Thursday, October 7, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Brewing Day - Pale Ale
Well its brew day and I thought to show off some of my gear I am using these days.
I am still slumming it with a 15 liter pot and 5 liter pot. I have moved my brew bag into an eski. This will be the first time I have done this but the theory is well thought out ;-)
After the water is done its time to prep the eski.
After this its time to add the water to the grain and watch the magic happen!
Yummy
After I drained the wort I end up with two pots full of sugary goodness!
And I get to use my new toy! This lets me measure the sugar content to tell me about what Alc % the beer will be.
Get a reading of 13 and convert that into SG to find I have about a 5.5% beer on the brew :)
Next up to add the hops as it boils. Digital scale, 20 bones! Not bad eh. It only goes up to 5kg but if I am doing 5kg of hops I am gonna buy a better scale.
While brewing I needed to get dinner on so slamo!
Note the beer in the picture is my last Pale Ale :) Ohh and the excellent salami there on the cutting board. Awesome.
After 90 minutes of boiling the wort and hops (and eating the pizza) was time to try out the new immersion chiller!
Doesn't look very swish but there is a small pond pump in there feeding ice cold water through my Stainless Steel coil and as it cools the brew the hot water comes back out the other end and back into the eski.
Brought my wort from near boiling to 19C in about 50 minutes. I think it would have gone faster if I would have had smaller ice and remembered to add salt to the water. Next time.
For all you water conservationists out there, I am use the water in the eski to re-make the ice used. Neat eh? I'll change the water out when it starts to smell.
Last thing.
I am doing an Open Fermentation on this bad boy. I will be leaving the top off the fermenter for 3 days. This should produce more esters (fruity charateristics) and then I'll seal it up for the long haul of another week.
Here is the recipe I did today if anyone out there is following along.
| Amount | Item | Type | % or IBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.00 kg | Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (6.3 EBC) | Grain | 96.2 % |
| 0.20 kg | Caramel Wheat Malt (90.6 EBC) | Grain | 3.9 % |
| 25.00 gm | Magnum [14.00%] (60 min) | Hops | 38.9 IBU |
| 20.00 gm | Pearle [8.00%] (60 min) | Hops | 17.8 IBU |
| 30.00 gm | Cascade [5.50%] (3 min) | Hops | 2.3 IBU |
| 1 Pkgs | Australian Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP009) | Yeast-Ale |
| Estimated Original Gravity: 1.058 SG (1.045-1.060 SG) | Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG |
| Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.010-1.015 SG) | Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG |
| Estimated Color: 14.8 EBC (9.9-27.6 EBC) | Color [Color] |
| Bitterness: 58.9 IBU (30.0-50.0 IBU) | Alpha Acid Units: 3.4 AAU |
| Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.6 % (4.5-6.0 %) | Actual Alcohol by Volume: 5.5 % |
Lastly. I am also doing an experiment using the yeast from the bottles of my last pale ale which is the Australian Ale Yeast listed above. It should be fine but only time will tell.
The next brew will be my 2nd brew of a Irish Red Ale. It will from now on be called the Irish Rebellion II : Yeast's Revenge
Brew out.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Europe Trip - Paris Day 1
Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1 (This Post)
Paris Day 2
We woke up a bit late on the morning we were to head to Paris so it was all hands to the main decks! We packed, crammed and stuffed. We hauled our stuff to the station, pulled out some more cash to pay for the apartment once we got to Paris and waited for our train to the airport.
Arriving at the airport we went to the British Airways line and waited... Like most dealings with these clowns there was no one there.
Little history here before we get into the fun. We were leaving Vienna and flying to London. We were then getting on another TICKET flight from London to Pairs. What this means is they don't check your bags through since it is two completely different tickets. However, I wanted to see if I could charm and wile my way into getting the bags routed through (All their systems are integrated together).
An hour and half before the flight they saunter up and open. They start jabbering about using this automated terminals but I have a special request! So I iggnored them and went up and said "Hello I would like..." And they cut me off saying I have to use the terminals. I tried to explain yes... I know but... TERMINALS! YOU MUST USE!.
Fine.... I'll do the damn terminals. Jabbing at them in anger and in random fashion the lady comes from behind the counter over to the terminal and punches all the stuff in for me...................................................................................................................... My blood is boiling. Its simmering away as she DOES HER JOB. Now I ask... what is the difference between her just doing that behind the counter and coming over to work the terminal?
So I snatch our boarding passes and get back in line. You didn't think I was going to give up on this bag transfer thing did you?
I get another lady since the first is off doing all the Self-Help terminals for other people :D
I give her my pass and start explaining I wanted our bags transferred to another flight and I tried to keep the ire out of my voice. She looked a bit dubious but started clicking away madly. I felt like I was in Meet the Folkers movie. She asked for paperwork and passports and continued to madly click away. Then out of the blue she hands over 4 boarding passes, takes our bags and puts the labels on to transfer them to Paris! Wow this lady was good! I looked at the boarding passes and she even issues our boarding passes from the other flight! Woot! I felt very grateful at this point.
Giving the Self-Help terminals one last dirty look we left for the plane.
Ohh you think it all ends here with us arriving in Paris without incident, think again my friend.
Arriving in the most hated of terminals and home of British Airways, Heathrow London. We didn't have to get our check-in luggage because that was kindly routed through for us but we still had to go through the ridiculous security again. We got into a massive line and waited... We got to the security area and some how this middle eastern fellow got between Kasey and I. She went through with her carry on and popped out the other side, the fellow before me went through and then my backpack and I went through.
Security stopped the fellow in front of me so I had to stop since I couldn't go around.
"Sir is this your bag" he asked the middle eastern fellow and he was holding up my backpack.
I said clearly "No that's my bag"
The fellow in front of me said "No" and the secuirty officer became louder and more aggressive saying "Sir is this your bag?!?!?" I more loudly said "No that is mine!" while the fellow in front kept saying no. The security officer started yelling at this fellow and I finally yelled back "ITS MINE!! My Bag, Not His MINE!"
Looking a little shocked he put my bag down and told me to wait over at the end. The middle eastern fellow left...
Ohh did I mention because of the efficacy and speed we now had 10 minutes before our flight left?
So I am waiting.. And waiting... no one is doing anything! I try to catch someones eye but nothing is working. Finally I said, in what I hopped was a kind but clear voice, "Excuse me, can someone check my bag I only have (Looks at clock) 8 minutes till my flight. Please". There was also a sign saying "If your going to to gate BLAH then make sure you have 10 minutes. Kasey saw the sign and ran off to find what gate. Returning of course to say it was the gate indicated on the sign.
A lady brings my bag over with a disgusted look on her face and says "We have to have a security officer go through it." I tried to calm down and said "Would it help if I took everything out?" She didn't say anything but took my bag and went to go talk to someone. Why was everyone carrying my bag around if it was to contain some spurious item?!
She comes back and said "Fine empty the bag into this box. We'll run it through again". 5 minutes till the plane leaves........
I start dumping shit out, NDS, snacks, MP3 Player, book and some more random crap. "There there, can you run that through please." 4 minutes to go.
They run the box of crap through and identified what was causing all the problems. A metal bookmark my mom gave me. This book mark has traveled through USA customs on at least six occasions, USA CUSTOMS, shoot you in the face customs, strip search and anal probe customs and these people pull me up on a book mark.
At this point they gave me a mini lecture about dangerous items.
GIMME THAT! Shit...
Kasey and I didn't bother to put the dangrous items back into my backpack but loaded up our arms in one last look to her in a your a moron look and ran. RAN LIKE THE WIND. We ran like Harry Potter from Voldemort. We ran and ran and ran and just barely made it onto the plane.
We left the saddest place on earth and was in the air to France!
Arriving in France our bags where there before we got off the plane ready for us and off we went! We grabbed train tickets (Cabs are for wusses) and headed into the heart of Paris.
It was about 9pm and we dragged our bags down some fantastic streets and past Notre Dame which due to the light rain the gargoyles were dripping water out of their mouths. What a sight!
Meeting up with the lady who we are renting the apartment from we headed to our place
(This photo was days later but it is the same street)
This was the front door to the building :D This was also taken days later
Arriving finally we were confronted with old 18th century stairs! So one at a time I hauled our massive bags up three flights of old spring stairs
Here is a video of us going down the stairs and out into the court yard Click on Image to watch video
After we got all our gear the American lady (ohh I forgot to mention that, she was super American, I am not sure she realized I was a fellow countryman!) began to explain how the light switches work and at the end asked if we knew how microwaves worked. Too much for me... I whipped out the cash handed it over and shut down all further conversation. There is only so much abuse I can take in a day :)
So the end of the evening we went back down the road to a cozy little pub and had dinner. Carbonara was amazing!! and had a nice bottle of wine
Our Paris adventure starts in ernest the next day!
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1 (This Post)
Paris Day 2
We woke up a bit late on the morning we were to head to Paris so it was all hands to the main decks! We packed, crammed and stuffed. We hauled our stuff to the station, pulled out some more cash to pay for the apartment once we got to Paris and waited for our train to the airport.
Arriving at the airport we went to the British Airways line and waited... Like most dealings with these clowns there was no one there.
