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The endless fermentation
Posted on January 25th, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Brewing, Beer.
I last brewed on 1/7 and have been waiting to move it into secondary fermentation for a couple of weeks; but the fermentation continues to be going strong. Finally last night the bubbling had slowed to only one every couple of seconds so I decided to move the beer.
The gravity for the batch - which had been over 1.070 to begin with - was still over 1.020 after almost three weeks in primary. The beer was so sweet that it clearly has more fermentation to go. It tasted pretty good at least but who knows how strong/sweet it’s going to be when all is said and done.
Technorati Tags: beer, homebrewing, gravity
Never one to leave well enough alone
Posted on January 23rd, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology, Photography.
So a few weeks ago I got a Canon Digital Rebel on Craig’s List. It’s a few years old but it’s new to me and I’ve been having lots of fun with it. But as soon as I see the word “firmware” I start wondering what might be out there; and sure enough, there are a couple of after-market firmware updates out there. I updated the firmware last night and the camera has all kinds of new capabilities.
Of course I haven’t even managed to figure out the native features of the thing so all I’ve really done is increased my learning curve; but such is life.
Technorati Tags: Canon, Digital Rebel, 300D, firmware, Craig’s List
Beer-B-Q
Posted on January 23rd, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Brewing, Beer.
The best times are those weekends I’m brewing and my friend Marcos is grilling. These are almost always all day sessions running from early in the morning until late night. Every time we do it it’s a blast. We also usually end up with a good crowd on hand - usually the same people: my brother-in-law James (who has been a major contributor to my brewing activities) and his girlfriend Chesley, my nephew Justin (who has a developing appreciation for good beer), my kids (who don’t mind grinding the grain) and a few others. There are some times when there are 15 people all hanging out just brewing, drinking, cooking and eating.
A few weeks ago Marcos and I started talking about doing a Beer-B-Q on a larger scale - maybe having a couple of people over to brew; as many varieties of beer as we can muster (ideally from various homebrewers that we know), more than the Brazilian meats that Marcos grills up (a couple of smokers are being discussed) and some music.
Right now we’re planning on doing this on April 14th. It still could be a little cool here in New England though but I don’t know if I want to wait until the summer to do this (not that there couldn’t be another one this summer too . . .).
Planning began this past weekend and we’ll see if we can’t pull this together. If you’re local and want to come, let me know and I’ll be sure you get the details.
Beer Reviews
Posted on January 23rd, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Beer.
Like most people that brew their own, I think my stuff is just about the best there is - and a lot of the time I’m not even blowing smoke. But there are plenty of times when I a) run out of home brew b) am looking for more variety than what I have on tap or c) want something different. I hang out with enough other beer people to have plenty of beer recommendations but I also like to check out reviews from time to time to get other ideas.
My fave site for reviews at the moment is SevenPack. What I like most about their reviews is that they are narratives that don’t use the crutch or stars or numerical ratings to talk about the beer. Each review is a well-written little story about the beer - getting it, pouring it, drinking it and enjoying it. It’s worth checking out.
Technorati Tags: beer, reviews, seven pack
New Camera
Posted on January 18th, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Misc.
I love Flickr. I post pictures every day and have great fun taking them. A few months ago I started to find that there were pictures I wanted to take that just didn’t work out; so I began thinking about a new camera.
Since I’m not that clear on the concept, I decided to get something used and so on Saturday, thanks to Craig’s List, I became the proud owner of a Canon EOS Digital Rebel. It is almost four years old so it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of newer models but considering my use and the price it was perfect.
I brought it with me on a trip to San Francisco on Sunday; and while I didn’t really get to take as many pictures as I would have liked, I did have the chance to fool around with it and l liked it very much. I can’t wait to spend more time with it.
Technorati Tags: Flickr, camera, Canon, Digital Rebel
Brew day 1-7, part 2
Posted on January 18th, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Brewing.
My beer has been fermenting for 11 days now and is not really slowing down that much. It erupted in the beginning and just keeps bubbling steadily away. My plan had been to cask it; but now I think I’ll end up kegging it instead. I’d like to be able to do it this weekend but that will depend on the fermentation.
