Friday, February 29th, 2008
Today was another busy day. I spent a good majority of the day organizing things online. I would tell you what they are, but I have this thing about telling people my secrets. Oh well. I will say that I find it simply amazing that I am able to wake up every morning of my life and work on the computer for at least eight hours straight. Mind you, those are the days I have nothing to do. Oh, I just love looking at the clock as it reads 3PM and realizing that I have been sitting here since 7AM.
As I get older, I find myself focusing on my “physical” self more than I used to. I always try to sit up straight in my chair, so I don’t get a bad posture, like I have been warned about when I was a kid. I also recognize that I need exercise these days. When I say need, I mean “need.” I mean, I am in good shape, but as anyone gets older, I think they become more aware of these things. I also feel my eyes going to hell. When I was a kid, I used to pride myself on not wearing glasses. Well, the years of staring at this monitor has taken its toll, I’m afraid. Last year, I bought computer glasses to help take the strain off my eyes. These days, I find myself having to focus a heck of a lot more. I can actually feel my eyes getting tired. People say that you should get up every so often to give your eyes a break. They say that you should look out the window every once in a while so your eyes can focus on something else, other than your computer screen. I do that, but I am just hoping that one day I will make enough money to pay someone to do my work for me as I sit in a chair behind them, telling them what to do.
So, what’s new in life…I guess it’s just day to day stuff. As I work, the cats take their turns using my lap as their bed. I am not working on adding any more websites to my portfolio…well, I had to pop a new one in there, I just couldn’t help myself. This is the year of marketing. I haven’t focused on that portion of the business all that much in the past few years, so it might be something I should do to boost the $$$. I believe I can do a very good job with that in the next ten months.
I also have been making beer, if you haven’t noticed. I think it’s a pretty rewarding thing to do. Paul came over to pick up ten bottles for a party he is having tomorrow. He is going to get back to me with the consensus. I hope he likes them.
Since I have been in college, I have been looking for the perfect place to live. Where we are living now isn’t perfect, by any meaning of the word. As my mother would say, we have decided to hate it. It’s painful to realize that, but it’s true. I have learned that it’s pretty useless looking on the internet for that perfect town. All it takes is one lousy picture of a town to ruin everything. On to the next perfect town with that one lousy picture, and so on. I think the only way I am going to make it is to get an “anchor” house somewhere up north, with another smaller home in the heat for weekends in the Winter. I have also learned that the perfect town may not even exist anymore. Back in the day, there was a quiet little main street somewhere in Indiana that you could walk up and down for the rest of your life. Now, you have to worry about tornadoes and the Wal-Mart they are putting up at the end of the block. You might think I’m kidding, but look around. The most pristine places are very unaffordable. So the quest goes on.
On Monday, Laura and I are making a trip to Washington, CT. We are going to have lunch at the Mayflower Inn. A few years ago, my mother got us a gift certificate for the Inn that we used for a perfect Valentine’s Day dinner. It was one of the nicest places on earth. We were thrilled with the little antique town, but it was kind of dark on our way in. We really want to see it during the day. You would be surprised what the Connecticut hills have to offer, for a price. I’ll let you know how it goes. YouTube certainly needs a video or two of Washington, CT.
It just started snowing. Laura proposed another walk in the snow. Who am I to say no? I have a feeling I will be putting my boots on at midnight again. I do want to say that I am getting a little tired of the snow. Every time I think the driveway will be clear for a few days, it snows. I admit that it keeps things exciting, but enough already. It’s been a snowy Winter. The next week looks warmer with the temperatures above freezing. Also, the sunset is much later now, so that January depression has lifted. Now, the sun is going down close to 6PM. In March, we set the clocks ahead, so that should be fun. I am going to try to really soak up the seasons this Spring, Summer and Fall. I think they are worth it.
Wow, what a post. This might actually be what blogs are for. I guess I have to write some real stuff when I am not busy buying things and writing about them. Hey look…it’s another cat on my lap. I think they are doing laps now. This one is Sexy Boo.
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Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Brewing the Coopers Stout gave my an opportunity to use my new bottle caps and capper. It also gave me an opportunity to use some glass bottles and eventually taste some more Stout. I like Stout.
Yesterday was the third day of the hydrometer reading 1.010. That means bottling is ready. I gave it five days. They say that if you let fermented beer sit too long, it can go bad. I had to get this stuff in the bottles.
