Christmas in Florida

Merry Christmas y'all

Keezer

Getting closer...

Harmony Church 1987

Left South Dakota in May of 1987 and began basic, AIT, etc in mid-June... hit airborne school in early September... it was amazingly hot in Georgia for a South Dakota-boy...

And now... 10-22

One of a couple that I have.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

Why I like 19 September

Has nothing to do with talking like a pirate. :)

 

Oh yeah, and there is no 23rd of 1143. ;) 

 

Brew Day Double Header

Brewed a Black IPA extract and a Surly Cynic partial mash, both are kits from Northern Brewer.

We'll see how this goes, first time mashing anything other than a potato.

Saison du Vin

It is now in the bottle. It should finish in the sevens for ABV. Never again, I hope, with the 12 oz bottles... what a pain in the arse after finding the joys of kegging.

BIL states that it tastes like white wine... I tend to agree. We'll see what some carbonation and age does for it.

Saison du Vin

It is now in the fridge doing the cold crash routine. Should bottle Wednesday after work. Tis another reason for the hurried keezer build today. Until the keezer was commissioned, there was no space in the fridge for this beer.

Keezer

Built a rudimentary version today.

The iPad really does take miserable pictures.

Demo Windshield

Chrome sure does shine in the sunlight.

The taller windshield was a huge plus today. Will be ordering one a little taller on Monday. Next up is the demo seat. My aging @ss was tired after just 300 miles today. Time to put on a bunch more miles.

Street Glide Special

No more Road King at the south range.

Gun in the wild

Featherweight in South Dakota.

Saison, a beer ... A female beer ;)

IPA... A drop of golden sun.

This is the Saison du Vin hanging out in secondary. Hydrometer told me 1.006 today and it began at 1.064 a couple weeks ago. Calculator claims that ought to finish around 7.5 percent ABV. After racking to secondary, the air lock took off again. This is likely to finish pretty dry.

Another new addition.

This time it is one I should never have sold in the first place.

The 108 degree Saison for Book Club

Is about to start chillin'.

More Pre-64 Goodness

This time it is a .30-06 featherweight. Made in 1957. If they built roughly (and if the records displayed at Proofhouse are accurate) the same number each month, it would be a late winter / early spring build. Brings the total to four. One each in .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield featherweights and plain old model 70. Gratuitous poor quality mobile phone pics included.

Tonight's Project

First time kegging. Let us see what sort of challenges this provides.

Today's Pocket Load

Sans cash and keys.

WR Case

Look at what I got.

Hoover Tactical

These guys have an awful nice indoor range. I used it with a friend for the first time yesterday. She is somewhat new to handguns. She rented a glock 17. I brought a laser-equipped glock 31, a sig m11-a1 and a smith m&p 45c.

She is a big fan of the sig and the laser. Also, she is a fan of 9 mm and 357 sig. Not so much a fan of the compact 45. Next time I will tote a laser-equipped sig and a couple wheel guns.

Big smiles all around.

Gratuitous crappy iPad pic.

Happy Friday

Deere, nothing runs like a

Herd West Coast IPA

Great River Brewery

The west coast IPA is pretty tasty.

Guess where I am...

Cold beer in Tuscaloosa

Dry Hopping

That's interesting.

http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2012/12/12/interesting-paper-on-dry-hopping/

What I did today

Irish stout moved to secondary. Plinian Legacy bottled. Vandal Eyes brewed and in primary. All extract kits from Northern Brewer. Three more extract kits and then we will try a grain recipe. Oh yeah, washed bottles and took the labels off a few additions to the bottle family.

More gear

The new brew pot is pretty spiffy.

The Happy Birthday Homey Wheat

Is in the bottle.

We'll call this one ...

School's Out Stout. First one off the kitchen stove and on the burner. Note to self, self, do not walk away when it is hotter than 190. It will approach 212 in a hurry.

Bru Burner

Damn speedy is all I can say.

Impatient I am

Dundalk Irish Heavy that has only been in the bottle for a week.

I had expected flat and somewhat nasty but it is not bad at all. It will be so much better with age.

Secondary, secondary, bottle

Time marches on.
Dundalk is bottled.
Kelly's homey wheat for her birthday is in secondary.  It was honey wheat until auto correct made it homey wheat. Now homey wheat it is.
Plinian Legacy is now in secondary as well.

We might have a problem

Two in primary. One in secondary. Four more on deck.

Honey weizen

Happy birthday Kelly.

IPA

Three weeks after bottling.

I have become enamored of the bitter and the hops. So glad summer is on the way.

That day again

What did we learn today? We learned that a lid will make a liquid come to a boil faster. It will also prevent you from seeing it before it overflows the vessel. We also learned that a razor blade is an essential cleaning tool when scraping burnt muck back off a ceramic cook top.

Oh bother.

What day is it?

Gun

Just because all beer and no bang makes Dan a dull boy.

And, that is how many years old I will be in a few days.

Bottled

Started with five gallons in the primary fermenter. By the time it is bottled, the yield is about 4.25 gallons or 85%. Odd that, the bottling bucket said it had a little more than 4.5 gallons in it. Guess I had best check the graduation marks on it and the primary fermenter.

Used the last ten caps left over from a bottling event many years ago and began on the caps acquired at about the same time. They seem to be working pretty well so far.

One other interesting note. The refractometer tells me (~1.035) that it is nowhere near the FG I am looking for but the hydrometer tells me (~1.013) I am spot on. It appears that the refractometer is not a good way to check specific gravity in an alcohol/water mix. Next time we will use both for OG and FG measurements.

It turns out that the preceding paragraph is one big no shit Sherlock... Ferment Progress Using 18.75 Brix (corresponding to my OG of 1.078) as my starting point and 9 Brix (corresponding to my FG of 1.035) as my ending point, we arrive at an ABV of ~8.3%.

Bottling Day

Took the secondary fermenter out of the fridge about three hours before bottling time. Adding two cups of simple syrup just off the boil to the bottling bucket, letting it sit for a couple minutes and then racking onto it had the temperature in the bottling bucket around 58 F.

Let it all sit for about 10 minutes while I assembled the bottling stage, gave it a vigorous stir and commenced with the bottling.

Tasted the last little bit that didn't get bottled. A little bit sweet from the priming sugar but this one ought to be pretty tasty and will land right around 8% ABV.

Cold Crash

Never done this before. Will give it a couple days in the fridge and probably bottle on Sunday.

Anyone know if I should get it out of the fridge and let it come back to room temperature before bottling or just bottle cold and let it warm up in the bottles?

Russian Imperial Stout

This is from a bomber after a couple weeks about a month (my how time flies) in the bottle.