One of the reasons I’m thinking about kegging vs. casking is that I stopped at the Firehouse brew pub in Sunnyvale on Monday. The staff there was kind enough to show me around their brewery, let me sample some of the beer that is still conditioning and showed me some of their equipment. The thing that caught my eye were a couple of 10.8 gallon stainless steel firkin.
I’ve been looking for casks (or cask alternatives) and the prices have just been too high - these though are $95 used so I think I’ll hold off on casking until I’m able to get my hands on one.
Technorati Tags: beer, brewing, Firehouse Grill and Brewery, Sunnyvale, Firkin, cask, keg
Reorganization
Posted on January 10th, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Uncategorized.
For the new year I’ve decided to clean up and reorganize my blog. I’ve created a new home for Over the River and moved my tech and media stuff over there (some of it is here too) and am keeping pevco for general stuff.
Technorati Tags: pevco, over the river
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My Mac
Posted on January 10th, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.
My MacBook Pro has been acting up for a while and it’s really starting to bother me. Back in November or December is shut down unexpectedly. I called Apple and they told me to update the firmware. I did and things went well for a week. Then it happened again. It started right up and for a month there weren’t any problems.
Then earlier this week it happened again. And again and again and again. Next Flock stopped working. Now I feel like I am living on borrowed time. I am going to have to send it back to Apple for repair I guess. Thankfully, the turn around it usually pretty quick and still have my old iBook around as a back up; but I’m not really happy.
Technorati Tags: MacBook Pro, problem, shut off
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Brew Day - 1/7
Posted on January 8th, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Brewing.
This past Saturday was incredible - it was 70 degrees in Natick. Warm and wonderful to be sure; but also more than a little concerning for January. Nevertheless, I decided to take advantage of the warm weather to brew a batch of beer.
My original plan was to do a rye ale and I started collecting ingredients accordingly. Unfortunately, it turned out that Barleycorn was out of everything but rolled rye so I had to change my plans mid-stream. I swapped it for some pale malt and ended up with a pretty hefty grain bill - more than 40# for a ten gallon batch.
I was brewing with the usual crew (sans my brother-in-law James who had too much work to do). Marcos had been marinating some pork and he and I grabbed some aged beer, spicy sausage and chicken hearts to round out the food.
The prep and assembly went very smoothly this time; and I made a special point not to start drinking too early. Justin and his girlfriend Mari came over, as did Lais and David. (Wendy, Ben and Charlotte were on hand as well.)
The grilling and brewing also went well - up to a point; and that seems to be the way it always goes. This time there were a couple of problems. The first was that the sight glass on my boil kettle was leaking. Marcos and I managed to plug it with a bit of rubber; but it popped out when no one was around and almost five gallons of beer were lost. That really sucked.
The second was that the hose didn’t connect properly to my wort cooler for some reason. In the end we had to hold it in place - which would have been OK if the pump had worked smoothly . . . which it didn’t. Eventually it started to flow just fine though and I ended up with a very full five gallon carboy. I also have a beer with an OG - 1.070 - higher than I was expecting.
We’ll see how it is in a few weeks. I’m hoping to cask condition this batch and to pull it with the beer engine. I have a few days to figure out how to make that happen . . .
Technorati Tags: homebrewing, rye, pale malt
Reading
Posted on January 2nd, 2007 by GregPC.
Categories: Reading.
Reading is one of my favorite activities. Eighteen years ago, on my honeymoon, I set for myself the arbitrary goal of reading 10,000 pages that year. I kept careful track of everything I read but came up way short that first year. Even though I know it is silly, I can’t stop myself from keeping track of how much I’ve read in a given year. The good thing is that I can sit back and review, in chronological order, every book I’ve read since 1989.
I started by keeping a simple notebook but have tried to apply technology to my mania. Frankly, the paper and pen still works best for me. Because I realize that taking a quantitative view of reading is crazy, I’ve started to think of taking a more qualitative approach as well. So I’m going to start to write something about everything I read this year. Who knows, if it catches on with me I might not be able to stop myself. . .
At the moment, I am about three quarters of the way through Starship Troopers, but I’m not really enjoying it so much. I’ll reserve judgment until I am done. I decided to read it after seeing Joe Haldeman speak at the MIT Communications Forum. It’s been a while since I read any science fiction and I went and bought myself three just after Christmas - Starship Troopers, The Forever War and Ender’s Game. My queue is pretty long this year so I’m looking forward to getting through this first one.