Brett and Debbie

Planes and Beers

Got some work done on installing the radio gear in my new R/C plane,
a flying wing which will be my first powered one! I can't wait to fly
( and combat!) but I still need a battery...

I also bottled the brown ale, it was easier this time and I found
a way to fit all the bottles in one dishwasher cycle although it still
did take me a few hours all told. It still tasted a little sweet,
which I'm mildly concerned about but maybe that's some other flavor
that seems sweet or unfermentable sugar?

This is a picture of the first batch again, the color came out better in
this picture (thanks Matt!). It's getting better, I expect in a week or
so it will be ready to launch into..

R/C Plane sonic dogfighting

Now this looks fun!
It's like lazer tag for airplanes....

First Beer! Tastes Great!

Woooooooo hoo. I couldn't wait any longer to try the beer, it's been
aging in the bottle for 10 days now. I'm sure it will be better in ~2
wks but it's pretty close to a Boont Amber that is a little lighter.

It's got a nice head, the color is excellent, it's very clear, and
tastes good! I couldn't ask for more on the first one, I'm really
excited. Hopefully the rest of the 16 gallons of beer I've got in
various stages now will be as good!

How to brew

Timmeh pointed me to this neat page, which for some reason I have
failed to post until now. It is a nice description on how to brew
beer, more importantly it mentions which factors are "important" to
consider and which aren't.

www.howtobrew.com

Can hot water freeze faster than cold water?

Something we've all been dying to know, I'm sure. I've conducted at
least one experiment to this effect at a party a couple years ago..
which was unsurprisingly unconclusive. (Mostly because we had a lot to
drink and may have mixed up the hot/cold ice cubes!)

"Mpemba effect:

The Mpemba effect is the surprising phenomenon whereby hot water can,
under certain conditions, freeze faster than cold, even though it must
pass the lower temperature on the way to freezing. However, this can
be explained with evaporation, convection, supercooling, and the
insulating effect of frost."

Here's a more detailed explanation

New Beer

Next up, an IPA (India Pale Ale). I think this one will be sort of
light, I ended up making 6 gallons not 5. More beer in one batch!

Racking my 2nd batch

I racked the second batch of beer tonight, it seems to still be
fermenting slowly but it's been a couple weeks since I started
fermenting it. It tastes kind of sweet, so I'll try to up the
temperature a little and let it go longer. Hope that's right.. but the
racking wasn't too hard. Cleaning that carboy sure was tough though!

Beerday Birthday

Here's a nice shot of the cool cake Debbie made for my birthday, she
always makes a splash with the fancy design! Great one, Deb!

And here's a shot of my "brewery" in storage with the first batch
aging, patiently. Or rather it's patient and I'm not, I'm dying to
know if it will be any good or not.

Birthday

Yet another birthday, they seem to come faster and faster now! We
went walking around (with my new hiking staffs) on the ice to get
some Thai food and get a video (latest Buffy episodes.. fun!). We also
bottled my first beer. I got 8 6-packs out of it, and on tasting it
I'm not much impressed. I've been told it needs a couple weeks to age
which makes a big difference, I hope so! Perhaps using more real
grains instead of malt extract would improve things, or maybe I need
to filter my water? I'll ask some homebrew experts to give their
opinion, but I'll keep my fingers firmly crossed for now.

Also I'm getting ready to pick out a radio control plane to fly with
the guys at work! This will be my first powered plane, but I will be in
good company to learn to fly it.

The ice melted just in time for church last night and work today.

Ice Storm!

What a day in Portland, we're in the middle of an ice storm! This
isn't the first time I've had an ice storm on my birthday, quite a few
times when I was growing up I canceled parties because of snow/ice.
Maybe I'll post pictures later..

Saturn's Rings, up close via Cassini

Not to be left out, the spacecraft Cassini has a beautiful shot of Saturn's rings..
up close from Dec. 12th 2004. This is pretty neat...

Titan!

Ever wondered what the surface of Titan (Saturn's largest moon) looks like? The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft and the Huygens probe finally transmitted the first images! Here's a quick view of the first ground shot I saw...

Book on homebrew..