Little history here before we get into the fun. We were leaving Vienna and flying to London. We were then getting on another TICKET flight from London to Pairs. What this means is they don't check your bags through since it is two completely different tickets. However, I wanted to see if I could charm and wile my way into getting the bags routed through (All their systems are integrated together).
An hour and half before the flight they saunter up and open. They start jabbering about using this automated terminals but I have a special request! So I iggnored them and went up and said "Hello I would like..." And they cut me off saying I have to use the terminals. I tried to explain yes... I know but... TERMINALS! YOU MUST USE!.
Fine.... I'll do the damn terminals. Jabbing at them in anger and in random fashion the lady comes from behind the counter over to the terminal and punches all the stuff in for me...................................................................................................................... My blood is boiling. Its simmering away as she DOES HER JOB. Now I ask... what is the difference between her just doing that behind the counter and coming over to work the terminal?
So I snatch our boarding passes and get back in line. You didn't think I was going to give up on this bag transfer thing did you?
I get another lady since the first is off doing all the Self-Help terminals for other people :D
I give her my pass and start explaining I wanted our bags transferred to another flight and I tried to keep the ire out of my voice. She looked a bit dubious but started clicking away madly. I felt like I was in Meet the Folkers movie. She asked for paperwork and passports and continued to madly click away. Then out of the blue she hands over 4 boarding passes, takes our bags and puts the labels on to transfer them to Paris! Wow this lady was good! I looked at the boarding passes and she even issues our boarding passes from the other flight! Woot! I felt very grateful at this point.
Giving the Self-Help terminals one last dirty look we left for the plane.
Ohh you think it all ends here with us arriving in Paris without incident, think again my friend.
Arriving in the most hated of terminals and home of British Airways, Heathrow London. We didn't have to get our check-in luggage because that was kindly routed through for us but we still had to go through the ridiculous security again. We got into a massive line and waited... We got to the security area and some how this middle eastern fellow got between Kasey and I. She went through with her carry on and popped out the other side, the fellow before me went through and then my backpack and I went through.
Security stopped the fellow in front of me so I had to stop since I couldn't go around.
"Sir is this your bag" he asked the middle eastern fellow and he was holding up my backpack.
I said clearly "No that's my bag"
The fellow in front of me said "No" and the secuirty officer became louder and more aggressive saying "Sir is this your bag?!?!?" I more loudly said "No that is mine!" while the fellow in front kept saying no. The security officer started yelling at this fellow and I finally yelled back "ITS MINE!! My Bag, Not His MINE!"
Looking a little shocked he put my bag down and told me to wait over at the end. The middle eastern fellow left...
Ohh did I mention because of the efficacy and speed we now had 10 minutes before our flight left?
So I am waiting.. And waiting... no one is doing anything! I try to catch someones eye but nothing is working. Finally I said, in what I hopped was a kind but clear voice, "Excuse me, can someone check my bag I only have (Looks at clock) 8 minutes till my flight. Please". There was also a sign saying "If your going to to gate BLAH then make sure you have 10 minutes. Kasey saw the sign and ran off to find what gate. Returning of course to say it was the gate indicated on the sign.
A lady brings my bag over with a disgusted look on her face and says "We have to have a security officer go through it."
She comes back and said "Fine empty the bag into this box. We'll run it through again". 5 minutes till the plane leaves........
I start dumping shit out, NDS, snacks, MP3 Player, book and some more random crap. "There there, can you run that through please." 4 minutes to go.
They run the box of crap through and identified what was causing all the problems. A metal bookmark my mom gave me. This book mark has traveled through USA customs on at least six occasions, USA CUSTOMS, shoot you in the face customs, strip search and anal probe customs and these people pull me up on a book mark.
At this point they gave me a mini lecture about dangerous items.
GIMME THAT! Shit...
Kasey and I didn't bother to put the dangrous items back into my backpack but loaded up our arms in one last look to her in a your a moron look and ran. RAN LIKE THE WIND. We ran like Harry Potter from Voldemort. We ran and ran and ran and just barely made it onto the plane.Arriving in France our bags where there before we got off the plane ready for us and off we went! We grabbed train tickets (Cabs are for wusses) and headed into the heart of Paris.
It was about 9pm and we dragged our bags down some fantastic streets and past Notre Dame which due to the light rain the gargoyles were dripping water out of their mouths. What a sight!
Meeting up with the lady who we are renting the apartment from we headed to our place
(This photo was days later but it is the same street)
Here is a video of us going down the stairs and out into the court yard Click on Image to watch video
 |
| From VisMoot Paris |
After we got all our gear the American lady (ohh I forgot to mention that, she was super American, I am not sure she realized I was a fellow countryman!) began to explain how the light switches work and at the end asked if we knew how microwaves worked. Too much for me... I whipped out the cash handed it over and shut down all further conversation. There is only so much abuse I can take in a day :)
So the end of the evening we went back down the road to a cozy little pub and had dinner. Carbonara was amazing!! and had a nice bottle of wine
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Pond!
Well the pond is in and almost completed!
We have a solar powered water pump (see bottom right) and I took some of my brewing tubes and hooked it in to move the water in the pond from the front by those ugly grass like plants in the bottom of the pic to the back where the fake rock bed is. A bamboo Japanese style fountain will go in there (See the tall bamboo marking post, a much larger bamboo post will go in to make a fountain. ).
It has been a long and hard learning curve for me but I am happy with the results.
We have a solar powered water pump (see bottom right) and I took some of my brewing tubes and hooked it in to move the water in the pond from the front by those ugly grass like plants in the bottom of the pic to the back where the fake rock bed is. A bamboo Japanese style fountain will go in there (See the tall bamboo marking post, a much larger bamboo post will go in to make a fountain. ).
It has been a long and hard learning curve for me but I am happy with the results.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Wild bush mead and a mushroom
Last night I made up a bush mead composed of three different kinds of bush honey
255g YWorry bush honey (Honey from our friends place)
365g Tasmania bush honey
1.7kg QLD Bush Honey (From our beekeeper at the farmers markets)
2 bush lemons (From Ma's farm)
1 Vanilla bean pod (Wow expensive!)
Nutmeg
Total % Alc expected 14%
This time I made too much though! I had a full jug of 5 liters of must (Why does wine brewing call it must and beer brewing call it wort?) and I had some left over so I decided to try something I read about. Wild yeast fermentation.
There is viable yeast all around us and if they populate the must a unique kind of mead can be created!
So this end I took two wine carafes and made wild yeast traps for each.
Once I fitted the openings with the same material I use for brewing beer, we disucssed where to put these things to have different attacks at the same outcome.
We decided to put one inside and one outside.
One went up top (Warmer) and one went outside with the tomatoes :)
And just to cap everything off we had a large mushroom for dinner! How large? Blah blam!
255g YWorry bush honey (Honey from our friends place)
365g Tasmania bush honey
1.7kg QLD Bush Honey (From our beekeeper at the farmers markets)
2 bush lemons (From Ma's farm)
1 Vanilla bean pod (Wow expensive!)
Nutmeg
Total % Alc expected 14%
This time I made too much though! I had a full jug of 5 liters of must (Why does wine brewing call it must and beer brewing call it wort?) and I had some left over so I decided to try something I read about. Wild yeast fermentation.
There is viable yeast all around us and if they populate the must a unique kind of mead can be created!
So this end I took two wine carafes and made wild yeast traps for each.
Once I fitted the openings with the same material I use for brewing beer, we disucssed where to put these things to have different attacks at the same outcome.We decided to put one inside and one outside.
One went up top (Warmer) and one went outside with the tomatoes :)
And just to cap everything off we had a large mushroom for dinner! How large? Blah blam!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Gotta love it
And yes I took this photo! First on the net :D
Monday, May 31, 2010
Leatherwood & Macadamia Mead
The Leatherwood and Macadamia honey mead is done fermenting!
Recipe Post
It came out a sunny yellow color and smelled perfect! Its hard to describe so come round and try some!
I got 5 bottles worth out of it and have endeavored to make them all sparkling which means bubbles. It will take another 3-5 months before they are ready for the gullet and then its mideval feasting time!
Or as friend Matt said "Hobbit time!"
Recipe Post
It came out a sunny yellow color and smelled perfect! Its hard to describe so come round and try some!
I got 5 bottles worth out of it and have endeavored to make them all sparkling which means bubbles. It will take another 3-5 months before they are ready for the gullet and then its mideval feasting time!
Or as friend Matt said "Hobbit time!"
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Europe Trip - Vienna Day 3
Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3 (This post)
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Since the competition was over for the Griffith team Kasey and I had a day to ourselves so we headed off into the city. Kasey wanted to show me hot chocolate that they do really well apparently so we went into a back street coffee house where we were ignored like a piece of furniture :) That is until we stopped someone and they had us sit down at a huge communal table. Think ye olde knight's feasting table and we waited patiently. Others came in and they were seated, menu's provided and orders taken and we still waited... Tried to catch their eye but as we spoke no german, and were basically the worst tourist possible we decided to cut our losses and try something more mainstream.
