Adventures in Brewing, Part 3 - AKA, My Strange Saturday

I wasn't expecting today to be anything interesting. It's just a rainy Saturday. It's also bottling day. I was a little trepidatious about bottling, so I decided to go to Amanda's house before climbing to get it over with, and to care for the puddies, who are very well.

So, here we go. I got there, started following the instructions, and all started off fine. The beer smells good. I cleaned it all, mastered siphoning today, and got the beer out of the carboy and back into the bucket. I then got the beer from the bucket to the bottles successfully (with priming sugar mixture :-) ), and capped the bottles successfully as well.

The cleanup is where things got interesting (though not bad), and where I typically need help in life. First, I cleaned out the bucket. That went fine. Then, the carboy. It's difficult to get detritus from the carboy when the neck is so small. But, I successfully figured out how to get that one going too. In the process, I feel like I got half the kitchen wet, but I'm probably exaggerating. It couldn't have been more than a quarter of it. But, it's all dry now.

I also discovered that iodine likes to TRY to stain countertop. Some of the iodaphore got onto the bottle, and I placed it on the counter and left it for a while, not having known that. I discovered the ioda-ring, panicked slightly, and then took to cleaning it. It wouldn't immediately come out, but Bon Ami seems to have done the trick. I successfully removed the stain from the countertop, thankfully. I'd have felt miserably guilty if I'd stained it permanently.

While there, I also performed an experiment of sorts. Since at no point has the carboy ever been been full to the neck, I decided to determine how full the bucket should be to get the carboy filled properly. It turns out the magic number is just a hair over the 3 mark. Hooray. Now I think we just have to make enough wort not to dilute it too much when putting it in the bucket. I'm betting the more wort, the more potent the beer. That might be obvious, but I learn a lot of obvious things the hard way. I've reinvented the wheel so many times, they might as well call it the "idjamamit greg."

Then, during the downpour that ensued on the way home, I stopped at Costco. On the way, while listening to the radio, an announcement came on for sneak preview tickets to the 98 Rock showing of Quarantine. I called in and won! I also won some tickets to Kim's Krypt and a chance to go to LA for the premier of the Quarantine in Hollywood. Awesome! I got to talk to Stash from 98 Rock. That was cool. He's a nice guy.

All that, and it's only about 2:00. What does the rest of the day hold in store? Oh, yeah, and I never did make it climbing...

Multiplication and Division

I originally wrote this the night I found out...

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1+1=3. I know. That's addition. Kind of.

That's what happens to the brain, though, when you find out (via e-mail :-) ) that there is to be mini-person in the household in, oh, say, 9 months. Coincidentally, that's a portion of the math involved.

So my heart rate is about 140 bpm, and my blood pressure is probably capable of launching a bottle rocket into a high orbit.

And here's how weird I am. The predominant thought on my mind, since the discovery, has been about cell division. It's the only time division by 2 yields a higher number. Strange, huh? Math is funny. Multiplication doubly so. Pregnancy even moreso than that.

So, yeah, come late April-ish, we'll be plus 1 for all of our engagements. :-)

Starbucks vs. USA

I've had a theory for awhile, now, that I've largely kept to myself. I was reminded of it again today, and so I decided to share. The US is a military powerhouse. It's organized in such a way that it can't really ever be invaded. No country could come to our borders and try to invade us. That country would be summarily crushed. Even China, with its billions of people, would fall to us on home ground. If not for our sheer military power, then for the number of people who own guns and would have no qualms whipping them out to defend their sacred home towns. I, if I owned a gun, would have similarly few qualms.

This brings me to Starbucks. How, you ask? Think about it. They're everywhere. The population density of Starbucks rivals that of many US states. I theorize that Starbucks is the only entity even remotely capable of militarily taking over the US due solely to its ubiquity. Every Starbucks could have a hidden basement in which it trains the Starbucks military. With some synchronization, the Starbucks army could simply come up from their collective basements, draw their weapons, and hold this country at bay. There would be just too many people in the Starbucks army to repel them. We would have no choice but to submit.

So, we need a defense. Let's load up Dunkin Donuts with a similar army. We wouldn't need quite as many people as the Starbucks army would have. We'd need only the right number to supplement our own army. My defensive strategy! Dunkin Donuts/USA vs. Starbucks. Somehow it just feels right, and not just because Dunkin Donuts holds the coffee supremacy crown.

Adventures in Brewing, Part 2

I successfully transferred the beer to the carboy... I think. Only time will tell. Siphoning beer from bucket to carboy turns out to be a tricky endeavor. Gravity is a great help. I believe (or I was told at one point) that air is not. I'm not sure I kept the air from the beer. However, all the rest is well. The beer is being dry-hopped, and it's in the carboy, and there are few particulates as far as I could tell.

It appears to be a tasty beer, too! I love pumpkin. It's potent, which makes me happy. I think, if it survives the next ten days, that it will be quite nice. I have ten days to prepare for part three, the bottling (with the priming sugar!).

