Water Filtering in bulk

Right, so everyone knows that tap city water is shit. It comes packed with all kinds of nasties and most harmful to brewing is chlorine. We own a water purifier for drinking water but they are expensive to buy and they take a long time to filter water because they are gravity driven.

A typical brew of beer takes 23 liters of water and my personal water purifier in the kitchen can do 1 liter an hour and store 6 liters total. This means I am filling the damn thing up over and over and waiting ages for the filtration to occur.

Armed with only the desire to be lazy and an extra brewing vessel compliments of the father-in-law I had another brain wave. Off to the hardware store!!

1. 10 Liter Bucket 1$
2. Carbon Water Filter 20$
 3. Existing brewing vessel that can hold 23 liters of water FREE

Now what? Well its quite simple actually. Make a hole in the bucket with a screw driver, put the filter in with the supplied rubber seals just like on my kitchen vessel, put the bucket on top of the brewing vessel. BAM!

Since this bad boy bucket holds 10L the force on the filter is higher (due to the weight of the water) and the filtration happens much quicker even if it less effective - I am okay with this. I purchased a 2nd bucket for filling the first easily (Again lazy coming through).

Cracking that first batch

Well the beer has been aged and is ready for consumption!

And here is the opening of one of the first batch

From Brewing

TASTY!

First Beer and Wine Brews

Greetings all,

Well I have decided to share my experiences with brewing with you the eager audience of internet trolls, family and friends.

First on the list is my first brew. This was a dive off the deep end like many new adventures are. I went down and purchased a wheat ale beer kit (which contains the pre-made "beer flavor") and the yeast, I also got a bag of dextrose which is a kind of sugar. I also picked up a brewing vessel which is a 24L do-dad and some other misc items. I was so excited I got strait into it! And man was it a mess :D

The yeast in the kit said 28C to 22C which I thought was crazy because everything I had read said 18C was the bomb. Well... I followed instructions, I kept it inside on the floor and kept it around 24-26C for a few days.

Later after badgering my local brew shop who was more then happy to give hints said the yeast in the bear kits is shit and I should be striving for those lower temperatures (18C).

Well dammit. I wasn't going to let a little thing like this get in my way! I am a SCIENTIST (Right ken? :P ) So I broke into the old fridge in the garage and stripped it bare, but now the problem... Even at the hottest temperature in the frdige I could only get it to 5C. I needed another 13C to hit my goal!! So while the beer sat on the floor at an unacceptable 24C I started work on the fridge and decided to brew a wine as well. I mean why not right? :)

so I went back to the brew shop and picked up a nice glass bottle, we went to the markets and bought a bunch of cherries since they are in season and lychee. Slapped them into the blender and off we went.

Since of course I pulled the pits out, don't be so lazy!

So I got a nice mess poured it all in and added the wine yeast.

As you can see looks good eh?








And then I had a break through, a revelation with the fridge. I could buy an expensive thermostat or I could lie to the thermostat... I could trick it. Tell it lies. Mahahah. But how?

Insulate the little bastard! I found that if I added foam, in this case from boxes that had PC parts inside, around the thermostat area it would keep the cold air colder then what was on the other side of the insulation because that area is so much larger :) If you want a more detailed explanation come round we'll have a few beers and I'll confuse you more.

So I insulated it and BLAM! I had my gift.

Rabbit

I was talking with one of my buddies about food here in Australia and it came up that I was using duck fat in my re fried beans. Then I got to talking that we also have rabbit here :) So I am now posting some photos of the first rabbit jointing I did back at the old apartment and with our old shitty knife; Kasey got me a nice Japanese chef knife for my birthday years back.

This is all of the pieces at the end. There is 6 peices in total after jointing the whole rabbit. Two front legs, two back, and the saddle (ribcage, spine area) that has been cracked in half.



Front Leg


Back Leg


Shot glass is for later ;-)

What do you do with rabbit? Stews are really good, fried is also awesome.

New kitty

This makes #3! The new little guy sure is packed with energy and loves to climb over everything. No fear is his middle name as he jumps from high place to high place.

We have named him Chisaru (小僧) which is Little Monkey.

Here are some videos of the little guy in action

Weekend Cricket

Last weekend we went to the cricket with Kasey's dad and siblings. It was a lot of fun, nice and relaxed watching the cricket :)

Here are a few shots.



Lauren and her boyfriend Cory


Kasey and Steve getting along :)


Steve and Peter

Law Society Big-To-Do

Last night Kasey and I went to the Law Society Ball here in Brisbane. For family and friends who wanted to see our swanky outfits here are the photos


Kasey and Justine



Jusstine (left) Kasey and Gina (Right)



Kasey, Justice Kirby, Chris


Kasey and I :)


Check out the flash!


End on a good note :D

IT was a lot of fun and the speeches were excellent. Plus all the free grog you can pour down your gullet! I am paying for it today though. All and all well worth it.