Ran across some history (for me) tonight while clearing out the garage...

[culturejam]

You old-timers will likely recall that I was a homebrewer before I was a pedal builder. I was so into the hobby, in fact, that I was a regular writer for the national homebrew magazine called Brew Your Own (or BYO). I used to write the DIY column for the guys who wanted to build gear instead of buy it. Shocker, right?   

Anyway, I was assigned to develop a build guide for a hop 'oast', which is a fancy way of saying dehydrator. So for the guys who grew their own hops, this would be a way to dry them in large quantities so they could be preserved and used over time. The pro versions had active ventilation and air-flow, and I wanted that on my home/DIY project as well. But I had no idea how to wire up a fan with an on/off and a speed control. At the time I was riding a train to work, and one of my commute buddies was a white-hat hacker and telephone system guy, and he drew me a schematic of what I should do. This was about 6 months before I built my first BYOC kit pedal.

So here is the top panel of the oast box -- my first actual electronics project --  with the fan, switch, and pot. It's been sitting in my garage since late 2006, and I've finally rolled it out to the curb for disposal.

[culturejam]

And to answer the burning question I know you all will ask: yes, I saved the knob before I tossed the rest on the garbage pile. 

[chromesphere]

Actually i was going to ask if it was true bypass

I was growing my own hops for a while but the consistancy (and gauging how bitter my crop actually was) was difficult to measure.  Really fun hobby though (beer brewing).

[cooder]

Do you have a schematic for that? Really keen...

[alanp]

Chrome -- is it true that Aussies have to brew things like lager inside re-purposed refrigerators?

[chromesphere]

Chrome -- is it true that Aussies have to brew things like lager inside re-purposed refrigerators?

[somnif]

Chrome -- is it true that Aussies have to brew things like lager inside re-purposed refrigerators?

I can tell you folks do that here in Arizona. Any cold maturing/secondary fermentations are likely gonna be done in a chill chest. I live in a college town, and a ton of dorm room mini-fridges on craigslist (think Gumtree) end up in the hands of hobby brewers.

(We do have a week or two of "cold" weather in winter, but by and large its rare for us to get under 80F/27C most of the year)

[Betty Wont]

You old-timers will likely recall that I was a homebrewer before I was a pedal builder. I was so into the hobby, in fact, that I was a regular writer for the national homebrew magazine called Brew Your Own (or BYO). I used to write the DIY column for the guys who wanted to build gear instead of buy it. Shocker, right?   

Anyway, I was assigned to develop a build guide for a hop 'oast', which is a fancy way of saying dehydrator. So for the guys who grew their own hops, this would be a way to dry them in large quantities so they could be preserved and used over time. The pro versions had active ventilation and air-flow, and I wanted that on my home/DIY project as well. But I had no idea how to wire up a fan with an on/off and a speed control. At the time I was riding a train to work, and one of my commute buddies was a white-hat hacker and telephone system guy, and he drew me a schematic of what I should do. This was about 6 months before I built my first BYOC kit pedal.

So here is the top panel of the oast box -- my first actual electronics project --  with the fan, switch, and pot. It's been sitting in my garage since late 2006, and I've finally rolled it out to the curb for disposal.

What?! I cut my teeth on those BYO issues. I ended up parlaying my homebrew hobby into an enology degree. And now i make pedals all day. Thank you for the past blast!

[culturejam]

What?! I cut my teeth on those BYO issues. I ended up parlaying my homebrew hobby into an enology degree. And now i make pedals all day. Thank you for the past blast!

My first article for them was on how to build your own Burton Union style fermentor setup a la Marston's in England. I did about 25 articles in all over the course of 3-4 years during 2004-2008-ish (I'll have to look up the exact dates). It was fun and ultimately edifying for my ego to see my headshot next to the greats (like Sam Calagione in one issue). But like anything, I got burned out by the deadlines and having to come up with new stuff every issue. 

[stringsthings]

this makes me hoppy

[gordo]

this makes me hoppy...you cracked me up on that one...

[stringsthings]

eggs - actly ... ( stolen from classic Batman TV series )