New Equipment For the Snordog Brewery
24 December 2007
Just after Thanksgiving, I received an e-mail to WBAS webmaster from someone inquiring how to get in touch with the person who wrote the article on beer in Nairobi. Since I was the person, I immediately responded. Russ came across the WBAS website in a Google search for homebrewing in Kenya. Russ has been in Kenya for nearly 20 years and wanted to unload all of his homebrewing equipment before moving back to Michigan in January 2008. He visited some of the pages and came across Snordog Homebrewing and thought this might be a good match. During his time in Kenya, Russ was a member of a homebrewing club that had eight members at its peak, unfortunately he is the sole member still in country. Russ related some good stories of going on safari with club members and taking kegs of homebrew in his specially designed canvas covered, insulated keg carrier. It seems the homebrew club was quite active and all members shared an interest in making alternatives to Tusker and its kin. We finally met Russ on Christmas eve at his house out in Karen and found his living room filled with kettles, an industrial strength burner, lauter tuns, coolers, kegs, grain mills, counter flow wort chillers, 4 glass carboys, an assortment of stoppers and airlocks, thermometers, hydrometers, a pH meter, an extensive brewing library, and the safari keg carrier. Next he showed me about 100 lbs of malted barley and specialty grains plus lots of yeast and hops. We settled on $300 for everything. It took me 2 trips with the Landcruiser to pack it all up - there are still a few more items to pick up next weekend. We're going to buy one of his fridges as well to dedicate as the offical Nairobi Beer Fridge.
.........Scott, Russ and Moshe with the first load of equipment in the Landcruiser
With all the new equipment, Snordog Brewing is poised to return to all grain brewing within the week. I'm motivated to try and renew interest in starting another homebrewing club here in Nairobi. The quest for homebrewers begins.