Please note: I don't hold it against the people in the coffee shop ignoring us. We didn't speaking german and where obviously clueless, we didn't even attempt to speak german and it was busy as hell in there. Moral of the story? If you want to fit in, speak like the locals and don't act like an out of town looser. Evidence of us doing it right when we get to Paris posts :D
On our way back to the city centre we saw a fountain and got someone to take a photo of us.
And we get to see my new jacket here! Oh and Kasey looking lovely as aways.
Back at the city centre we had coffee and an apple fritter which was nice and did some sight seeing
We visted the massive cathedrial which shows off some impressive sights inside!
Now that is a massive organ! and check out the year on the ceiling.
Just to round off our sight seeing :D A shop you know rocks.
After our wander around we went to Japanese and had some very tasty food with more unfiltered wheat beer and it was off to a late lunch/dinner banquet. Food was so so.
But the girls got more awards and it was really exciting to see that. Here are some action shots at the end
Fast forwarding a bit, we went to Italian that evening but I was soooo stuffed I couldn't eat, so I just had some really nice wine and called it an evening. The wind was pretty feirce before dinner and leaving dinner it was roaring!
It was decided to head to the club where all the other teams where headed so off we went! Lucky for us the rain started in just to make things really misserable :-D It was frick'n cold!!!! It took us a good 15 minutes of slogging through to reach the club once there it was warm and comfortable.
Again my failure to learn ANY german shows through here. I tried to order a beer but in the end gave up and just said "That one" and recived a beer. Random could be said....
The club was packed with people and it looked like their last chance to try and hook up with other lawyerie types (Thats a real word also, Lawyerie. Try it out with your friends and then make fun of them for not knowing its a real word). I am drinking my beer thinking, this is the worst thing EVER! Even worse then domestic beer. I started to feel a bit ill and had a look at the bottle. That's a weird thing to put on a bottle, it looks like a pot leaf.... You have got to be kidding me... Look at the back of the bottle with more crazy pictures... Holy crap.
Yup, hemp beer.
So it was home bound for me! I was struggling to keep the contents of the 4 meals down on our slog back through the rain and wind. What a day!!! I was nausous long into the night.
Here ends our Veinna trip. The following day we head for Paris!
Stay tuned for the thrilling adventure of traveling from Veinna to Paris :D
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3 (This post)
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Since the competition was over for the Griffith team Kasey and I had a day to ourselves so we headed off into the city. Kasey wanted to show me hot chocolate that they do really well apparently so we went into a back street coffee house where we were ignored like a piece of furniture :) That is until we stopped someone and they had us sit down at a huge communal table. Think ye olde knight's feasting table and we waited patiently. Others came in and they were seated, menu's provided and orders taken and we still waited... Tried to catch their eye but as we spoke no german, and were basically the worst tourist possible we decided to cut our losses and try something more mainstream.
Please note: I don't hold it against the people in the coffee shop ignoring us. We didn't speaking german and where obviously clueless, we didn't even attempt to speak german and it was busy as hell in there. Moral of the story? If you want to fit in, speak like the locals and don't act like an out of town looser. Evidence of us doing it right when we get to Paris posts :D
On our way back to the city centre we saw a fountain and got someone to take a photo of us.
Back at the city centre we had coffee and an apple fritter which was nice and did some sight seeing
We visted the massive cathedrial which shows off some impressive sights inside!
Just to round off our sight seeing :D A shop you know rocks.
After our wander around we went to Japanese and had some very tasty food with more unfiltered wheat beer and it was off to a late lunch/dinner banquet. Food was so so.
But the girls got more awards and it was really exciting to see that. Here are some action shots at the end
Fast forwarding a bit, we went to Italian that evening but I was soooo stuffed I couldn't eat, so I just had some really nice wine and called it an evening. The wind was pretty feirce before dinner and leaving dinner it was roaring!
It was decided to head to the club where all the other teams where headed so off we went! Lucky for us the rain started in just to make things really misserable :-D It was frick'n cold!!!! It took us a good 15 minutes of slogging through to reach the club once there it was warm and comfortable.
Again my failure to learn ANY german shows through here. I tried to order a beer but in the end gave up and just said "That one" and recived a beer. Random could be said....
The club was packed with people and it looked like their last chance to try and hook up with other lawyerie types (Thats a real word also, Lawyerie. Try it out with your friends and then make fun of them for not knowing its a real word). I am drinking my beer thinking, this is the worst thing EVER! Even worse then domestic beer. I started to feel a bit ill and had a look at the bottle. That's a weird thing to put on a bottle, it looks like a pot leaf.... You have got to be kidding me... Look at the back of the bottle with more crazy pictures... Holy crap.
Yup, hemp beer.
So it was home bound for me! I was struggling to keep the contents of the 4 meals down on our slog back through the rain and wind. What a day!!! I was nausous long into the night.
Here ends our Veinna trip. The following day we head for Paris!
Stay tuned for the thrilling adventure of traveling from Veinna to Paris :D
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Wheat Beer - All Grain first attempt
Well since everyone loves my hooch brew'n.
Ingredients:
Now I don't have the White Labs yeast because they were out and the hops I swapped for sterling, but its not like anyone who reads this blog knows what the hell I am talking about anyhow so it doesnt mater :D
Here are some pics to get your interest up.
I use my hand to get an idea how much grain we are talking about
WHAT?! Not enough? Need more photos to get an idea?? Fine
How about a cat? That gives some idea of what we are dealing with? And by the way, clean counter tops and a sterile environment are KEY to a good brew.
Your still not getting it?
Uhh thats a lot of grain! Damn
Here are some action shots of the brewing in action
Now I have had endless troubles will cooling the wort (which is what you see in the picture above) from boiling temperature to 24-18C so I can add the yeast and go to bed. How should I tackle this problem? Big friggen ice cubes!
now THAT is some ice cubes :D Also that is filtered water ice cubes :D
So plunk they go and BAM I am on my way from 100C down to 24C in no time!
Tasting to be done in a month or so. Maybe another video? For now its time for my beauty sleep.
Ingredients:
| Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) | Grain | 2.50 kg | |
| Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.9 EBC) | Grain | 1.00 kg | |
| Munich Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC) | Grain | 0.50 kg | |
| Sterling (7.50%) | Hops | 28.30 gm | |
| Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) | Yeast | 1.00 Pkgs |
Now I don't have the White Labs yeast because they were out and the hops I swapped for sterling, but its not like anyone who reads this blog knows what the hell I am talking about anyhow so it doesnt mater :D
Here are some pics to get your interest up.
WHAT?! Not enough? Need more photos to get an idea?? Fine
Your still not getting it?Uhh thats a lot of grain! Damn
Here are some action shots of the brewing in action
Now I have had endless troubles will cooling the wort (which is what you see in the picture above) from boiling temperature to 24-18C so I can add the yeast and go to bed. How should I tackle this problem? Big friggen ice cubes!
now THAT is some ice cubes :D Also that is filtered water ice cubes :D
So plunk they go and BAM I am on my way from 100C down to 24C in no time!
Tasting to be done in a month or so. Maybe another video? For now its time for my beauty sleep.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Leatherwood and Macadamia Mead
Juice of one lemon
300g leatherwood honey - smells like a flower shop crazy stuff!
700g macadamia honey - nice and sweat
5 liters of filtered water
Wine yeast
Wine Nutrient
SG: 1.060 (This will give me about a 8-9% wine)
First off boil your water
Then get a good thermometer, I am very proud of my new digital one, and wait for it to get to 72C. Add your room temperature honey and the temp will drop to around 66C. Stir like mad! Keep watching the temp and if it drops below 66C kick a little fire under its ass to keep things going.
Your goal is to keep it at 66C for 22 minutes. This kills the bacteria in the honey but doesn't destroy the pollen fragrances. There is no need to boil it.
When your 22 minutes is up mix up your wine yeast and nutrient in a tea cup and set aside.
Wait for the honey mixture to cool to around 25-27C add your yeast and cool it down to 12-16C.
This one looks awesome, very light in color and still smells really nice. We will see what happens in a months time!
I should get about 5-6 bottles and I plan to do 4 as sparkling. So I will add more honey to the bottles and let them bottle ferment for a month or two to carbonate the little monkeys!
300g leatherwood honey - smells like a flower shop crazy stuff!
700g macadamia honey - nice and sweat
5 liters of filtered water
Wine yeast
Wine Nutrient
SG: 1.060 (This will give me about a 8-9% wine)
First off boil your water
Then get a good thermometer, I am very proud of my new digital one, and wait for it to get to 72C. Add your room temperature honey and the temp will drop to around 66C. Stir like mad! Keep watching the temp and if it drops below 66C kick a little fire under its ass to keep things going.
Your goal is to keep it at 66C for 22 minutes. This kills the bacteria in the honey but doesn't destroy the pollen fragrances. There is no need to boil it.
When your 22 minutes is up mix up your wine yeast and nutrient in a tea cup and set aside.
Wait for the honey mixture to cool to around 25-27C add your yeast and cool it down to 12-16C.
This one looks awesome, very light in color and still smells really nice. We will see what happens in a months time!
I should get about 5-6 bottles and I plan to do 4 as sparkling. So I will add more honey to the bottles and let them bottle ferment for a month or two to carbonate the little monkeys!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Europe Trip - Vienna Day 2
Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2 (This post)
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Hold onto your ass because it is a rip roaring post of Vienna day 2!