If I've inspired you to consider brewing I reccomend browsing the
bible of homebrew: "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing". It's
cheap, easy to read and tells you what you need to know without too
much info, then elaborates as you want to learn more. It is excellent.

Just to put this out of people's minds.. (Andrew, Timmeh..) if you're
really interested in brewing don't let the thought of needing to build
your own temperature controller stop you, temperature is not that
important! Really, just leaving it at room temperature is fine, even
with the daily fluctuations and such, from what I read. The way I
heard it explained making beer is a "weakest link" kind of thing, not
perfection related. For example not sanitizing well or not sealing the
fermenter properly could cause serious problems but boiling the wort
for 60 mins vs 65 minutes or letting it ferment at 70deg instead of
65deg probably doesn't make a lick of difference practically speaking.
I had the same thought but the reality is that other aspects are much
more important...

Fun in the Snow

Debbie and I did some snowshoeing this weekend on Mt. Hood with Matias
(who inspired me to home brew )and Jen, what a blast! It really was
beautiful, although the traffic coming back from the mountain on
Sunday night wasn't so nice. But the beer we stopped and had at Mt.
Hood brewpub while the traffic dissipated was very nice!

Unfortunately I tweaked my knee again, so this time I'm going back to
Dr. Rask to see what is going on .. this is taking forever to heal and
seems very easy to injure. Perhaps I need to do more exercises to
strengthen it or something, I am getting exercise but trying to keep
stress off the knee.. perhaps that is the wrong approach?

Status update on the brown ale

I just put a regular fermentation lock on the brown ale last night,
instead of the funny blow-off tubing. It's still fermenting slowly but
I've let it get to room temperature (~60degreesF) in the house which
slows it down but may make the beer clearer. I didn't notice any
fermentation bubbles in the first batch although I didn't take the
time to sit and watch it for long. I may try to do a specific gravity
reading tonight and again in a day or two to see if it's really
finished fermenting. It's been about 10 days or so and it should be
getting close, even at the 60deg fermentation temperatures.

Go nut brown!

The brown ale is fermenting nicely, in our "spare" fridge that's off..
gurgling away.

Brown Ale beer next up!

Another productive day of brewing, trying batch number 2 before the
first one is even done fermenting. Debbie is excited about this one,
it should be her kind of beer! I've had several requests for a
nut-brown type so I hope this one fits the bill.. I also used some
grain (and extract) this time, so it's a slightly more advanced
recipe. This one is supposed to be ready fast, we'll see I guess.

I bought a couple pieces of equipment, a funnel & blow-off tube, for
fermenting in the glass carboy this time. Pretty easy, but messy to
get the beer in there even with the funnel!

Here's a couple shots of beermaking:

Pictures of brewing

Here's a couple pictures from boiling the first batch of beer. The
first picture is adding the final quantity of hops at the end of the
wort boil, then straining into the fermenter.

This morning I added the yeast when the wort was cool enough, but then
I didn't stir it at all - just sprinkled the yeast on top. I got
nervous and stirred it this afternoon to aerate it a bit, perhaps I
shouldn't have because of the risk of contamination. I probably should
have heeded the advice of this guide I'm reading.. "Relax. Don't
Worry, have a homebrew." but I hope it will turn out ok. I'll know in
a month or so. Now to plan the next beer while this stuff ferments!

Let the brewing begin!

Happy New Year folks. I got a jump on my new year's resolution
already, I started brewing a batch of beer last night! (My resolution
is to brew beer.) I got a kit with the gear from the nice folks at
mainbrew.com over in Hillsboro and am making an Amber Ale with fresh
hops. I'm still trying to figure out the details, but it wasn't too
hard - I started at 8pm and had things cleaned up by 11:00. Not too
bad. I hope it turns out!

Of course now the waiting starts. I'll need to wait ~1 wk in the
primary fermenter and then a couple weeks in the secondary fermenter,
then a week or so in the bottles before I can drink it. Whew. I bet
I'll make at least another batch in that time? I wonder if I can wait
that long. I better start drinking more beer so I have some bottles
available though, anyone have some bottles you're willing to donate
(no screw caps)?