Green Thumb

We planted a little garden this spring and it is starting to take off. With our yard it is tough to find a sunny area, so we went with the easiest place to plant, which was under our deck. This has made the peas and broccoli a little hit or miss as to how well they are growing. The peas are kinda good while the broccoli is not doing as well.

The really good thing about being under the deck is that I can trellis my hops to the deck above. I have 2 cascade plants, a goldings and a willamette planted. The cascades are growing great and the goldings just started climbing the string 2 days ago. Both the english varients (goldings and willamette) have been slow going though so far.

Overall it is very rewarding to go outside each day and see the progress they have made each day. My son freaked me out by telling me that he saw some deer out sniffing at them last night though. They are not something that deer would want to eat, but then again deer aren't the smartest creatures either.

Here's some pics of my hops. I'll post some more from time to time.

2 months?

I didn't realize it had been almost 2 months since I posted anything over here until I was helping a friend set her blog up with Facebook. That is one of the effects of Facebook and twitter though. I post lots of short updates and it eliminates or makes redundant what i would normally blog about.

Lots of things have been going on in the last few months. The express tour is as follows:

• Heidi got a job. She works at Zio Johnnos here in Coralville. She doesn't seem to hate it, so that is a bonus.
  
  
• I got a motorcycle (and accompanying license). It's cheap, old, small, but also fun and easy to ride. Looking for a sissy bar so Heidi isn't afraid to get on. Syd LOVES to ride.
  
  
• Brewed my third batch of the year. It's a hefeweissen, a german wheat beer, that came out soooo good. Just waiting for it to carb.
  
  
• We are getting ready for our summer vacation out east. We had wanted to go to Washington on the way out, but it looks like time may be against us. We'll see. Should be a lot of fun anyways. My 20th class reunion is going on while we are out there.
  
  
• We(I) planted a small garden under our back deck. We have broccoli, peas, watermellons and pumpkins planted. The broccoli and peas are doing pretty good.
  
  
• I also planted hops rhizomes along the edge so I can trellis them up to the deck above. I have 2 cascade plants going along with a goldings and a willamette that finally came up. It will be fun to watch them grow up the trellises this summer. I don't care how much of a yield I get as long as I get enough for at least 2 (one cascade and one english) batches of beer.

Anyways, that's all for now. Hopefully I won't be another 2 months between posts.

Quote

Posting this so I don't lose it. Just quotable, not rogue:

"When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. "It's all right" we whisper, "I'm here, I love you." and we lie: "I'll never leave you." For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad." - Neil Gaiman from Hellraiser #27, "Hold Me"

Second All-grain Batch

I will get to blogging about things other than brewing soon. However, one of the things that I use this blog for is as sort of an electronic, wherever-I-may-be, brewing log. That means that today I will be writing all about my latest batch.

After a very late start, I got to brewing again today. I had an Irish Red recipe kit that I had ordered at the same time as the first batch's kit. Irish Red is typically red, malty, lightly hopped with caramel notes. After tasting the wort that I took out for testing, I have to say that it should be just that!

I started off the day grabbing some water over at the HyVee in Iowa City. Coralville's water has a history of being pretty funky and I like how the water I used last time worked, so I got some more today. I also had to get a digital thermometer because of the fun I had with temps last time. So off to the Coraville HyVee liquors this time since they have about the only brewing supplies around here. I still used the big graduated thermometers so I could see when I was getting in the ball park and while I was cooling the wort, so they still came in handy. I also picked up some amber dry malt extract in case I did not hit my expected gravity out of the mash.

Everything went fairly well mashing. I used a little too much water I think. The mash tun is still too big too, so my temp didn't hold as well as I'd like. I only hit about (1.035ish) 60% out of the mash, so I had to use a pound of dry malt extract to get back to my target (1.043) gravity.

I also had to play with the hop bill some as well. Once again this kit had my hops too high for the style, so I held out the Willamette (4.4% AA) bittering hops until 55 minutes and held back the flavoring/aroma E.K. Goldings (5.4% AA) until 15 minutes left.

Also at 15 minutes left I put my new wort chiller in with the boil to sanitize it. It was a bit of a fiasco getting the hose up to my deck, but eventually everything was hooked up and right after flame out I started the hose. I cooled that down to 82 degrees in about 25 minutes. I will be adjusting my immersion chiller so it sits higher in the kettle. I will get much better cooling that way. Overall I was very pleased with my chiller's operation. I just need to watch where I have the outflow pointing next time so I don't soak my pants.

My biggest mistake this time was leaving the wort to cool those last 5-10 degrees without shielding it from the fluorescent light. It sat in the carboy, with the top stoppered, but I forgot to cover it with the dark Tshirt I use to keep light off it and forgot to shut out the fluorescent light before we left for the hockey game. It sat in the light for about 4 hours of so. I hope it will not have any ill effect. After we got home the temp was down to 76, so in went the yeast. The first bubbling has just started, so all looks good so far.

Brewing Video

Here's some video of the krausen running out the tube and the airlock once the krausen started to fall :) I wish the churning would show up when I was focused on the carboy. It's kinda cool to watch.



