FOOD

Killer Tap

Inside the world's first all-in-one beer machine.


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Published: Nov 13, 2007

John B. Carnett / Popular Science

Popular Science magazine calls John B. Carnett, its veteran photographer of almost 20 years, a "DIY madman" due to his obsessive drive to customize. And his 100-year-old home in Philly's Graduate Hospital neighborhood is a testament to his desire to build things by his own specifications.

Every detail of the commercial garage turned residence — from the tugboat door that doubles as the entrance to his office to the Cape May pebbles molded into his sink — is his own work. "The worst thing you can do is send me into Lowe's without a shopping list," says Carnett. "I see stuff lying around that needs to be made into something else."

In true form, Carnett recently attended the Maker Faire in Austin, Texas, a gathering dedicated to DIY espirit. The 40-year-old brought along two recent creations: a custom-made high-definition projector, and "The Device," which earned him an Editor's Choice ribbon from Make magazine.

But what is this award-winning contraption? According to Carnett, it's the world's only all-in-one beer machine, encompassing the entire brewing process, from boiling, fermentation and conditioning, to serving cold beer on tap.

Made almost entirely out of stainless steel, The Device consists of two 10-gallon beer kegs, four 5-gallon soda kegs, a propane tank, a CO2 tank, a refrigeration device and a tap system for dispensing the final thirst-quenching product. Everything is housed on two detachable steel frames on wheels. It's 6 feet long and fits through a doorway. Essentially, The Device is a miniature, mobile brewpub.

A year ago, The Device was just another idea, until one afternoon when Carnett was out drinking. "After a couple of beers and a good buzz got going, I told my friends about my idea for an all-in-one beer machine," he says. At the time, he was convinced that something like it must already exist, but an extensive search proved otherwise.

Prior to The Device, Carnett had never brewed beer. "Like most of the stuff I do," he says, "it was an act of frenetic discovery." Once he did research and had a grasp of the basics — boiling water, adding malt extract and hops to make wort, introducing yeast to set off the fermentation process, adding carbonation — he got to work.

Carnett began at his scrap-metal dealer, where he bought materials and welded them together as he went along. Fifty work hours and $4,000 later, The Device was complete.

After obtaining the necessary ingredients from Home Sweet Homebrew at 20th and Sansom, Carnett fired up The Device's 55,000 BTU gas burner for its maiden brew. All went as planned — until an unsecured hose sprayed fermenting beer all over his workroom.

Subsequent brews highlighted various flaws in design. Production is currently underway for a new version Carnett's building with his new company, Nano Brewing Technologies. It will be a fully automated system with improved wort-chilling capabilities, refrigerated kegs and a a self-cleaning feature. It'll eventually be marketed to home brewers.

But for Carnett, making sales is beside the point. "If you can take a hobby that's fun and drink beer while you're doing it," he says, "what have you got to lose?"

(chad.crisp@citypaper.net)