I also took this pretty picture for you. Overall, I got 63 bottles out of the 23 liters I brewed. I have no idea how it’s going to taste, but hope it’s good. The capping was relatively simple and the capper worked great. The only issue was that I needed to adjust the height every so often, because some of the bottles were different sizes. That was really no big deal though. I would say the whole process took about an hour.
I am going to drink some of this beer before I go ahead with the Coopers Irish Stout. Firstly, I am almost out of bottles, second, I am running out of room to put them and thirdly, it’s just ridiculous having that much beer in the house.
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Tonight, I cracked open my first real home brewed beer. It’s the Coopers Australian Lager. I know I have told you many times that I don’t like light beers, and I still don’t. I have to say though, this beer ain’t have bad.
I poured it into my favorite beer mug and took a sip. I was surprised to see that it tasted just a bit better than the day I bottled it (two weeks ago…to the second). I was also surprised to see that it actually tasted like real beer. Laura took a sip too. We both agree that it tastes like Corona. Stick a lime in this thing and sit by Rob’s pool on a hot August day. There you go.
Looks pretty good, right? Two big parts of my beer drinking experience are the bottle the beer comes out of and the glass I am pouring it into. This looks like the real deal.
Today, I read that I should bottle my next batch…Coopers Stout, between 4-7 days, and after the hydrometer has a consistent reading for two days in a row. Today is the fourth day and the hydrometer read “1.010″ both yesterday and today. This batch is brewing faster than the lager partly because of the type of beer and partly because of the warmer temperature I am keeping it at.
With the hydrometer readings the way they are, I bottled one beer today. I wanted to make sure my capper was working properly for the remainder of them. Everything worked fine. I am keeping it stored upside down, just to see if there are any leaks. If not, I think tomorrow is the day to bottle them.
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
I mentioned earlier that Paul gave me a bunch of beer bottles. That was very nice of him. Well, it’s been a long afternoon cleaning them out. I have a sore back.
In order to really clean them out, I first soaked them in bleach water in the sink. That made the house nice and smelly. Then, I rinsed them out and scrubbed the outside to remove the labels. After that, I put them all in the dishwasher. It took two dishwasher loads, but they are all done and smell great.
Since I now have about eighty bottles, I thought the best place to store them was on an unused shelf in the corner cabinet. That way, that are off the beaten path. I even took a picture for you…
Believe it or not, this is all of them. It doesn’t look like that many, but it is.
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
I have been keeping this batch of beer at a steady 25C. That is warmer than the last batch. When you ferment beer at a higher temperature, there seems to be more activity down in the big jug.
I learned this today. Today, Paul was kind enough to bring over about seventy bottles he has been saving up. I am cleaning them out right now. While he was here, I was showing him the beer kit. As I was showing him, I noticed that the foam inside the jug was touching the inside of the lid. It reminded me of making good bread…it rises real nice. Well, I knew I was going to have to do something about this because it was only going to get worse in the next few days.
After Paul left, I took another look at the fermenting beer and was shocked to see bubbles coming right out of the water seal thingy.
I knew I needed to do something before liquid found its way to the floor. I took a stroll downstairs to look through my tube inventory and found some good stuff I had been saving for…well, nothing. I brought it back upstairs and stretched out the end by heating it up.
As you can see from the picture, this is going to be good beer.
After I hooked it up, I had to use my belt to hold it to the side of the tank. Then, I grabbed a five gallon bucket from the basement and stuck the other side of the tube into it. Now, as it drips, it won’t make a mess.
I love it when things ferment like this.
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Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Yes, it’s been a few days since I received my Coopers Stout in the mail. I have been very excited to get the ingredients together to start the brewing process. This time, I will be brewing a beer I actually want to drink, as opposed to the Lager I just bottled.
As you can see, this beer is much darker than the last. This is the regular Coopers Stout. I am hoping it is good.
This is all the ingredients getting mixed up together with the boiling water.
The brew is supposed to be between 21C and 27C. It always starts off good like this, but eventually gets cooler. Now, I am keeping it next to the pellet stove, wrapped in a towel for a toasty 26C. At this temperature, the fermentation should be complete in about five days.
This is just a photo to show you how dark this stuff is.