Day 2
This day I headed out by myself as Kasey went to the morning moots (She was not competing but supporting her follow team mates).
I charmed the front desk girl into giving me a map of the city, like I needed it with my GPS Mobile!, and an umbrella since it was pissing down rain. Let me back track a little and describe what I am wearing.... Sneakers from USA, jeans from Australia, tee-shirt from Thailand, sweatshirt from Sierra Nevada and my newly acquired umbrella. Out into the howling wind, rain and cold like you wouldn't believe. Ozzies were running for cover claiming the end of the world was nigh! But I struggled on.
Walking through the harsh wind I made it to the subway and decided to head into the central city area. The girl at the front said there was good shit there so I was keen to check it out.
Leaving the subway and enter to the city center the wind, rain and freezing cold hit me like a dump truck, or maybe a snow truck. I started my quest for a jacket. It occurred to me that the city center full of tourists and other punters wouldn't be the best spot to buy a coat but dammit I was freezing! And then I saw it, a little shop with coats in the window! they had suits, and dresses as well but it was the coats I was focusing on. Entering the shop I saw something that reminded me of Japan, a little box that looks like a wine case (many little square holes) to put your umbrella so you don't track water all over the shop ya bloody tourist! Anyhow, I was filled with natsukashi seeing that and I put my ... err... not mine but acquired umbrella in the rack and headed in with a Eric style smile on my face. Hey knock the smile all you want but check out how it served me!
The lady working here promptly said a greeting in German and then I remembered. I don't speak German. This is going to be interesting. Hitching the smile up a notch I said in my most polite way, "I am sorry I don't speak German." There is no need to say you speak English, its not like they are martian! They have seen the Daily Show I am sure. She smiled and I continued boldly "I am looking for a coat". Luckily she smiled and pointed up some stairs. Only half way up the stairs I started to think, maybe she didn't understand and just sent me up the stairs for a joke... It is what I would have done if some dirty foreigner came into my shop blathering on in Icelandic.... Still.. I was damn cold and I needed to see this through.
Arriving at what I can only imagine to be the summit of the world after so many steps I see this looks more like one of those fitting rooms from a movie where the old guy with the tape measure fits you for the perfect Italian suit. Fortunately for me, there was no Italian suits since it was a coat I was wanting and another older lady came to assist me. She spoke a little more english and I communicated my desire for a coat standing there in? Sneakers, jeans, and a sierra nevada sweatshirt. and she accommodatingly showed me the coats they had on hand. The first lot were not what I was looking for, all very nerdy as far as I could tell. I wanted something dashing! Until I saw the coat, she brought it out and said it would need to be "finished" as it would need to be fitted, I inquired as to how much and she said 1,200 Euro. I was sober enough not to choke, spit, laugh, or anything else that would give me away as being way too cheap and tight assed for a 1,200 Euro coat. Conversion for all you folks out there. 1,200 Euro = 1,700 AUD; 1,200 Euro = 1,550 USD (Your currency sux these days)
I tried my best to excuse myself with grace and get the hell out of dodge.
Back out on the freezing streets I proceeded felling a bit foolish but the bone chilling wind kept me moving on. the next shop I entered also had suits in the window but what the hell do I know? I am more the half way (Figure that one out) around the world so who am I to assume?Anyhow, I rampage in a head to the mens section. Downstairs and in a nice warm area. At least I think this is the mens area?... I mean what are all these frilly shirts doing on display? Ohhh those ARE mens attire. Guys here are a bunch of girls :D
Moving on.
I scoured the shop and found a 100 Euro coat! SCORE! I was cold no longer.
I found that shit all really funny and that's why I spent so much time relaying the tale. I am going to fast track the rest of the day.
I wandered around for a few hours having fun not speaking the language and trying to be friendly (Its a chore!). I had lunch at a sausage stand with a beer. Domestic beer in Vienna SUX! Just like USA I guess :) Domestic .. ick. But the sausage was awesome :D And any kind of beer at noon is good with a sausage.
Returning to the hotel I changed into my suit and went to the moot in the afternoon. Unfortunately, and unfairly Griffith got knocked out in this round. So drinks where on!
Went to a Vienna restaurant where I had pork and cheese. It was disgusting. The Champagne was really nice though! A consolation prize, for the hard done by, and me your local hanger on :D
Later we went to club, paid an exorbitant amount for drinks and Kasey and I left the young-ins there to dance and have shenanigans. I was tired of people assuming I was some high flying lawyer because of my pimp-tastic 3 piece suit. Thats right bitches THREE PIECE SUIT, get some class. DAMN. I am being funny now, so make sure to giggle at least :D I am not a lawyer, I am a 2nd century Chinese warlord and don't you forget it!
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2 (This post)
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Hold onto your ass because it is a rip roaring post of Vienna day 2!
Day 2
This day I headed out by myself as Kasey went to the morning moots (She was not competing but supporting her follow team mates).
I charmed the front desk girl into giving me a map of the city, like I needed it with my GPS Mobile!, and an umbrella since it was pissing down rain. Let me back track a little and describe what I am wearing.... Sneakers from USA, jeans from Australia, tee-shirt from Thailand, sweatshirt from Sierra Nevada and my newly acquired umbrella. Out into the howling wind, rain and cold like you wouldn't believe. Ozzies were running for cover claiming the end of the world was nigh! But I struggled on.
Walking through the harsh wind I made it to the subway and decided to head into the central city area. The girl at the front said there was good shit there so I was keen to check it out.
Leaving the subway and enter to the city center the wind, rain and freezing cold hit me like a dump truck, or maybe a snow truck. I started my quest for a jacket. It occurred to me that the city center full of tourists and other punters wouldn't be the best spot to buy a coat but dammit I was freezing! And then I saw it, a little shop with coats in the window! they had suits, and dresses as well but it was the coats I was focusing on. Entering the shop I saw something that reminded me of Japan, a little box that looks like a wine case (many little square holes) to put your umbrella so you don't track water all over the shop ya bloody tourist! Anyhow, I was filled with natsukashi seeing that and I put my ... err... not mine but acquired umbrella in the rack and headed in with a Eric style smile on my face. Hey knock the smile all you want but check out how it served me!
The lady working here promptly said a greeting in German and then I remembered. I don't speak German. This is going to be interesting. Hitching the smile up a notch I said in my most polite way, "I am sorry I don't speak German." There is no need to say you speak English, its not like they are martian! They have seen the Daily Show I am sure. She smiled and I continued boldly "I am looking for a coat". Luckily she smiled and pointed up some stairs. Only half way up the stairs I started to think, maybe she didn't understand and just sent me up the stairs for a joke... It is what I would have done if some dirty foreigner came into my shop blathering on in Icelandic.... Still.. I was damn cold and I needed to see this through.
Arriving at what I can only imagine to be the summit of the world after so many steps I see this looks more like one of those fitting rooms from a movie where the old guy with the tape measure fits you for the perfect Italian suit. Fortunately for me, there was no Italian suits since it was a coat I was wanting and another older lady came to assist me. She spoke a little more english and I communicated my desire for a coat standing there in? Sneakers, jeans, and a sierra nevada sweatshirt. and she accommodatingly showed me the coats they had on hand. The first lot were not what I was looking for, all very nerdy as far as I could tell. I wanted something dashing! Until I saw the coat, she brought it out and said it would need to be "finished" as it would need to be fitted, I inquired as to how much and she said 1,200 Euro. I was sober enough not to choke, spit, laugh, or anything else that would give me away as being way too cheap and tight assed for a 1,200 Euro coat. Conversion for all you folks out there. 1,200 Euro = 1,700 AUD; 1,200 Euro = 1,550 USD (Your currency sux these days)
I tried my best to excuse myself with grace and get the hell out of dodge.
Back out on the freezing streets I proceeded felling a bit foolish but the bone chilling wind kept me moving on. the next shop I entered also had suits in the window but what the hell do I know? I am more the half way (Figure that one out) around the world so who am I to assume?Anyhow, I rampage in a head to the mens section. Downstairs and in a nice warm area. At least I think this is the mens area?... I mean what are all these frilly shirts doing on display? Ohhh those ARE mens attire. Guys here are a bunch of girls :D
Moving on.
I scoured the shop and found a 100 Euro coat! SCORE! I was cold no longer.
I found that shit all really funny and that's why I spent so much time relaying the tale. I am going to fast track the rest of the day.
I wandered around for a few hours having fun not speaking the language and trying to be friendly (Its a chore!). I had lunch at a sausage stand with a beer. Domestic beer in Vienna SUX! Just like USA I guess :) Domestic .. ick. But the sausage was awesome :D And any kind of beer at noon is good with a sausage.
Returning to the hotel I changed into my suit and went to the moot in the afternoon. Unfortunately, and unfairly Griffith got knocked out in this round. So drinks where on!
