Portland report, part 2

My lil family so far

There we have the bulk of my P-town booty, minus the brews that I've already dusted since being back (6 Pack of Dale's Pale Ale, thank you; you will be missed), and plus a couple of upgrades made since my return. Apologies for the lame iphone pic but here we have, from left to right:

My old brew kettle, AKA my new hot liquor tank, fitted with a nice ball valve and piece of food grade silicon tubing. That white handle sticking out goes to my new mash paddle (actually a big long spoon). Next to that and in the background is my new Barley Crusher grain mill, a fine piece of kit which, soon as I get a hopper for it, will be cranking out freshly ground grist for my all grain mashes--yaaaay! Then we have my new 36 liter stainless steel brew kettle, in which I will be boiling up full batches of delicious home brewed wort. You can see my new auto siphon just peaking up over the top there; no more train-wreck style racking sessions for me, nope. The new BK was also fitted with a spanking new ball valve over this last weekend by a handy man friend of mine with a fancy steel drilling drill. There in the foreground on the right is my first ever Cornelius keg. Formerly property of Pepsi Co., it will be enjoying its new life to the utmost as a beer keg just as soon as I get a CO2 tank, regulator, and the proper fittings. Better not hold your breath, but getting the keg here was half the battle indeed.

Oh but I forgot to mention those sexy lookin' brews out front. Yep, it was a labor of love lugging them all back, but they all got here in one piece. Or...5. More on that.