It's still bubbling away.

First All Grain Batch

So tonight I got a wild hair up my ass and decided enough procrastinating, I am just going to go ahead and brew this cream ale recipe. I fired up the propane burners, rinsed out the mash tun and got to it.

My recipe called for a 20 minute rest at 133, so I added my grains to roughly 3 gallons of water at 140 in a kettle. I couldn't keep temps very well all day. After 20 minutes I turned up the burner and got the mash up to about 160 and then transferred the whole thing to the mash/lauter tun. about half way through I checked temps and it was down to 145ish, so I threw in half a gallon of nearly boiling water. That brought things back up to about 155. After I drained that into the boil kettle, I sparged with 4.5 gallons at 170ish for 10 minutes. I was about 1.040 out of the mash, so I hit target! I will figure my effeciency later, but rough guess is 75%. Not too shabby for my first time out.

I noticed the hops were kinda high alpha for a low gravity cream ale, so I boosted the OG about 8-10 points with a pound of DME so my starting gravity is 1.052. Looks like it will be around 5% ABV. Strictly speaking, this and the high hops bumps it from a cream ale up to a blonde ale, but no biggy. We'll see how it turns out after fermentation :)

Notes for the future: 5 gallon (instead of 10) mash/lauter tun for normal gravity beers, better thermometers - 2 of them, a cooling system, and more planning/less spontaneity.

Overall a fun time, but makes for a late night. I am still waiting for it to cool enough to pitch my yeast. Thankfully it's cold enough outside to help me out with the cooling.

Recipe:

7# 2 row
.75# honey malt
.25# Biscuit malt

1 oz cluster hops 60 min (7.7 AA)

Wyeast 1056

25 things

The 25 things application seems FUBAR, so I am posting mine here:

1. I've been shot twice, not bad, just stupid. First time (.22) grazed me between the legs (just missing the boys, thus my children) second time a farmer shot me in the ass with rock salt, very painful.

b. I was arrested for the first time at 15. Once again not bad, just stupid. I was released with no charges.

iii. I hate fads, that's why I resisted this list thing until it had died down somewhat. In keeping with this, I will tag no one in this if the application will allow it. Since it will not, I will tag only my wife. Okay, they are totalitarian in their tagging requirements, so prepare to be tagged dammit!

17. I like to make beer. I am just starting into all-grain brewing.

xiv. I was second in my state and went to nationals for the Citizen's Bee. It's like a spelling bee only with American studies/history questions

d. All the competitions, special tests, contests, etc. that I entered in High School were primarily excuses to get out of class. I just get really competitive once I am actually in one. In the abstract I could usually care less.

8. In spite of being an avid punk/heavy metal/alternative music lover, I like James Taylor's music. I blame my parents

XX. My children are my single proudest achievement in my life

25. I am a liberal democrat but find myself drifting towards libertarianism at times

f. I think every person in America should be required to go to Boot Camp, not necessarily be in the military, God no. The lessons from Boot Camp are life altering (in a good way) however.

1a. I abhor mistreatment of the flag through negligence or apathy, but defend the right to burn the flag as a form of protest. Yes it seems a juxtaposition but really it is about respect. Don't make me knock your hat off when the flag goes by during a parade.

E(b16). I am a member of the American Legion, the American Homebrewers Association, the Democratic party, the RPGA and AMVETS

Twelve. I originally decided to become a dealer (part-time, lol) just to help my poker game. I rarely play anymore.

__. I used to have my own freelance web design business. I find that I tend to dislike clients, so no more of them, thank you.

VII. I was a paid writer for the MMO game Shadowbane as part of the Herald program.

j. I worked for the IGN network for a short time as a paid writer

9. I once did a consultant job in LA for a firm looking to bring Asian MMORPGs to the American market

1101(b2). I love the new Dr. Who (and some of the other BBC scifi series) and am working hard at fostering this in my children. I am only batting .500 so far.

cc. I met my wife on a blind date. I think I used a normal man's lifetime quota of good luck in one day that day.

23 I believe in pretty much everything; ghosts, UFOs, etc. I think people are too easily influenced to believe that they have experienced these things however. I think they are far more rare and have much different explanations than we are coming up with right now. If that doesn't make sense, I don't care because it's my believe not yours.

eighteen. I like odd sounding words and word combinations: Fuck-knuckle, Koumpounophobia, Tristadecaphobia, Irish Wristwatch, etc.

21 I am over half Irish. My mother is 3rd generation full-blooded Irish in America and my father, from what he's said, a very small part Irish. I love the Irish language: Póg ma thoin

xxii. My favorite number is 52. It has been that since I was 6, even before I knew how many cards were in a deck or could play cards.

h. I still carry my lifetime crew member card for USS Constitution and a copy of my DD214 in my wallet to this day.

25 I miss having art in my life. I used to paint and draw a lot and was even thinking about pursuing design/fine arts in college. Life just gets so full sometimes. My one surviving painting hangs above my fireplace now.