Friday, October 26, 2007 3:45:02 PM
Homebrew
Ok, so I won't saying that the brewing was disasterous, but it did not go well.
Actually, I'll take that back, the brewing went fine except for the fact that I didn't realize that my grains were not properly milled until I took a gravity reading. The final gravity for around 5 gallons was about 1.030. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
I pushed ahead with the fermentation anyway and eventually added some sugar to the primary in an attempt to boost the alcohol level slighty. Unfortunately I only had refined white sugar on hand. I racked into a secondary and set it gently in our extra fridge and am basically keeping my fingers crossed. The final gravity reading came in at 1.002, which is extremely dry so I'm guessing the average ABV is around 4%. It is difficult to say exactly.
Oh well, we can't win them all.
Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've dealt with improper milling at this particular brew store I shop at so I will no longer be shopping there until I can acquire my own double roller grain mill. There is another store, a bit farther away, where I will get me necessaries until then. It is in the same town as my Bagpipe lessons so it will not be terribly inconvenient.
Until we Brew Again,
Cheers!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 4:19:58 PM
Homebrew, Ale, Recipe, Pumpkin
Ever had a pumpkin ale? If you have come across this page because of a keyword search then chances are you have. Many of the pumpkin ales I have had have really only been over-spiced and chances are do not contain any real pumpkin what-so-ever. This intrigues me. Why is it that something as american as Pumpkin ale has largely drifted into the novelty section of seasonal ales?
The answer to this may largely lie in the history of the beverage, of which I know little. From what I have gathered, however, it appears that pumpkin ales contained no malt at all! At least from the older recipes that I have found. This may have something to do with the expense of available malts versus the convenience of pumpkins. I am not a historian though if anyone who reads this has any historical information on pumpkin ales please feel free to drop me a line.
Ok, so enough with the babble, here is the point of this whole post. I am attempting to brew a pumpkin ale this season. I have dabbled in the mysterious realm of winter squash beers before, however I have had little success.
So heres the recipe;
Ingredients:
Malts
6 lbs pie Pumpkin (cut, roasted)
6 lbs 2-row Malt
2 lbs Vienna Malt
1 lb Crystal 40l Malt
1 lb Malted Wheat
1/4 lb Chocolate Malt
Hops
1 oz Mt Hood Hops (AA% to be anounced)
1/2 oz Hallertau
Spices
No more than .5 oz combined of Clove, Cinammon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Ginger
I will post exact amounts after I brew
I will let you know how it goes and post Specific Gravities and the what not later.
Prosst!
Friday, September 14, 2007 5:03:00 PM
Bread, Baby, Oven, Bunn
...
For those of you who don't already know...
SURPRISE!!For those of you who knew already, here is the latest update on our little
sticky bun(n). He/she is about
2.50 cm tall and barely weighs in at any descernable weight. We're only about 10 weeks into but everything is going well and the baby seems to be healthy. It is still way to early to tell but we are hoping for a little boy, we'll know more in another 10 weeks.
Sunday, September 9, 2007 7:28:20 PM
Alert, beer, Windows, Fake
...
I can never shake the dust off my heart.
The wife and I are back from the Burningman and back in action here on the front range. With the recent acquisition of a homebrew kegging system we now have a autumnal ale on tap, lovingly called Longer Nights. It is very much in the Strong Ale categorey and will help keep anyone warm on the cooler nights that are swiftly approaching from the north. Finished on French Oak, the 6.7% abv ale has been keeping my spirits up every evening when I return from the kitchen on the mountain.
During the daytime hours my time is spent aiding the wife in her daytime job, being that she works from home and needs an on call IT guru. I manage the wireless network in the house as well as troubleshoot any problems and potential malwares that creep into the system. Speaking of malware, if anyone out there knows how to remove a Fake Windows Security Alert trojan/adware please let me know. It has been plaging my roomates computer for a few days now and we are about to just wipe it clean for lack of anything better to resolve it. We have tried Ad-aware, AVG, and Spybot S&D with no success. Any tips would be fantastical.
Carrying on, I have also been trying to pickup Python and SQL in between working and work with the encouragement of my good fiend Volltron (Vollrath). Verily, is he a master geek and Sysadmin. I have a few web projects in mind as well as the potential space to put them up. These projects will help me flesh out my geekiness as well as temper my developmentality. When I have more details I shall share them with you.
Cheers!
Friday, August 17, 2007 6:43:54 PM
computers, brew, geek
For those who do not know me, just call me Whitebread. For those that do, well chances are you call me that anyway so there is no need to change things now. I am 27 years of age, a Chef in training, an amateur Fermentation Scientist, and a Bagpipe player. You may say to yourself, "Gee, that sounds pretty geeky to me" but you would only be half right.
I was brought up as a computer nerd and held fast to that calling until I went to college. I started with some basic C++ classes as well as 3-d and graphic design, however, it was college after all and many things can be learned at a university that are not taught in any sanctioned class.
Seven years later, I was closer to discovering myself but farther from being a Computer Nerd and I had a nice and expensive piece of paper to prove it. Jobs are sparse in the area where I went to college and after ten years of living in Tennessee, it was time to move on. I had much help in this endeavour from my beautiful girlfriend and now wife. We got out of the south and ended up in Fog City USA, San Francisco.
If you have read this far you might be saying something like "Ok, enough with the life story, make with the geekiness" and you are not out of line for thinking this. On to the point.
Being a chef to be pays little, though it is one of my favorite things to do, and now that I'm all grown up (ha ha) it is time to start earning a living. Here is the recipe;
Ingredients:
1 Human Male
1.5 GB DDR RAM
1 Desktop Computer
1 Laptop
3-4 Books on Scripting languages
Continuing Education Classes to taste
Take your Human male and give it a much needed hardware upgrade. Add RAM to computers, start with the desktop and continue to the laptop if needed. Combine Books on Scripting Languages and Education Classes vigoursly. Whip Human Male and education briskly until soft peaks form on the brain.
Spread batter over any available certification classes to make Human Male more marketable.
Cover and let batter ferment until desired income is achieved.
It Begins!
My Opera
(100%)
