I transferred my IPA last night and took a gravity reading which confirms it’s going to be good; I’m going to leave the hops in for 2-3 weeks and then keg it for the fall. My neighbor has our next kits at his place (we’re ordering in tandem to save on shipping) so all I need is time to get it brewing.
I’m in love with the new car. I dug an connector out from under debris on the workbench and tested my old iPod out this morning; it won’t hold a charge anymore but works fine when it’s powered, so I’m creating some new playlists and leaving it in the car. My next project is to put together a small get-home kit to stash in the trunk– stuff like a shovel, blanket, jumper cables, toolkit, first-aid, oil, a knife, matches, etc. First, though, I need to rotate the tires. Maybe the weather will hold this weekend…
I brewed up a batch of Chinook IPA last night for the fall; everything went smoothly even though I didn’t quite have enough water. This is the second batch I chilled too far, so I’m going to amend my ingredient list to one bag of ice and 4 gallons of water. I missed the specified original gravity by 0.001%, which isn’t too shabby.
My parents are coming into town in October, so I’m putting a moratorium on the saison in the keg until they get here. Guess I’ll have to stock up on some seasonal pumpkin beer….
MMMM. Where two of my favorite subjects meet: beer and design.
From my father via email: Is this really the best beer in America? There are lots of good brews to sample here. I must go find my debit card.
I haven’t posted in a while, but here’s the latest update to the bumper saga. In short: it went very very well. I’m thrilled.
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In other news, the Hefeweizen is chilled, carbed, and pouring. It’s very good! So good, in fact, I may brew it again this summer. It’s a quick, easy recipe and very refreshing to drink. My neighbor also got my Co2 tank refilled for me, which is a relief. Unfortunately I lost about 200lbs of pressure before I realized one of my hose fittings was loose. I have a list of items to buy at the homebrew store this weekend to set up long keg leads from the cooler to the basement window and I’m going to mock up a wooden stand to place in the opening for people to pour at. I’ll post a sketch here when it’s ready.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Yes, I’m here. And I’m not slacking off in the illustration department; I’ve just been taking my time with a new piece that’s more involved than a simple portrait. Here’s a teaser:
I’m trying to balance my perfectionism with the appeal of handmade craft; once the black and white is finished I’m going to try a new approach to color and add some typography. I’m excited.
In other news, after finally kicking the Chinook IPA with dinner, I kegged the hefeweizen and chilled it overnight in the cooler. The final gravity was only .001 off from the recipe, and it tastes really good—a lot more personality than the American Ale I’ve got. My neighbor is going to take my tank with his and get them refilled with Co2 tomorrow, so I should be in good shape for the parade party. Next up: another summery recipe to brew after the parade.
Last night I had Finn help me transfer a batch of American Wheat Ale from the primary fermenter into a secondary. She was awesome, and I couldn’t have asked for a better helper. I had her stand on her stool at the sink as I explained each piece of equipment, showed her how I wash and sanitize it, then put it all together and siphoned from the first tank into the second. Then we took a gravity reading and I showed her how to find the numbers (it’s going to be right around 4.1% ABV) before cleaning up all the parts and putting everything away. She was fascinated by the siphon, and I was able to hold her attention span all the way up until the end.
This batch was my first blowout. On the second day of fermentation it was at about 69° and foaming heavily; sometime between midnight and 7AM on the third morning the airlock blew off and I got foam down the sides. I was worried it had gotten infected, because the krauzen never really receded (it mainly dried on the upper portion of the fermenter) but a taste test last night proved my fears wrong. It starts out smooth and flavorful, like a heavier domestic but finishes brittle and sharp to my taste. I’m hoping a few weeks’ conditioning in the fermenter will smooth it out before I keg it.
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About a year ago I set up an eBay search for 6×9″ speaker covers for the Scout, and I’ve gotten notifications in my inbox since then. The backstory is that the speakers I got for Christmas didn’t come with covers, so they’ve been installed without any protection for a year. Having shoved three loads of very sharp and brittle brush into the back of the truck this last week, I decided I couldn’t put off purchasing something any longer, so I pulled the trigger on a pair of Alpine covers for $12 with free shipping (about $12 cheaper than the average listing). Here’s to hoping they’ll fit.
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Jen had the cable guy out the other day to check on our wiring, because after a few follow-up moves the set-top box wasn’t pulling a signal at all. He futzed around with it for a while and said something about the barrel connector in back; whatever the case it’s functional again, and that room is shaping up nicely.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
This was Dead Ringer, the batch I brewed before Christmas, then kegged, then slushed, then resurrected. There’s a batch of Chinook IPA on the workbench downstairs waiting to go in this one. Meanwhile, the second keg is already low. Time to brew!
Finn and I slept about half the night on the guest bed after she woke from a nightmare. Waking this morning was made more difficult by the timechange and the fact that I’d stayed up reading the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. My two-second review: Not as good as the first one. This one had to do some catching up and then settled into a second act of boy A-vs-boy B angst. I stopped at the beginning of the third act, which is setting up for some ass-kicking. Bring on the ass-kicking.
Update: Sheesh. Not what I was hoping for. The main character goes from a motivated protagonist to an ineffectual, reactive observer. This book moved things along and set up the third book, but not in a logical, emotional, Empire Strikes Back way. Maybe the third book will wrap things up with more skill.
The weekend was filled with the completion of long-deferred home maintenance projects. Jen and I made a list and I knocked a bunch of them out after a trip to the Lowe’s and a minimal outlay of cash. Saturday evening we watched the original Let The Right One In, which was equal parts creepy and plodding.
Sunday we walked across the street to take in mass, and then continued working around the house. In the early afternoon I cut some access holes out of the TV mount and then pulled the top off the Scout for a ride over to look at a house with the in-laws. The verdict there was that it showed much better in the pictures than it did in person, and suffered from a lot of homeowner butchering. After some dinner and drinks we put the girl to bed and I transferred my latest batch of Chinook IPA into the secondary fermenter. The Dead Ringer keg is almost kicked, so there should be plenty of room to move it when it’s finished (another 3-4 weeks). The next beer in line is a saison, which is a pale French summer ale.
Last night, I stood in a cold garage over a warm burner with my neighbor, and we brewed up two batches of Chinook IPA. This capped a weekend of much socializing, from sushi dinner on Friday (and a late, late night for all of us) to a barbecue dinner on Saturday with another family (resulting in another late evening). As a result, much homebrew was consumed and I woke with a headache on two of the three following mornings. I know, I know.
Concerned about the overnight temperature of our basement, I wrapped the fermenting carboy in a seed-starting blanket, which is designed to heat a few degrees over the ambient air temperature. The stick-on thermometer read 70° this morning, and I could tell the yeast was working (mostly on the side of the blanket) but I’m considering moving the carboy up to one of our bedrooms, which tend to stay warmer.