Messages

1246

The Pub / Re: The Wall

« on: December 02, 2010, 02:46:52 pm »

Ah, probably was the angle from my less-than-stellar seats (I think I saw Bob Uecker in front of me).  I stand corrected.

I missed the shows in '80 as well.  Probably the biggest regret of my life.  In high school, it would have been a 3 hr drive to Long Island so I bailed.

Interesting Floyd tidbit.  My high school class ('81) voted Comfortably Numb our junior prom song, but the school wouldn't let us use it.  So we got some Dan Fogelberg POS instead.

I can relate.  I nominated "Eve of Destruction" but the administration wouldn't it be voted on.  It kinda runs in the family, my son wanted to name the school Mass choir Masstallica.  That didn't fly either.     Kids need to be taught to have attitude.

Rock on!!

Paul

1247

The Pub / Re: What's the Weather Like Where You Are?

« on: December 02, 2010, 02:37:07 pm »

So, yeah, it's 29F now, but milk is $1.99 and gas is $2.89.

That certainly makes it all worth while!

Not rubbing it in.  When one lives 2000 miles from the nearest continent one has a tendency to lose track of what everyone else is up to.  Just curious.  It's hard to imagine having to give up brewing due to cold weather...

If I want snowy peaks I drive up Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa.  Their peaks (nearly 14,000 ft.) got down to 25°F last night. We'll be getting our first snow soon.

Give up brewing because of cold weather?  Heck no!  This is when I do almost all my brewing.  It gets too dang hot in the summer here in Iowa to brew much of anything without temp control and my wife has told me fairly emphatically that I will not buy anymore refrigeration equipment.

I haven't found a day yet that was too cold to brew.   Don't ask about fuel efficiency though (Is 10lbs of propane too much for 5 gallons of beer?).  

Paul

1248

The Pub / Re: What's the Weather Like Where You Are?

« on: December 02, 2010, 02:32:04 pm »

It's 27F here and cloudy.  Suppose to snow tomorrow.  Good ole winter in Iowa.  I like it.

I could have done without waking up to 16F yesterday.  54F on Sunday and "feels like temp" of -1 yesterday.  Too early in Dec. for those temps.

At least everyone's allergies are finally done for the year, at least here in Des Moines.   

Paul

1249

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Coincidence?

« on: November 29, 2010, 02:57:11 pm »

Cool, I can spread those out. Sure makes the drive go by easy though. Wonder if the family will be as entertained as I am next time we trek to Grandma's house......

I think since they subjected me to 9 hours (round trip) of Christmas carols over Thanksgiving, they could deal with 4 hours of beer talk.   

1250

The Pub / Re: kids need to learn the important stuff early....

« on: November 23, 2010, 10:40:11 am »

All 4 of my kids can pour a beer from the tap or bottle.  My youngest is 10 and only my son (the oldest) has any interest in tasting any of it.

It used to raise some eyebrows when Mike would stand there and describe the properties of the beers on tap to the grown ups.  Now they all just realize that he helps in the brewery.

I used to worry that all my equipment would disappear around the end of his senior year for a month while he brewed the beer for the graduation kegger but he has assured me it would be too much work to do that.  8^)  He never really said there wouldn't be a kegger but I'll cross one bridge at a time.

Like many others, my folks let us have a beer or mixed drink at home with them.  The rules were always, if you have a drink you stay home, if you need to go somewhere you don't drink.  Our parish priest finds it ironic that I'll share a taste of whatever I'm drinking with someone who can't decide on a beer but I won't drink from the cup at Mass.  He doesn't get that it's different, at least to me.  As for the kids?  I'll never be worried that my kids will start a drinking problem based on the wine they use at Mass.

Paul

Paul

1251

The Pub / Re: Favorite movies

« on: November 17, 2010, 01:34:47 pm »

Noticed "Wizard of Oz" mentioned at least once.  Anybody seen that they want to do a remake?  How awful will that be...

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/warner-bros-wants-robert-zemeckis-for-wizard-of-oz-remake-based-on-original-script/

Watched Alice in Wonderland a couple weekends ago. Thought it was entertaining.

Isn't there a thing (urban myth?) about starting Pink Floyd'sDark Side of the Moon and the Wizard of Oz at the same time?

You have to start Dark Side of the Moon just as the yellow brick road start to change to color.  From there on the music tracks pretty close to action in the movie.

Paul

1252

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: And the "Learning" continues....

« on: November 16, 2010, 02:47:07 pm »

Just make sure you have only one checklist per beer.  I can't count the number of times I've put the wrong ingredient in the first brew of the day because I picked up the wrong sheet.

Just last week I was making a Belgian Ale and a American Wheat.  I had just added the first hop addition to Belgian and measured out the rest of the hop adds when I suddenly convinced myself I was using the wrong hop schedule.  Luckily I have been through this so many times I forced myself to step back and recall what I had just added, pickup the printout and reread it (yes out loud) only to realize I was using the correct list.  I almost convinced myself to screw up. 