Went to a Vienna restaurant where I had pork and cheese. It was disgusting. The Champagne was really nice though! A consolation prize, for the hard done by, and me your local hanger on :D
Later we went to club, paid an exorbitant amount for drinks and Kasey and I left the young-ins there to dance and have shenanigans. I was tired of people assuming I was some high flying lawyer because of my pimp-tastic 3 piece suit. Thats right bitches THREE PIECE SUIT, get some class. DAMN. I am being funny now, so make sure to giggle at least :D I am not a lawyer, I am a 2nd century Chinese warlord and don't you forget it!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Garden, Duck Fat, Beans and Honey
Yes it is a montage of things that make you go ZzzzZZZzzzz
Honey
I have recently bought honey from Tasmania and following up from my other honey post thought I would show the differences here as well :)
Going to make some fine mead with these!
Beans
I love mexican beans. They are the best. Sadly they are canned bags of crap here so when I first move to Australia I started trying to cook my own. Years later I am the freak'n MASTER! I buy dried pinto beans from an Indian Mart who sells imported crap, soak them for 24 hours, boil them for about 3-4 hours, blitz the shit out of them with a hand mixer and add the following
1. Duck Fat (This stuff is amazing!!!)
2. Tomatos
3. Onions (red and yellow)
4. Chili
5. Whatever else I am feeling on the day.
DO NOT ADD SALT! it makes them go all tacky
With my brewing pot of 15L I am able to do 3kg (6.6lbs) of dried beans
So all that gets blitzed and out comes...
These then go into the freezer and will keep like a champ.
The duck fat makes all the difference.
How do you get duck fat your asking? Why go by yourself a nice free range / wild duck. Stuff it with citrus and herbs, put it on a rack with a tray below. Bake it upside down and half way through the cooking turn it over right side up.
How much fat could you possibly get?
See the duck in the background.
This fat was put through muslin to remove chunkies and will keep in the fridge for ages.
Last on this post is the garden work. Eric asked about the bamboo so here are some action shots.
Bamboo against our fence
Bamboo next to the front door, that hole is the soon to be pond and the bamboo stick in the ground is where the fountain will go.
Honey
I have recently bought honey from Tasmania and following up from my other honey post thought I would show the differences here as well :)
Beans
I love mexican beans. They are the best. Sadly they are canned bags of crap here so when I first move to Australia I started trying to cook my own. Years later I am the freak'n MASTER! I buy dried pinto beans from an Indian Mart who sells imported crap, soak them for 24 hours, boil them for about 3-4 hours, blitz the shit out of them with a hand mixer and add the following
1. Duck Fat (This stuff is amazing!!!)
2. Tomatos
3. Onions (red and yellow)
4. Chili
5. Whatever else I am feeling on the day.
DO NOT ADD SALT! it makes them go all tackyWith my brewing pot of 15L I am able to do 3kg (6.6lbs) of dried beans
So all that gets blitzed and out comes...
These then go into the freezer and will keep like a champ.
The duck fat makes all the difference.
How do you get duck fat your asking? Why go by yourself a nice free range / wild duck. Stuff it with citrus and herbs, put it on a rack with a tray below. Bake it upside down and half way through the cooking turn it over right side up.
How much fat could you possibly get?
BAM
This fat was put through muslin to remove chunkies and will keep in the fridge for ages.
Last on this post is the garden work. Eric asked about the bamboo so here are some action shots.
Bamboo against our fence
Bamboo next to the front door, that hole is the soon to be pond and the bamboo stick in the ground is where the fountain will go.
Europe Trip - Vienna Day 1
Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1 (This post)
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Day 1
I have now arrived at Vienna airport. The security.. uhh what security, this is awesome out the gate I roll. I was suggested I pay for a taxi to get to the hotel because it would be easiest. Screw that! I hate taxis, and I am willing to throw myself out there and go on the train. You know, non-wuss style.
I followed the signs to the train station (under the airport) and found a ticket terminal. There was English translations from German but they were a bit rough. I bought a ticket that seemed correct and went down to wait for the train.
Shit its cold!! Underground, Vienna, March. BUURRRR!! So I dug out a sweatshirt (Sierra Nevada of course). Ahh much better :) The train showed up (on time) and while it looked old is was quite clean. We are trundling along and I pull out my mobile phone (Cell phone here after to be called a mobile phone) and load up the Vienna map I downloaded from Google, kick on the GPS and point it out the window. 10 stops later I arrive at the place I think I should be. Grabbing my crap, I head out of the station, and stop to get my bearings. I know my hotel is close to here but this area the road goes in a large circle so I needed to find north.
Ahh my phone shows north as a compass as well, and oh look! The GPS has kicked in and its showing me on the Google maps. I find my hotel on the map and start walking, following my progress with the phone. I know, I kick ass :P Entering the hotel I meet Kasey! WOOT! I check in and we head up to the room to dump off my crap. She bought me sushi and chocolate :) This was a 1000x better then any food I had while traveling here.
Unluckily for me there is not rest for the non-wussy. She tells me that there is a Moot (Practice court competition) on in 2 hours and I don't have to go but I can if I want. What the hell right! So I take a long shower to get the traveling grit off and feel a bit more human. Change into my suite and go meet up with everyone. Meeting up with the other girls on the team, and the two coaches I met Chris who is one of the coaches husband. He informs me that he would like to go have a look around and find a beer if possible. The moot doesn't look like it will start for another 30 minutes so we head off! Walking around close to the building where the team is we found an outdoor pub, where we ordered two unfiltered wheat beers in massive glasses for 4 euro each. Nice stuff!
Felling a bit better we head back to the competition and watch the moot which lasted about 3 hours? Maybe 2 1/2 hours.
After the moot everyone wanted a late dinner (its 10pm now) and I am starting to see ghosts, faeries, and dragons after being awake for 2 days, but I agree because who isn't a party pooper? Me :-D The restaurant was very nice and before I knew what was happening champagne was being poured into everyone's glasses. I am not a white wine drinker, but I do like the bubbles occasionally, so I woke myself up for this one! Direct notes from my phone journal " tasted like bras bubbles to start with but the roundNess and apple sort me flavor at t.e end was awesome"
After dinner we went back to the hotel, WOOT!, and I slept for 8 hours only to reset my clock.
Day One was over! Day two was just about to start
Journey Begins
Vienna Day 1 (This post)
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Day 1
I have now arrived at Vienna airport. The security.. uhh what security, this is awesome out the gate I roll. I was suggested I pay for a taxi to get to the hotel because it would be easiest. Screw that! I hate taxis, and I am willing to throw myself out there and go on the train. You know, non-wuss style.
I followed the signs to the train station (under the airport) and found a ticket terminal. There was English translations from German but they were a bit rough. I bought a ticket that seemed correct and went down to wait for the train.
Shit its cold!! Underground, Vienna, March. BUURRRR!! So I dug out a sweatshirt (Sierra Nevada of course). Ahh much better :) The train showed up (on time) and while it looked old is was quite clean. We are trundling along and I pull out my mobile phone (Cell phone here after to be called a mobile phone) and load up the Vienna map I downloaded from Google, kick on the GPS and point it out the window. 10 stops later I arrive at the place I think I should be. Grabbing my crap, I head out of the station, and stop to get my bearings. I know my hotel is close to here but this area the road goes in a large circle so I needed to find north.
Ahh my phone shows north as a compass as well, and oh look! The GPS has kicked in and its showing me on the Google maps. I find my hotel on the map and start walking, following my progress with the phone. I know, I kick ass :P Entering the hotel I meet Kasey! WOOT! I check in and we head up to the room to dump off my crap. She bought me sushi and chocolate :) This was a 1000x better then any food I had while traveling here.
Unluckily for me there is not rest for the non-wussy. She tells me that there is a Moot (Practice court competition) on in 2 hours and I don't have to go but I can if I want. What the hell right! So I take a long shower to get the traveling grit off and feel a bit more human. Change into my suite and go meet up with everyone. Meeting up with the other girls on the team, and the two coaches I met Chris who is one of the coaches husband. He informs me that he would like to go have a look around and find a beer if possible. The moot doesn't look like it will start for another 30 minutes so we head off! Walking around close to the building where the team is we found an outdoor pub, where we ordered two unfiltered wheat beers in massive glasses for 4 euro each. Nice stuff!
Felling a bit better we head back to the competition and watch the moot which lasted about 3 hours? Maybe 2 1/2 hours.
After the moot everyone wanted a late dinner (its 10pm now) and I am starting to see ghosts, faeries, and dragons after being awake for 2 days, but I agree because who isn't a party pooper? Me :-D The restaurant was very nice and before I knew what was happening champagne was being poured into everyone's glasses. I am not a white wine drinker, but I do like the bubbles occasionally, so I woke myself up for this one! Direct notes from my phone journal " tasted like bras bubbles to start with but the roundNess and apple sort me flavor at t.e end was awesome"
After dinner we went back to the hotel, WOOT!, and I slept for 8 hours only to reset my clock.
Day One was over! Day two was just about to start
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Irish Red Beer - 1 Month Tasting
Recap background: Irish Red Beer, something akin to Killkenny and Smithwicks. This was my first all grain brew, so I made the beer from scratch.
Tasting:
HOLY CRAP IT ROCKS!
The beer has another 2 months of aging before I can prononce it truely ready but I like to try the aging beer every month to see how its progressing. This beer has come out looking exactly like Killkenny (see other post on Irish Red) and it tasts just awesome! There is that red beer finish and it is very smooth. I think there is still a hint of sweetness which is the bottling sugar used to carbonate the beer in the bottle. Two more months and it should be nice, dry and smooth!!
