My wife and son are on their way to Oklahoma, and I've got the rest of the week off of work. Hmmm...what's a boy to do?
I've got a Lowe's card, lots of beer, and a hankering to do some home improvement :)
Not-so-extreme makeover time!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Bottling Day
After 3 weeks fermenting/conditioning/dry hopping, it's time to bottle!
The gross looking carboy is lifted onto the counter. The proteins and yeast have settled to the bottom (called trub), and the leftover krausen stuck to the top.
The beer is siphoned into the bottling bucket, which rests for a few minutes to let any remaining sediment settle, and priming sugar is added for carbonation.
Using used bottles that have been cleaned and sanitized, they are filled and capped with this medieval torture device.
End result is a bunch of beer that will sit at room temperature for 2 weeks to carbonate. The remaining yeast in the beer will eat the priming sugar that was added to the bottling bucket and carbonate the beer.
Now the problem is that the carboy is now empty....time for another batch!
The gross looking carboy is lifted onto the counter. The proteins and yeast have settled to the bottom (called trub), and the leftover krausen stuck to the top.
The beer is siphoned into the bottling bucket, which rests for a few minutes to let any remaining sediment settle, and priming sugar is added for carbonation.
Using used bottles that have been cleaned and sanitized, they are filled and capped with this medieval torture device.
End result is a bunch of beer that will sit at room temperature for 2 weeks to carbonate. The remaining yeast in the beer will eat the priming sugar that was added to the bottling bucket and carbonate the beer.
Now the problem is that the carboy is now empty....time for another batch!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Spring time car time
I used to be pretty anal about keeping my cars clean. Used to wash every weekend and wax once a month. Well I've been lazy the past few years, and my poor Maxima has been suffering. No wax since last spring, and last wash was before our Flagstaff trip (my car's first time in snow!). The snow grit and grime and build up of dust was disgusting. I've been wanting to detail it but never had the time. Until today.
4 hours later, I have a shiny car again! It was not enjoyable like it used to be, but I'm happy its done. Pretty boring I know.
4 hours later, I have a shiny car again! It was not enjoyable like it used to be, but I'm happy its done. Pretty boring I know.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Homebrewing 101
Finally got around to making some beer. I've done this a couple times with friends but never on my own. Well, not entirely my own...my lovely pregnant wife was quite helpful :) These pictures are from 2 weeks ago.
Here's the grains steeping in the water. At this point it's simply that, grains in water.
Now that the sugars have been extracted from the grains, it's called "Wort". Once this mixture begins to boil, then we add hops for bittering and aroma. This batch has 1oz of Simcoe hops for a full hour of boiling, then 1/2oz of Chinook hops for 40 minutes, then 1/2oz of Centennial hops for 20 minutes, and finally another 1oz of Cascade hops with 5 minutes left of boiling. Each variety brings something different to the flavor, and this is a LOT of hops for a 3 gallon batch :)
Once we're done boiling, we have to get it cold as fast as possible. A simple ice bath in the sink takes the brew from 212 degrees to 75 in 15 minutes. From now on, anything that touches the wort must be sanitized. The cooled wort is strained and funneled into a 3 gallon glass carboy.
Using a hydrometer, I check the original gravity (OG), which is 1.060. Distilled water has a gravity of 1.00.
Now that I've added yeast, it is officially beer. The carboy is loaded into my wine fridge so I can control the fermentation temperature. In this case, 68 degrees. The yeast will eat the sugars and convert them into alcohol and CO2 (aka fermentation). The CO2 is bled off via a blow off hose, which allows air to escape without letting air in. It was bubbling like crazy for 4 days, then slowed to 10 bubbles a minute. Now it's a bubble every other minute.
It's pretty much done fermenting now, with a final gravity (FG) of 1.019. I was hoping that it would finish about 1.016, but it's good enough. It'll just be a little sweeter than planned. Now taking the OG minus the FG, we get 0.041. We multipy this number by 131 and get 5.37. So my beers alcohol content is 5.4%, not bad at all! Right where a beer of this style should be. Now after 2 weeks in the fermenter, I'll add another 1/2oz of Centennial Hops, which is a process called "dry hopping". These hops will only effect the aroma. It'll sit another week and I'll bottle it! That experience will be completely new to me, and worthy of its own blog post :)
Here's the grains steeping in the water. At this point it's simply that, grains in water.
Now that the sugars have been extracted from the grains, it's called "Wort". Once this mixture begins to boil, then we add hops for bittering and aroma. This batch has 1oz of Simcoe hops for a full hour of boiling, then 1/2oz of Chinook hops for 40 minutes, then 1/2oz of Centennial hops for 20 minutes, and finally another 1oz of Cascade hops with 5 minutes left of boiling. Each variety brings something different to the flavor, and this is a LOT of hops for a 3 gallon batch :)
Once we're done boiling, we have to get it cold as fast as possible. A simple ice bath in the sink takes the brew from 212 degrees to 75 in 15 minutes. From now on, anything that touches the wort must be sanitized. The cooled wort is strained and funneled into a 3 gallon glass carboy.
Using a hydrometer, I check the original gravity (OG), which is 1.060. Distilled water has a gravity of 1.00.
Now that I've added yeast, it is officially beer. The carboy is loaded into my wine fridge so I can control the fermentation temperature. In this case, 68 degrees. The yeast will eat the sugars and convert them into alcohol and CO2 (aka fermentation). The CO2 is bled off via a blow off hose, which allows air to escape without letting air in. It was bubbling like crazy for 4 days, then slowed to 10 bubbles a minute. Now it's a bubble every other minute.
It's pretty much done fermenting now, with a final gravity (FG) of 1.019. I was hoping that it would finish about 1.016, but it's good enough. It'll just be a little sweeter than planned. Now taking the OG minus the FG, we get 0.041. We multipy this number by 131 and get 5.37. So my beers alcohol content is 5.4%, not bad at all! Right where a beer of this style should be. Now after 2 weeks in the fermenter, I'll add another 1/2oz of Centennial Hops, which is a process called "dry hopping". These hops will only effect the aroma. It'll sit another week and I'll bottle it! That experience will be completely new to me, and worthy of its own blog post :)
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Commuting Video
I finally used iMovie on my macbook for the first time and made this little video out of pictures I took on the way to/from work today. Enjoy!
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Weirdest feeling ever
It's Thursday. I should be at work, but I can't be. My hours were cut and I can only do 32 a week. I have a TON of stuff to do, and deadlines to meet, but I can't be at work. So I'm home. It's an expensive day off. I'm so used to working 40 hours that I've become accustomed to knowing exactly how much will be on my paycheck. Not anymore. I actually WANT to be at work, this is a weird feeling.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
I fall down go boom
Another beautiful day not wasted! Mike and I hit the trails at Hawe's in east Mesa today. Second time I've been there and I feel bad for not going more often, it's absolutely gorgeous! Some fun parts, some hard parts, and quite a few "oh shit" parts. One of the latter parts got me and I went down with the style and grace of a water balloon. Skinned up both knees and my right elbow, but it was fun! I haven't done that in quite some time, so I knew I was due for a fall. I might hurt a little tomorrow, but for now I'm still laughing.
Did about 12.5 miles, reaching some of the higher points of the trail system, and finding the elusive "secret" trail and the mineshaft. Good workout, that's for sure. I'll be sleeping great tonight!
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