Author Archives: Seth

Brewing up some new gear!

17 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Brewing

≈ 2 Comments

Well it happened again. I said that it wouldn’t…and it did anyways. I got distracted with life for a while, and have been very negligent with my share of the blogging duties. My bad. I’d say that I won’t do it again…but I probably will. I’m a slacker like that.

At any rate…how are things on your end? How are the wife and kids doing? How’s that new lawnmower working for you? Did you ever get around to reading that one book I lent you? Did that rash ever clear up?

Okay. Enough with the small talk. Let’s talk some shop.

After months of planning, sketching and acquiring materials, we at Regular Guy Brewing have finally made some serious headway on a few pretty kickass brewery upgrades that will allow us to boost our brewing capacity up to 15 gallons per batch..or 1/2 a barrel, if you prefer to measure things using brewing volumes. Continue reading →

Checking back in with TIM

09 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Brewing

≈ 1 Comment

Justin teased it a bit in his photos from last week, but I wanted to bring all our avid readers up to speed on our Thermal Interchange Manifold project.

We were able to put TIM back into action during our last brew and everything seemed to work pretty flawlessly this go around. We were able to hold our mash at the exact temperature we were shooting for the full 60 minutes, with never more than a degree or two of variance between the grain bed and the inflowing wort. Maybe it was the thermowell…maybe it was the Desitin. Regardless, our temperatures were steady as a rock.

Take a look at those temp readings! TIM’s readings are on the top left and the grain bed temp is shown on the controller to the right. Can’t get much closer than that!

tim in action

Continue reading →

Regular Guy Beer unveils its latest music-inspired brew

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Random Stuff

≈ Leave a comment

Please note. The following article is entirely satirical and fictitious and was penned in response to this article about the newest release from Dogfish Head.
Further note: We have a great deal of respect and admiration for Dogfish Head and what it’s founder Sam Caligione has accomplished. They have been vanguards in the craft beer industry, and have opened many of the doors that have paved the way for the microbrewery boom of today. For that, we have the deepest appreciation to the brewery and its founder. We are just not fans of needlessly esoteric beer. Beer shouldn’t require a culinary degree or access to the internet to understand. It should just be good. While Regular Guy Brewing by no means adheres to the strict rules of reinheitsgebot, we prefer to stick to ingredients and inspirations that Regular Guys…and regular craft beer drinkers…can relate to and enjoy. After all…you earned it.

lulu-poopSeth Treptow is a man of routine. Each morning, the co-founder of Illinois’ Regular Guy Brewing takes twenty minutes or so to walk his dog around the neighborhood to provide the schnauzer with an opportunity to defecate and urinate. The solitude allows Treptow to clear his head, and the dog a chance to clear its bowels, before delving into a busy work schedule.

“It’s my most productive twenty minutes of the day in terms of thinking creatively about stupid new ways to seem cool and esoteric and blow people away with my ingenuity,” says Treptow. Continue reading →

Tweaks and Mods

26 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by in Brewing, Business Stuff, Our Brews

≈ Leave a comment

A few years ago, when Justin, Brian and I were cranking out one (less than superb but ultimately fun and enjoyable) short film after the next, I caught a documentary on IFC that a guy made about his own journey to make a film.

d_1744Much like many wanna-be filmmakers, including us at one time, he had documented the making of his movie, probably with some thought of including a behind-the-scenes extra on the DVDs he would give out to friends and family. Because who wouldn’t want to watch a crappy 15 minute documentary about what it took to make an even crappier feature?

On that note, my sincerest thanks to all our friends and family for suffering through some of our past cinematic endeavors with a smile. We had a lot of fun making them, and we would eventually get better, but damn…those early films are almost painful to watch now.

But in this one case…the documentary extra became a much better movie than the film it was documenting. The actual film project was a disaster. Everything that could go wrong did. The guy made the biggest rookie filmmaker mistake in the book. He enlisted friends to be his actors and crew and as a result, he had to do almost all the lighting, shooting, sound work and editing himself. Not a fun way to make a film. I felt for this guy. I had been in those shoes. I had made these same mistakes in the past. Doing everything yourself, particularly when it is supposed to be a team effort, will suck the fun out of a project. Even more so, when your supposed “crew” are doing nothing more than taking up space on whatever nearby furniture they can find and begging to take a break for lunch. Right. Because I’m sure that you worked up quite the appetite while taking that 45 minute nap. Continue reading →