tapped NoPoToberfest on Monday, and I’m quite pleased with the results. The fresh hops give it a very fruity profile which is pleasing to the only anti-bitter beer drinker who’s tried it, but the fresh floral and franky, sweet flavors of the wet hops is very nice.

When I moved the beers from primary to secondary, the aroma was still tending on hoppy, but when moving from secondary to the kegs, the hop armoa had turned, well, almost bad. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I was initially concerned that maybe I’d over aerated it when racking to secondary, but the beer itself still tasted good. So, given the amount of beer, and my freezer full of hops, I dropped 1.5 ounces of Amarillo hops in to each keg (in a boiled nylon sack). The effect on the aroma is delightful. It was given a fresher citrus aroma yet doesn’t have the bitter backend of a traditional IPA.

Now I have to bottle some for the neighbor who donated the hops, and a few for some friends.