Justa Rollin’ Right Along


Just Getting Some Stuff Done Around The House

Saturday, October 25th, 2008



After I came back from this morning, I moseyed around just finishing up some stuff that needed to get done.

First and foremost, I had to make a new batch of . I am almost out of my current (Irish ). It will be horrific if I run out. I ordered the ingredients for my new batch a few weeks ago. This time, I am not messing around. I mixed things up a bit with a new recipe. Here’s what I did…I went ahead and did my thing with the . I added what I needed to add and stirred when the directions told me to stir. This time, instead of just sealing up the big jug and waiting for it to , I decided to a pot of decaf and pour it in with the rest of the mixture. I also added 100 grams of . When I was finished mixing everything together, I took a big smell. It was like I had my nose in a huge glass. Ahhhhh, the aroma of in the making.

Now, all I need to do is to find somewhere in this that remains between 70 and 80 degrees. Yeah right. Like there is anyplace that hot here. I think I am going to store the downstairs, because that is the most heated area of the . Even if the goes up and down, I think it will be ok.

Today, I also made another batch of ice cream. I decided to make traditional bean, because I haven’t made a real smooth one yet. I am very proud of myself because this batch came out very well. I believe that if you tried it, you would give me a hug. It’s intoxicating.

Later on, Laura and I went outside to hang the around the door and to trim the in front of the . She did most of the and I did all of the trimming.

, just in case you were wondering, this is what I was doing when you called.

I’ll take a picture of the another day. It’s pretty windy outside right now and I might blow away.

Since it was a great “working outside” afternoon, the decided to join us. I tapped a metal stake into the ground and put her leash around it. Laura took a bunch of pictures of her and I wanted to show you the one where she () looks the most buff.

Doesn’t she look like such a punk?

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Bottling My Home Brew

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 . 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 reading was between 1.008 and 1.010. That’s the ideal reading for home 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 wasn’t as warm as I would’ve liked. The warmer the , the faster the fermentation.

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This is a photo of the at work. It’s hard to tell the reading, but it’s about 1.009. After I found out that the 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 kit likes to make things easy for you. I had thirty 740ml , so each bottle took two carbonation drops.

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This is the adhesive . This tells me that the is OK to bottle. The only reason the 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 .

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This is what you call a “little bottler.” It helps to bottle the . 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 .

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Me starting to bottle…

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…and me .

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This is a photo of all thirty full of . I have to wait another seven days with the at 21C-27C and then another seven days at room . 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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