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Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
The UPS guy came today and dropped off my Coopers Stout beer kit this afternoon. Now, if you remember, I was forced to get the regular Stout, instead of the Irish Stout because the company was out of the Irish Stout. The guy said something about St. Patty’s Day coming up or something like that. I guess that means people are out there brewing Irish Stout without me. I feel kind of lonely.
Anyway, I figured the next best thing would be the regular Stout. Now, just for your information, I will compare regular Stout with Irish Stout. Regular Stout is like drinking from a garden hose and Irish Stout is like swimming naked in a hot spring in Iceland. Needless to say, Irish Stout is much better. In order for the regular stout to be good, I am going to have to mix it up with some other stuff. Since this is only my second batch of home brew, I will make this one the regular way. After this and then the Irish Stout, I am going to get a little crazy.
Here is what I got today. The yeast is under the cap on the can.
Also, I am going to need those bottle…FAST.
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Sunday, February 17th, 2008
I picked up a bottle of my home brew this morning to notice that it was clear. I mean, it may have some color to it…I wouldn’t know, the bottle is brown. What I am saying is that the cloudiness has disappeared. Actually, I think it all settled to the bottom.
The bottles seem to be fully carbonated at this point because they all feel hard. I can squeeze them just with my fingertips. This Tuesday will be one full week since I bottled them. Next Tuesday will be the full two weeks I need to let them ferment before I am allowed to crack one open to try. I really can’t wait.
So far, I only have about ten glass bottles saved up. I need about thirty more before I can make my next batch of beer…the Stout. I have the capper and the caps, so all I need is the actual beer ingredients and the bottles.
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Saturday, February 16th, 2008
I told you I ordered a bunch of stuff this week.
A few days ago, my new Super Agata Bench Capper arrived. Along with it was my 288 beer bottle caps. Well, I guess you can use them for any kind of capping, but I am going to use them for beer. I considered getting the hand capper, but for some reason, I got this one. I am not sure why. I think the hand cappers are good too.
Here is a photo of the Super Agata Bench Capper…
It looks like a car jack, doesn’t it? I tried it already on one of my seven saved bottles. It did a nice job. We’ll see how it does on a bottle full of my home brew.
Here are the caps…
Nothing special there. They also sold caps that absorb the oxygen. I decided against them for some reason or another. All I was looking for was regular bottle caps that would hold my freshly brewed stout in the bottle.
As I just mentioned, I only have seven glass bottles so far. When I finish the beer in the fridge, I think I will have twelve. Good thing Laura’s friend at work just bought her a six-pack of Guinness in bottles. Now, I will have eighteen. That’s not nearly enough, but it is a good start, considering I just started collecting the bottles last week.
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Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Well, the day finally came. I was supposed to wait between four and seven days for the fermentation to stop with my home brew. It’s day seven and it just about stopped. How do I know it stopped? Well, the bubbles became few and far between. Also, the hydrometer reading was between 1.008 and 1.010. That’s the ideal reading for home brew with the type of sugar I used. If I had used regular white sugar, I would’ve had to have a reading of less than 1.006. Why did it take the full seven days? Because the temperature wasn’t as warm as I would’ve liked. The warmer the temperature, the faster the fermentation.
This is a photo of the hydrometer at work. It’s hard to tell the reading, but it’s about 1.009. After I found out that the brew was ready to be bottled, I had to add the carbonation drops to each bottle. All carbonation drops are is sugar balls. You can use regular sugar or these types of drops. The company that made the brew kit likes to make things easy for you. I had thirty 740ml bottles, so each bottle took two carbonation drops.
This is the adhesive thermometer. This tells me that the temperature is OK to bottle. The only reason the temperature is this high is because I had the tub sitting in front of the pellet stove. It’s hard to keep it this warm in the Winter.
This is what you call a “little bottler.” It helps to bottle the beer. You don’t really need one of these, but I guess it does help not make too much of a mess. It sticks right in the tap. Also, it’s imperative that you have a tablecloth like this. It helps with the bottling.
Me starting to bottle…
…and me bottling.
This is a photo of all thirty bottles full of beer. I have to wait another seven days with the bottles at 21C-27C and then another seven days at room temperature. I can then drink them. They say that if I wait up to three months, the flavor will get better and the bubbles will get smaller. We’ll see.
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