Tasting:
HOLY CRAP IT ROCKS!
The beer has another 2 months of aging before I can prononce it truely ready but I like to try the aging beer every month to see how its progressing. This beer has come out looking exactly like Killkenny (see other post on Irish Red) and it tasts just awesome! There is that red beer finish and it is very smooth. I think there is still a hint of sweetness which is the bottling sugar used to carbonate the beer in the bottle. Two more months and it should be nice, dry and smooth!!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Europe Trip - Journey Begins
Europe Trip Posts
Journey Begins (This post)
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Little background, Kasey left for Hong Kong for the Vis Moot (If you don't know what this is google). I was sitting at home for 2 1/2 weeks where I spent the majority of my evenings painting miniature figures and watching Dr. Who. Yes yes I am that much of a geek get over it.
So in addition to my geekfest I hooked my Android mobile up with maps of Vienna and Paris to allow my phone and the GPS in it to show us where we are, how cool is that. I also printed out wiki travel pages about the places we wanted to go see so we would know a bit more about the places that we went to see. This worked out really well, because even travel books normal just give you a short paragraph about the place where a travel wiki page could be 4 pages crammed with factoids for the trivia nerd inside. Go on grow the nerd.
The Leaving
I cleaned up the place printed out information sheets about the three cats for our good friend who looked after the monsters and locked up. Of course it started to rain while dragging my suitcases down the road to the train station but my spirit could not be cooled, I was off on another adventure!
Arriving at the airport I went to stand in line and fill out my paperwork. I was in high spirits. Arriving at the check in lady I chucked my very light bags on the scales and handed over my passport with a Eric Style Smile (That smile where light glints off your teeth). She gives me a withering look and starts flipping through my passport.
"Where is your visa"
Sorry? Where is my wha? Ohh ohh its all electronic I explain. She proceeds to give me shit for the next few minutes about not having a visa in my passport. I repeat that the Australian Government doesn't issue paper visas any longer it is all EEEEE LLLL EEECCCCC TTTTRRROOOOOONNNNIIIICCCCC. She runs it through the computer (Finally!) and looks at me like I am the idiot and said "Your visa is up to date". No shit Sherlock..... She then continues to issue my boarding passes. I have 3 flights and she hands over two boarding passed and a sticker that has a bard code and some flight crap referring to my bag. Remember the 3 flights, 2 boarding passes and my bag, it comes up later and there will be a test.
So spirit dowsed a bit.
Going through the security I got pulled off to the side to be scanned for bombs and other contraband. At this point I am worried because without my paper passport I am basically a illegal alien! One tick-tack found in my pocket, no paper visa and I am on the first sheep freight boat to India.
Luckily no contraband was found! I sail through to the air lounge
I look through my boarding passes and find that a Quantas flight has been changed to a British Airways flight... Well okay, I don't know anything about them.
After such a great start of getting grief I sit down at the airport pub for a few schooners (beers). Two schooners of beer later and messing around with my phone I find out that none of the WiFi in the airport is free. Why would it be? :) So I had a third schooner to not think about technology or any of that other crap. I am feeling much more optimistic and head off for my gate about 15 minutes to go in boarding.
Coming up to the gate, I ask one of the attendants about my missing boarding pass. I explain I have a Brisbane -> Singapore and my Singapore -> London boarding pass but not my London -> Vienna. The lady, of course, laughs and says "You know British Airways is having strikes right now? hahaha".... I kill you!... She tells me I'll have to "try" to get my boarding pass in Singapore OR London. Greeeeeat.
The flight was 8 hours (No problem!) I sat in a row of four seats and there was two little kids down the row and mom on the end. I gotta tell you, the kids were way better then adults! Adults are big whinny babys, kids have an excuse - they are 4! :) Anyhow, British Airways... Attendants were great, but I got nauseous after the food so I refused further food offered.
Arriving in Singapore, it was back on the beer.
4 hours later we are back on another BA flight for 13 hours. ohh god. 8 hours? No problem! 13 is just rough.. After the 8 hours your thinking "Yeah I rock! now get me off this damn thing" but that 9th hour is sinks in... I am here for another 4 hours. Ohh man. However, by a twist of luck, the seat next to me was free, the cost of this free seat next to me was my entertainment system didn't work. What a ying and yang situation! I could complain and be moved to another seat NEXT to someone where the entertainment screen worked OR I could stay for 13 HOURS with just me and my free seat next to me (I couldn't move to the free seat next to me because then I would be next to someone - spacial reasoning people). I went for the free seat :) They came around with Beef of Chicken and I refused. Just booze please. I splet for about 6 hours and then it was English Breakfast time. No thanks, just morning booze please. Finally arrive in heathrow London.
5:45am Now, I don't have a boarding pass for the last leg of my journey. So I track down a British Airways counter and there is a dude sitting behind the counter and I go up and say hello and explain my situation. He rudely tells me that I need Quantas desk not British Airways. Well shit, all he boarding passes say BA, WTF? So I look at the next desk and there is a sign "Qantas Desk opens at 6am". So I hang out in line. I am the only one there by the way... A quantas person shows up behind me and asks what I want, I explain. He says I'll need to wait for the desk to open up. Okay... So I wait... He goes behind the desk and calls me forward. I was just giggling like a little girl inside thinking of Meet the Fockers. So I stroll up dump all my paperwork over the desk and say "I need a boarding pass to Vienna" the guy explains that BA is on strikes "Yes well your Quantas, whatcha got for me?", consulting the highly technical system (A printed bit of paper) he tells me that the flight is two hours delayed and has been shifted to flight QA DickityDoo. I have one of those Dr Who recollections of something in the past... I pull out one of the papers on the desk and look at the sticker that has the bar code of my bag and those weird fight numbers. Ohh that just is perfect! The sticker says all of the flights, including all the changes and delays! So the lady at the very beginning that gave me shit over my non-corporeal visa knew all these flights because she booked my bag through.
Thats okay. Issue me my damn boarding pass and lets get to some rest. To sum up the rest of my time in heathrow "So far everyone has been rude. so far England sucks" which comes strait from my journal notes. :-D
Its not all negative though! A short 2.5/3 hour flight and we touch down in Vienna! the bags came out in record time and I was off to customs... Err.. I said CUSTOMS... Umm. Ohh hi, I almost missed the guy standing behind a podium with a rubber stamp. BANG I am in the country. There was a big EXIT sign with about 8 security gaurds all talking, smoking, and maybe drinking? Such a great country so far. I was advised to take a taxi from the airport to my hotel. Screw that crap! That's for wusses :) I went down into the train station under the airport and using my fine skills of german was able to find the English button :P Purchasing a ticket to the city I walked to the platform and changed into some warmer clothes. The train took about 5 minutes to arrive and BANG I was off. Arriving at my station I dodged a few pan handlers and whipping out my mobile I turned on the GPS, loaded the Vienna map and traced my route to the hotel. Who's the best, that's right :-)
Kasey met me in the hotel lounge and it was a great welcome :) Up in the room she had a surpise for me. Oohh ha ha. Sushi and Chocolate! Sushi, not very Germanic but still very nice after all that shit food on the plane and fasting!
Stay tuned for the Tales of Vienna! Much more positive and sunny experience then the evil of traveling via British Airways.
Journey Begins (This post)
Vienna Day 1
Vienna Day 2
Vienna Day 3
Paris Day 1
Paris Day 2
Little background, Kasey left for Hong Kong for the Vis Moot (If you don't know what this is google). I was sitting at home for 2 1/2 weeks where I spent the majority of my evenings painting miniature figures and watching Dr. Who. Yes yes I am that much of a geek get over it.
So in addition to my geekfest I hooked my Android mobile up with maps of Vienna and Paris to allow my phone and the GPS in it to show us where we are, how cool is that. I also printed out wiki travel pages about the places we wanted to go see so we would know a bit more about the places that we went to see. This worked out really well, because even travel books normal just give you a short paragraph about the place where a travel wiki page could be 4 pages crammed with factoids for the trivia nerd inside. Go on grow the nerd.
The Leaving
I cleaned up the place printed out information sheets about the three cats for our good friend who looked after the monsters and locked up. Of course it started to rain while dragging my suitcases down the road to the train station but my spirit could not be cooled, I was off on another adventure!
Arriving at the airport I went to stand in line and fill out my paperwork. I was in high spirits. Arriving at the check in lady I chucked my very light bags on the scales and handed over my passport with a Eric Style Smile (That smile where light glints off your teeth). She gives me a withering look and starts flipping through my passport.
"Where is your visa"
Sorry? Where is my wha? Ohh ohh its all electronic I explain. She proceeds to give me shit for the next few minutes about not having a visa in my passport. I repeat that the Australian Government doesn't issue paper visas any longer it is all EEEEE LLLL EEECCCCC TTTTRRROOOOOONNNNIIIICCCCC. She runs it through the computer (Finally!) and looks at me like I am the idiot and said "Your visa is up to date". No shit Sherlock..... She then continues to issue my boarding passes. I have 3 flights and she hands over two boarding passed and a sticker that has a bard code and some flight crap referring to my bag. Remember the 3 flights, 2 boarding passes and my bag, it comes up later and there will be a test.