And no, I never drink while I brew.  Some days I think it would help.

Welcome to the club.  8^)

Paul

1253

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Odd precipitate

« on: November 09, 2010, 09:13:22 am »

I think you're seeing yeast building up on the ridges inside the carboys.  If it broke up and settled out after you tapped the carboy it probably isn't "ropey" in the infected sense.  Some of my beer get quite a bit of yeast hanging on the ridges inside the carboy from time to time.  I don't think you have anything to worry about.

As stated earlier, picture would be helpful.

Paul

1254

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Sam Adams Winter Classics

« on: November 08, 2010, 03:22:00 pm »

Back when I was starting out I picked 2 of the winter sampler packs from SA.  I liked all the beers in them except the Cranberry Lambic.  I decided it wasn't worth drinking two of those just to get bottles. 

Maybe I need to try one again.

Paul

1255

Equipment and Software / Re: Refractometers

« on: November 08, 2010, 01:30:43 pm »

How well was your wort mixed?  It might have pockets or layers of different volumes of sugar (for a awhile at least).  Make sure it's stirred well before you take a reading.

For boiling wort I remove some using the dropper that came with my refractometer (I know you said you lost yours).  As soon as I suck the wort up, I cover the open end of the dropper with my finger and plunge the bulb into a glass of cold water.  Then I take my readings.  It seem to work for me but YMMV.

Paul

1256

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: refrigerator versus chest freezer

« on: November 05, 2010, 12:43:43 pm »

I can't speak for others but in my case the chest freezer works great for 4 cornies and it was pretty cheap.  Also easy to put a collar on it to mount taps and easy to add an external temp controller to.

Before I started kegging I had a small dorm fridge to keep bottles in.  Basically the same reasons.  Cheap, easy and low maintenance.  Sold it after we replace the fridge in the kitchen.  Brought the old kitchen frdige downstairs with dreams of using it to lager.  Last time I looked in it, it was full of pop and juice boxes.   

Paul

1257

The Pub / Re: Go

« on: November 05, 2010, 12:34:23 pm »

Kinda makes you wonder what she thought "reset" meant, doesn't it?

Paul

1258

The Pub / Re: Bathroom Humor

« on: November 05, 2010, 09:37:28 am »

Thanks for the chuckle.  I needed that.

I'm raising witty and sarcastic children too.  He'll be rewriting song lyrics soon enough.    Glad there's more of us out their.

Paul

1259

The Pub / Re: Election Day in the USA!!!

« on: November 04, 2010, 09:28:21 am »

Well, I'm all for lower taxes.

Question 1 on our MA ballot was to repeal the sales tax on alcoholic bev's which the Legislature added last year to the existing excise tax we already pay.  Revenue went up as planned, but a large percentage of people were going north to New Hampshire and Vermont where there is NO tax on alcohol because liquor stores in NH & VT are state run where all revenue goes to the state.   http://wwwYesTo1.com
The tax revenue collected was dedicated to fund treatment for those with substance abuse.  http://www.NoOn1MA.com

I voted along with 52% of voters elected Tuesday to repeal the additional sales tax.

Iowa used to have State owned and operated liquor stores.  They had really creative signs on the stores which consisted of 3 foot high navy blue backgrounds and 2.5' white, block letters that said LIQUOR STORE.  8^) 

They also had a poster on the wall by the door that showed a bottle used as a graph to demonstrate how much of each bottle was product and how much was tax.  Under 10% of each bottle was product cost, the rest was various taxes.  At least they were honest about it.  The State still runs the distribution (out of a warehouse in Ankeny) but the stores are all retail now.  Now we can go to various retailers pay anywhere from $16 to $28 for the exact same bottle of BV, from the exact same distributor.

I'm glad the elections are over and look forward to the 2 or 3 weeks before the 2012 races start.

Paul

1260

The Pub / Re: Distilling

« on: November 02, 2010, 08:49:59 am »

As has been said before, Weizz has a good point and one that think we have all dealt with in terms of our hobby.  I don't brew because it's cheap.  It's the first myth I dispel when speaking with people who are considering getting into brewing.  Every hobby has costs. 

No one has ever been able to cost justify golf to me.  Hundreds of dollars (minimum) in equipment, $50, $75+ every time you play and most golfers leave the course frustrated and/or upset about their game.  If someone can show me how that is economical I'll be impressed.  The difference is, no one who plays golf cares about the cost, they care about the game.

It doesn't matter what your hobby is.  Priced #1 Grade tight grained oak lately?

If distilling is ever legal, I'll be there with my kids giving it a try.  If not, well, the liquor store is just down the street.

Paul