And, for the sake of fun, an update on Amanda's cats. Lucy and Pinstripe are alive and well, and VERY well fed since I was the one doing the feeding today instead of Mandy.

A Quick Brewing Note

Something occurred to me. When brewing the pumpkin ale (specifically when making the wort), I was told it didn't really matter how much water to put in the pot. I was thinking about it, and I think it does matter. I think that the more wort you make, the more potent (read: flavorful) the ale will be ultimately. If you think about it, making beer is about making the wort and then adding water to it (i.e., diluting it) until your bucket is "full enough" to make your batch. So, I think next time I'll fill the pot as full as I can when making the wort.

Now, it's possible I'll feel like an idiot when my friends read this. It's possible that this is common knowledge and that this is yet another example of me rediscovering the wheel. Knowledge is like a shiny object to me. When I figure something out, even as fundamental as dilution, I'm dreadfully excited.

So, next time making beer, I propose an experiment. I say, make two batches (or two half batches). Then, make more wort for one than the other, and compare at them both at the end. I'm curious. Are you?

Adventures in Brewing, Part 1

So, I'm brewing now. Amanda has brewed a few times before, and so has Ken has even more than that. This was my first time to be "in charge." Appropriately enough, my first try at brewing is pumpkin ale, just in time for Halloween.

The evening began with a trip to the brew store. Not knowing anything about it, I was happy that Amanda told me to talk with Chris. She hooked me up with everything we needed. On the way back to Amanda's, my tires failed in a way, and I skidded into an intersection in front of a cop and nearly caused an accident. I'm lucky the cop didn't ticket me. My brakes locked, my ABS didn't seem to work, and I slid very slowly, and for about 30 feet, into the intersection as people were turning left across me. Luckily, no mangled people or metal ensued.

Back at Amanda's, I got the beer going, managed the recipe, and we configured a beer and ate Chipotle for dinner. It was tasty. The beer smelled awesome! So, in 5 days, it'll be ready to be transferred into secondary fermentation, and then 10-11 days after that, bottling time! I have to do these final two parts by my lonesome, so I hope I don't screw anything up. Knowing me, it's completely possible. I have instructions, though, and I'm very ready to do my best for a tasty beer!

Geez, What Is It With You and Cars?

Yeah. Uh-huh. Another car post. Here's another link abour cars. Here's a direct link to the manufacturer.

I want one. I'll start of right away by saying that. The XR3 is small. It's a two-person vehicle. It is (at least to me) visually appealing. It doesn't weigh a lot (1480 lbs). It should get amazing gas mileage (b/w 125 mpg and 225 mpg), and is a hybrid. The drawbacks? Biodiesel; it's not that plentiful around here. Home-fabrication; I'm a clutz, and it would be a lot of money to screw it up, or I'd run into a problem and never get it done. It looks complicated. Maintenance; I probably don't know enough about it to get it done. Plus, it won't go up on a standard pneumatic lift, so working on it would probably be difficult. That's probably my auto ignorance speaking, though.

If I had a little extra cash, I'd do it in a second. It'd be a fun project. Apparently the plans are around $200. Anyway, I've been happy about the recent trends in more efficient cars. However, these trends all seem to come from the one-off (or multi-off) companies. When will the major manufacturers do something this daring?

Sew What?

I sew now. At least, I do with supervision. At least, I can sew something simple. At least, I can sew something simple with supervision. This is primarily thanks to Dana and Amanda. Despite pre-infusion grouchiness, I had a good time, and I made a Christmas present for my mom. I'm not going to mention it here in case she ever comes across this, though. I will, however, say that it's awesome because I made it, which probably makes it one of the better presents I will have ever given, despite its relative simplicity.

While we were sewing, a monsoon decided to grace us with its presence. It was really nice, though I'm sure Dana didn't enjoy driving through a wall of water so that we could obtain sewing materials. I really shouldn't say monsoon. I should say tropical storm or hurricane, because the storm was really the leftovers from one of them. I'm not sure which one. What letter are we on? Who knows? I'm sure Florida is unhappy this year; at least it is if a U.S. state can have a state of mind. Can it? I wonder if it reads this blog. Probably not.

We also heard from Dana about this Rube Goldberg device. I came home, looked up more, and found this one. Now, I really want to make one that spans from the top floor of the house to the bottom, and video tape it when it's done. This is ambitious, but I bet, with the help of me esposa y some amigo(a)s, I could get something cool working.

On another note, last week I stated something interesting. "I spilled coffee in my shoe." I said this because, well, I spilled coffee in my shoe. Have you ever spilled coffee in your shoe? I bet you haven't. Well, I can't say that anymore. I took my shoes off, drank my coffee, and then my inability to keep liquids from their magnetic attractions to my clothing popped out in an unexpected way.

That's all for now...