So spirit dowsed a bit.
Going through the security I got pulled off to the side to be scanned for bombs and other contraband. At this point I am worried because without my paper passport I am basically a illegal alien! One tick-tack found in my pocket, no paper visa and I am on the first sheep freight boat to India.
Luckily no contraband was found! I sail through to the air lounge
I look through my boarding passes and find that a Quantas flight has been changed to a British Airways flight... Well okay, I don't know anything about them
After such a great start of getting grief I sit down at the airport pub for a few schooners (beers). Two schooners of beer later and messing around with my phone I find out that none of the WiFi in the airport is free. Why would it be? :) So I had a third schooner to not think about technology or any of that other crap. I am feeling much more optimistic and head off for my gate about 15 minutes to go in boarding.
Coming up to the gate, I ask one of the attendants about my missing boarding pass. I explain I have a Brisbane -> Singapore and my Singapore -> London boarding pass but not my London -> Vienna. The lady, of course, laughs and says "You know British Airways is having strikes right now? hahaha".... I kill you!... She tells me I'll have to "try" to get my boarding pass in Singapore OR London. Greeeeeat.
The flight was 8 hours (No problem!) I sat in a row of four seats and there was two little kids down the row and mom on the end. I gotta tell you, the kids were way better then adults! Adults are big whinny babys, kids have an excuse - they are 4! :) Anyhow, British Airways... Attendants were great, but I got nauseous after the food so I refused further food offered.
Arriving in Singapore, it was back on the beer.
4 hours later we are back on another BA flight for 13 hours. ohh god. 8 hours? No problem! 13 is just rough.. After the 8 hours your thinking "Yeah I rock! now get me off this damn thing" but that 9th hour is sinks in... I am here for another 4 hours. Ohh man. However, by a twist of luck, the seat next to me was free, the cost of this free seat next to me was my entertainment system didn't work. What a ying and yang situation! I could complain and be moved to another seat NEXT to someone where the entertainment screen worked OR I could stay for 13 HOURS with just me and my free seat next to me (I couldn't move to the free seat next to me because then I would be next to someone - spacial reasoning people). I went for the free seat :) They came around with Beef of Chicken and I refused. Just booze please. I splet for about 6 hours and then it was English Breakfast time. No thanks, just morning booze please. Finally arrive in heathrow London.
5:45am Now, I don't have a boarding pass for the last leg of my journey. So I track down a British Airways counter and there is a dude sitting behind the counter and I go up and say hello and explain my situation. He rudely tells me that I need Quantas desk not British Airways. Well shit, all he boarding passes say BA, WTF? So I look at the next desk and there is a sign "Qantas Desk opens at 6am". So I hang out in line. I am the only one there by the way... A quantas person shows up behind me and asks what I want, I explain. He says I'll need to wait for the desk to open up. Okay... So I wait... He goes behind the desk and calls me forward. I was just giggling like a little girl inside thinking of Meet the Fockers. So I stroll up dump all my paperwork over the desk and say "I need a boarding pass to Vienna" the guy explains that BA is on strikes "Yes well your Quantas, whatcha got for me?", consulting the highly technical system (A printed bit of paper) he tells me that the flight is two hours delayed and has been shifted to flight QA DickityDoo. I have one of those Dr Who recollections of something in the past... I pull out one of the papers on the desk and look at the sticker that has the bar code of my bag and those weird fight numbers. Ohh that just is perfect! The sticker says all of the flights, including all the changes and delays! So the lady at the very beginning that gave me shit over my non-corporeal visa knew all these flights because she booked my bag through.
Thats okay. Issue me my damn boarding pass and lets get to some rest. To sum up the rest of my time in heathrow "So far everyone has been rude. so far England sucks" which comes strait from my journal notes. :-D
Its not all negative though! A short 2.5/3 hour flight and we touch down in Vienna! the bags came out in record time and I was off to customs... Err.. I said CUSTOMS... Umm. Ohh hi, I almost missed the guy standing behind a podium with a rubber stamp. BANG I am in the country. There was a big EXIT sign with about 8 security gaurds all talking, smoking, and maybe drinking? Such a great country so far. I was advised to take a taxi from the airport to my hotel. Screw that crap! That's for wusses :) I went down into the train station under the airport and using my fine skills of german was able to find the English button :P Purchasing a ticket to the city I walked to the platform and changed into some warmer clothes. The train took about 5 minutes to arrive and BANG I was off. Arriving at my station I dodged a few pan handlers and whipping out my mobile I turned on the GPS, loaded the Vienna map and traced my route to the hotel. Who's the best, that's right :-)
Kasey met me in the hotel lounge and it was a great welcome :) Up in the room she had a surpise for me. Oohh ha ha. Sushi and Chocolate! Sushi, not very Germanic but still very nice after all that shit food on the plane and fasting!
Stay tuned for the Tales of Vienna! Much more positive and sunny experience then the evil of traveling via British Airways.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Spoils
Well we have just returned from Europe and found that a large painting fell and crashed behind our TV cracking open a home electricity network adapter (Think a big A/C looking adapter with a LAN cable connected into it). When the painting cracked open the device the power terminals were barely touching and caused a fault in the electrical system.
The safety switch in the circuit breaker box tripped and all electrical outlets lost power. Overhead lights or anything on a direct switch still worked.
Our fridges, however, are on outlet power so they lost power... Fast forward to the interesting stuff....
The beer and two meads are now ruined - I checked the temperature before throwing the switch back on and it was 31C!!!!! Damn all my insulation. Optimal temp is 18C.
So I am not going to even waste my time and try and 'hope' they come good over time, they have been sitting at this unacceptable high temperature for little under 2 weeks.
Good side of things, I get to brew again :)
The safety switch in the circuit breaker box tripped and all electrical outlets lost power. Overhead lights or anything on a direct switch still worked.
Our fridges, however, are on outlet power so they lost power... Fast forward to the interesting stuff....
The beer and two meads are now ruined - I checked the temperature before throwing the switch back on and it was 31C!!!!! Damn all my insulation. Optimal temp is 18C.
So I am not going to even waste my time and try and 'hope' they come good over time, they have been sitting at this unacceptable high temperature for little under 2 weeks.
Good side of things, I get to brew again :)
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Irish Red - Sneak Peek
Well the Irish Red beer I did as an All Grain brew came out last week. I snappied a photo of the newly created brew and compared with Kilkenny (Like Smithwick's in America)
I grabbed two glasses that are identical and poured a Kilkenny into the one on the left and my newly fermented brew on the right :D
The Irish Red ale is now bottle fermenting to add carbonation so you get head and bubbles. Complete post about this beer once its done with the two months of bottle fermentation.
Grab an Irish Red Ale this weekend and try them!
I grabbed two glasses that are identical and poured a Kilkenny into the one on the left and my newly fermented brew on the right :D
The Irish Red ale is now bottle fermenting to add carbonation so you get head and bubbles. Complete post about this beer once its done with the two months of bottle fermentation.
Grab an Irish Red Ale this weekend and try them!
Honey - Is there a difference?
Following on from my Farmers Market - Potato post I am going to show how honey can be so much more then the common bought honey.
Most honey, especially in heavily developed countries or mass production countries (ie America :P ) produce honey by feeding bees on sugar water! (Here is your corn sugar at work again). It produces a sub-lime honey that is put into all sorts of things. This is done because the bees can be contained and feed in a systematic way to produce a consistent product. This is also leading to problems with diseases in bees etc (You mean intense farming is bad?)
Anyhow! I am an up and coming brewer of drinks that make people happy and invite discussions on such topics as this and help to add to the population through unintended sexual relations.
One of those drinks is Mead. Honey, water, yeast, and some acid. Easy right? Sounds boring. I mean... Beer has tons of varieties! Pale Ale, Wheat Beer, Porters, Red Ales, and so on! Mead is just honey, can't be much in the way of things to do there? Sure you can add crap to the honey but its all based on Honey.
Well sorry to say but Honey can be so varied it surprises me still. The smell and the flavor are completely different based on what the bees have been collecting from.
Each of these honey's is collected from hives working on different kind of environments. Macadamia trees, Garden Flowers, Bush Honey (Rain forest trees), etc. And as I said before each of these is so different from the next it is quite amazing.
So next time you are looking at honey in the supermarket have a closer look - it should say what kind of flower the honey primarily comes from. If it does not, corn sugar honey - YAWN.
Most honey, especially in heavily developed countries or mass production countries (ie America :P ) produce honey by feeding bees on sugar water! (Here is your corn sugar at work again). It produces a sub-lime honey that is put into all sorts of things. This is done because the bees can be contained and feed in a systematic way to produce a consistent product. This is also leading to problems with diseases in bees etc (You mean intense farming is bad?)
Anyhow! I am an up and coming brewer of drinks that make people happy and invite discussions on such topics as this and help to add to the population through unintended sexual relations.
One of those drinks is Mead. Honey, water, yeast, and some acid. Easy right? Sounds boring. I mean... Beer has tons of varieties! Pale Ale, Wheat Beer, Porters, Red Ales, and so on! Mead is just honey, can't be much in the way of things to do there? Sure you can add crap to the honey but its all based on Honey.
