Election day Vino

Having had my fill of politics, Bob's call that it was wine night was an absolute port in a storm. Degassed the malbec and added clarifier. The spinny attachment thing was pretty cool. Hopefully we didn't do too much harm and got all the bubbles out. The shiraz spritzer is kind gross and I hope to avoid that this time. Also added about 1.5oz of the medium oak chips. Plan is to let that sit for the next 2 weeks and see what happens. Tasted it and it seemed a bit thin like the shiraz was, but pretty good overall. Hopefully the oak will add some body, and some time will add even more.

Since there is no where near enough fermentables going on in my life, we decided to start on the extra fancy australian cabernet. What the heck am I going to do with all this booze? OG for the cab was 1.084 for god's sake. This will be some strong stuff. The juice tasted fantastic, very sweet obviously from the OG. 4 packs of oak powder proved a challenge to dunk and mix but we were up for the task. We had a bubble already after dinner so things are looking good. Looking at the time frame and an extra transfer step, this one won't go to bottles until Januaryish?

Lame

So telerik has me grinding my teeth again. Who would really want to stay on page 2 after a data rebind?? Should this not be a default? This came out of the default being to display page 2 of a 1 page radgrid after a page forward

"
Hi sortagreen,
To reset the page index for the grid when you change the selected item in the dropdown (and the data source for the grid respectively), merely set <RadGridInstance>.MasterTableView.CurrentPageIndex = 0 before the call to the Rebind() method of the control.
"

Can I really vote for a republican?

While an admittedly unvetted email, it pretty much sums up this election for me. My traditional democratic values of environmentalism and personal liberty have been kicked to the curb this cycle in honor of giveways. There are so many quotes that ring true, but this just happened to come in and it's correct. Our political future is in a death spiral.


During this election year let's be reminded of these words:
* You cannot help the poor, by destroying the rich.
* You cannot strengthen the weak, by weakening the strong.
* You cannot bring about prosperity, by discouraging thrift.
* You cannot lift the wage earner up, by pulling the wage payer down.
* You cannot further the brotherhood of man, by inciting class hatred.
* You cannot build character and courage, by taking away men's initiative and independence.
* You cannot help men permanently, by doing for them what they could and should, do for themselves.


The author?

Abraham Lincoln

Thought of the day

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. - Buddha

Then I get this fortune at lunch.
Success is when you get what you want. Happiness is when you want what you get.

Secondary

Moved the fine smelling ale to a clear better bottle for secondary fermenting. This is my first time with this step so it will be interesting to watch how it clears. There was about 3/8" of trub on the bottom of the bucket and quite a caking on the lid and inside from all that fermenting. It smells absolutely fantastic. Taste was much better than expected, great even especially given the yeasty, flat and warm state of things. I am getting excited.

SG was 1.016. Still a little higher than I would expect but the next week or two should see that go down right? Perhaps should have waited a few more days, but wine needs to be racked tues at Bob's house and I didn't want to let this go until wed.

This project kicked a desperately needed side project of basement cleaning and organizing off and it is amazing how much nicer thing are already.

After only 5 hours in the secondary, some clearing occurred at the top with a layer of sediment forming at the bottom. Color went from a reddish to almost black.

Added a fair bit of leaves to Pyle, along with trub mixed in with approx 4 gals of water. It is supposed to rain tonight, I can't believe after all the rain we had over the last couple weeks how dry it is in the center. Smells pretty earthy, but no temp raised that I can see. I am not going sit back there with a hose to get it started..

Clouseau: Were you expecting one? A beaum?

Finished cleaning up around 11-ish last night and caught some shuteye. Woke up at 6 and had to check on things. Recipe said fermentation should start around 24hrs or so after pitching so I was completely unprepared for what awaited me in the brewery.

The fermenter was err..engorged and had become a beer bomb. It was foaming and making high pressure sounds as foam escaped around the rim of the lid and bucket. It looked a bit like an egg. Carefully removed the lid of the air lock which shot the airlock and a cup of foam several feet into a pile of junk that desperately needs to be cleaned. Vigorous fermentation achieved! I used a 3/8" drillbit and bored out the little pinholes in the airlock cap to let the pressure and foam come out while I was at work. It was a steady eruption. Any liquid I put in the airlock got blown right back out. Slightly worried about contamination, but at that steady pressure and foaming, little chance of something getting into the hole. I have succeeded in developing yet another hobby resulting in massive CO2 generation.

Went to Keystone as soon as they opened and got some advice and a length of hose to use as a blowoff and ran home at lunch to implement. Bubbles coming vigorously about every second through blowoff. Who needs solar? We should turn turbines with beer! Crisis averted. My house emits the glorious aroma of hops. I am digging this.

Thought for the day: What's the terrapass offset for explosive fermentation of an American Brown Ale? I wonder if they sell them for my 5 bean chili as well now that I think about it.

Smells like a brewery

October 28 2008 found the home brewery taken out of mothballs with a brown ale. This was the first in probably 15 years and the process wasn't bad at all. I had recently done 2 batches of wine with Bob and Kathy that need to be posted but not any beer in a while.

I got the recipe from Mother Earth News. Followed all directions and OG was 1.050, though temp was around 90 when I took it. Had an odd response from the digital thermometer after leaving the probe in the 1 step sanitizer solution for about a half hour. It was reading temps about 10 degrees off after being spot on all night. Pretty uneventful all in all. No boilovers, and I really liked the muslin boiling bags. Cooled the wort out on the front porch and just got too tired around 10:30 to wait any more so pitched the yeast and sealed it up. Temp read 101 degrees in the wort and 80 for an air temp which was really 70. Corrected OG should be 1.054 according to Brew Calcs. Recipe below, except I only used 1 packet of yeast per Keystone Homebrew Supply suggestion and the centennial hops were pellet form , not whole leaf.

3 ounces 60L (Lovibond) crystal malt
2 ounces chocolate malt
2 ounces biscuit malt
1 ounce 550L black malt
6 pounds Muntons plain light dry malt extract (DME)
1 ounce whole leaf ‘Cascade’ hops
1 ounce whole leaf ‘East Centennial’ hops
2 packets Windsor Ale yeast (or other dried ale yeast)