Well sorry to say but Honey can be so varied it surprises me still. The smell and the flavor are completely different based on what the bees have been collecting from.
Each of these honey's is collected from hives working on different kind of environments. Macadamia trees, Garden Flowers, Bush Honey (Rain forest trees), etc. And as I said before each of these is so different from the next it is quite amazing.
So next time you are looking at honey in the supermarket have a closer look - it should say what kind of flower the honey primarily comes from. If it does not, corn sugar honey - YAWN.
Farmers Market - Potatoes
This might offend some people but this is my experience and if you are offended you should be looking to your own surroundings and asking why are things how they are?
It wasn't until I came to Australia that I found what a massive difference there is from the super market food to the farmers market and what kind of quality and variety there is different out there!
Solid example: We have a "Potato Man" who we go to, to buy potatoes! But they are all the same right? Right? WRONG. Potatoes are so much more then the common white varieties sold in supper markets and vary in color, texture, and flavor.
Dutch Cream: Yellow flesh, one of the best potatoes ever!
Kipfler potatoes: Hard and waxy these long potatoes work great for long cooking and taste great! Great for things like salads
Pink Eye:
Royal Blue:
Kind Edward: (His favorite potato and one of my favorites!)
Nicola:
All of these are available at one area and range from $4.99 to $2.99 per kg that equates to $2.26 to $1.35 per pound.
These all taste and have different properties and are all useful in different ways! Once you have a dutch cream and a kind Edward side by side you'll never be wanting anything other then to have bags and bags of all these varieties instead of the common watery chat potatoes.
Trust me, give it a go!
It wasn't until I came to Australia that I found what a massive difference there is from the super market food to the farmers market and what kind of quality and variety there is different out there!
Solid example: We have a "Potato Man" who we go to, to buy potatoes! But they are all the same right? Right? WRONG. Potatoes are so much more then the common white varieties sold in supper markets and vary in color, texture, and flavor.
Dutch Cream: Yellow flesh, one of the best potatoes ever!
Kipfler potatoes: Hard and waxy these long potatoes work great for long cooking and taste great! Great for things like salads
Pink Eye:
Royal Blue:
Kind Edward: (His favorite potato and one of my favorites!)
Nicola:
All of these are available at one area and range from $4.99 to $2.99 per kg that equates to $2.26 to $1.35 per pound.
These all taste and have different properties and are all useful in different ways! Once you have a dutch cream and a kind Edward side by side you'll never be wanting anything other then to have bags and bags of all these varieties instead of the common watery chat potatoes.
Trust me, give it a go!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wheat Beer - Kit style
Well its the weekend so time to brew up a storm!
I was going to do an all grain wheat beer brew (and still plan to) but I have run out of time, so I went down and grabbed the following
WB-06 Wheat Yeast
Imported Bavarian Wheat (Brew Craft)
Wheat Malt Extract (Coopers)
Hop Bag - Hallertau
This will sit in the brewing fridge for 3+ weeks which is longer then I normally let things go but I have been reading some interesting things about letting the first fermentation go for longer.
After this Kit Wheat I plan on doing an all grain wheat with 90% wheat where this style here is only 50% wheat.
If your reading this via reader then you won't see the side panel on the blog so since I am out of interesting shit to say I'll spew out the sideboard here.
Currently Drinking:
Store bought :(
Currently Aging:
Sparkling mead (18%) (April 12th)
Indian Pale Ale (Kit with added grains) (April 28th)
Irish Red Ale (all grain) (June 12th)
Currently Brewing:
Wheat Beer (kit) (April 17th)
Mead (10%) (May 1st done)
Braggot Mead (15%) (May 18th done)
Next to Brew:
Wheat Beer (All Grain)
I was going to do an all grain wheat beer brew (and still plan to) but I have run out of time, so I went down and grabbed the following
WB-06 Wheat Yeast
Imported Bavarian Wheat (Brew Craft)
Wheat Malt Extract (Coopers)
Hop Bag - Hallertau
This will sit in the brewing fridge for 3+ weeks which is longer then I normally let things go but I have been reading some interesting things about letting the first fermentation go for longer.
After this Kit Wheat I plan on doing an all grain wheat with 90% wheat where this style here is only 50% wheat.
If your reading this via reader then you won't see the side panel on the blog so since I am out of interesting shit to say I'll spew out the sideboard here.
Currently Drinking:
Store bought :(
Currently Aging:
Sparkling mead (18%) (April 12th)
Indian Pale Ale (Kit with added grains) (April 28th)
Irish Red Ale (all grain) (June 12th)
Currently Brewing:
Wheat Beer (kit) (April 17th)
Mead (10%) (May 1st done)
Braggot Mead (15%) (May 18th done)
Next to Brew:
Wheat Beer (All Grain)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Braggot Mead
Greetings all! The wife has the camera with her so no photos on this post.
Last week I started planning a Braggot Mead which is malt and honey, so think beer and honey with wine yeast.
So on with the recipe first!
500g Bush Honey
500g Rose Garden Honey
800g Pale Malt Grain
200g Light Crystal Grain
8 Cloves
2 Tea Bags
6 Liters filtered water
1 Demijohn
2 Pots
1 tea spoon Wine yeast
1 tea spoon Yeast Nutrient
So! I thought, I have all this left over grain and all this left over honey why not do a Braggot! It sounds cool Braggot. Go ahead give it a roll off the tong. BraaaaGOT!
So! I diverted from the normal school of thought that you boil the honey! Most mead recipes seem to come from beer makers and the boil is essential for killing off all bacteria and the work it does with the proteins. However! Like my other posts about mead I prescribe to the 68 degrees for 22 minutes for the honey to kill of the organisms that live in honey, but this deviates from beer making; So I combined the procedures into one limbo dance of justice and peace.
1. Poor your 5L of water into the first pot and bring to 75C.
2. Dump your grains in - I use a Brew Bag (google it)
3. Check the temp is about 65, insulate the pot if you can with towles etc. Check ever 15 minutes until 90 minutes have passed.
4. Heat the remaining 1L of water in the 2nd pot and sparge with the last 1L of water (Poor the water over the grains)into the first pot.
5. Bring to a rolling boil
6. Add cloves
7. 60 minutes later remove from heat and measure the temperature carefully! When it reaches 68C add the honey
8. Insulate and check every 3-5 minutes for 22 minutes.
9. While you are checking the Braggot wort - make up a tea cup of yeast, yeast nutrient and filtered water and let warm near pot. This gets the yeast party started early!
10. After 22 minutes aerate the wort. I don't own a aerator yet so I did the trick of pouring the wort between the two pots back and forth over and over and over and over till my arms fell off.
11. Add to demijohn and cool the wort down to 24-25C
12. Add your yeast party and top with an air lock!
13. Mark your calendar for 8 weeks, put it in the brew fridge and forget about it
This mead should be a spicy and full body wine. It might not fit the Australian climate but until it's brewed and aged we will never know!
Last week I started planning a Braggot Mead which is malt and honey, so think beer and honey with wine yeast.
So on with the recipe first!
500g Bush Honey
500g Rose Garden Honey
800g Pale Malt Grain
200g Light Crystal Grain
8 Cloves
2 Tea Bags
6 Liters filtered water
1 Demijohn
2 Pots
1 tea spoon Wine yeast
1 tea spoon Yeast Nutrient
So! I thought, I have all this left over grain and all this left over honey why not do a Braggot! It sounds cool Braggot. Go ahead give it a roll off the tong. BraaaaGOT!
So! I diverted from the normal school of thought that you boil the honey! Most mead recipes seem to come from beer makers and the boil is essential for killing off all bacteria and the work it does with the proteins. However! Like my other posts about mead I prescribe to the 68 degrees for 22 minutes for the honey to kill of the organisms that live in honey, but this deviates from beer making; So I combined the procedures into one limbo dance of justice and peace.
1. Poor your 5L of water into the first pot and bring to 75C.
2. Dump your grains in - I use a Brew Bag (google it)
3. Check the temp is about 65, insulate the pot if you can with towles etc. Check ever 15 minutes until 90 minutes have passed.
4. Heat the remaining 1L of water in the 2nd pot and sparge with the last 1L of water (Poor the water over the grains)into the first pot.
5. Bring to a rolling boil
6. Add cloves
7. 60 minutes later remove from heat and measure the temperature carefully! When it reaches 68C add the honey
8. Insulate and check every 3-5 minutes for 22 minutes.
9. While you are checking the Braggot wort - make up a tea cup of yeast, yeast nutrient and filtered water and let warm near pot. This gets the yeast party started early!
10. After 22 minutes aerate the wort. I don't own a aerator yet so I did the trick of pouring the wort between the two pots back and forth over and over and over and over till my arms fell off.
11. Add to demijohn and cool the wort down to 24-25C
12. Add your yeast party and top with an air lock!
13. Mark your calendar for 8 weeks, put it in the brew fridge and forget about it
This mead should be a spicy and full body wine. It might not fit the Australian climate but until it's brewed and aged we will never know!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Munich Lager - First crack
Last video of opening beer left many people to doubt of the quality of my beer. I am providing another video here to help with this :)
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