Topics

1

The Pub / Best tablet not made by Apple

« on: April 27, 2013, 05:42:00 PM »

All you tech savvy people, I need your help.  I need (want) a tablet but I really do not like Apple.  I've never owned an Apple product and don't want to start now, so what's my best choice.  I need it mostly for office work and wasting time on beer forums, I play no games so that doesn't matter to me.

2

Equipment and Software / Brix Hydrometer

« on: March 15, 2013, 03:54:38 PM »

A couple of years ago a pro brewer gave me a brix FG hydrometer that has sat on a shelf until yesterday.  I didn't even it read in brix until I read the scale and it said 2.8.  I'm guessing that is around 1.011 specific gravity, am I correct?

3

General Homebrew Discussion / Hops are coming up

« on: March 12, 2013, 10:34:35 AM »

My Cascades have started poking out of the ground.  It's kind of late for us down here, and I was worried they wouldn't even come back at all because of their poor health last year.  3 years of sever drought has taken it's toll, I even have cacti dying.  But they are back and looking good.

4

Questions about the forum? / staying logged in

« on: February 19, 2013, 10:00:56 AM »

For some reason I have to log in each time I visit the site from my living room computer.  I've gone to the settings and slicked the stay logged in box but that hasn't helped at all.  Any suggestions?  I don't mind spending my work time on the site but  it would be nice to be able to waste time here and drink beer at the same time.

5

General Homebrew Discussion / Homebrewer turned pro in LA(Lower Alabama)

« on: February 03, 2013, 09:14:19 AM »

http://blog.al.com/live/2013/02/inside_the_fairhope_brewing_co.html
Great article about a new brewery in Baldwin County.  It also talks about some upstart Yellowhammer brewery helping the guy out

6

General Homebrew Discussion / BJCP style standards.

« on: December 09, 2012, 03:07:32 PM »

I didn't want to get into a discussion of standards in amh0001's thread about his competition results so I started this thread.
Where and how does the BJCP come up with their style requirements?  My specific question is about French cider.  I have inlaws(and inlaws of inlaws) in France who produce cider, and cider is a very popular beverage over there, but I have never tasted a cider in France that would conform to the BJCP's description.  I've ad cider from all across France, young ones, aged ones, from Normandy, Brittany, the Loire and i don't ever remember a cider that wasn't bone dry.  when we have European friends over what they want first is a glass of my cider, it reminds them of their ciders back home.  So who in the BJCP decided that french cider should be sweet?

7

General Homebrew Discussion / AHA member survey

« on: November 07, 2012, 03:08:47 PM »

I just filled out the AHA member survey and wonder if the general membership will have a chance to see the results, or is it just the governing board that will have access?  If we can see it, is there any time frame for compiling the survey data?

8

Yeast and Fermentation / Saison Vert Dregs

« on: October 08, 2012, 07:02:54 PM »

I friend brought a keg of porter to a party at my house, and even after 6 of my kegs died nobody would drink his porter.  I think it's an extract batch that just tastes slightly off so I want to add brett and let it sit a few months.  All I have for brett are 3 bottles of Rayon(not Saison) Vert, has anybody used the dregs from it?

9

The Pub / Meetup with Euge

« on: September 21, 2012, 09:03:41 PM »

My daughter,her boyfriendish type person, and I got to have a few beers with Euge last night at the Freetail Brewery in San Antonio.  Had a great time, wish we could have hung out longer but life is what it is..

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Bluebonnet scores

« on: April 10, 2012, 05:43:09 PM »

I got my score sheets back and I'm pretty happy.  My brown ale got a 40.5 in the first round, and a 40 in the second round.  The common fault was low hop bitterness and low carbonation.  It's a British brown ale, not exactly a hop monster but that's cool.  My Belgian Ball Buster got a 36, the common fault was the amount of alcohol taste present, and I can't argue with that either.

11

The Pub / Malted barley germinating

« on: February 29, 2012, 10:00:24 PM »

I know I've had some weird topics lately but here's one more.
 A buddy gave me a bucket of grain that he had no idea what it was, might be 2 row, might be Carapils.  A pro brewer friend of mine couldn't help so I declined to brew with it and forgot about it for 3 or 4 years.  recently I found it and mixed it with bird seed, but the birds don't really like it either.  I feed the birds in some old flower pots mounted on a tree stump, and last week I re-filled the pots with soil and planted bulbs.  Today I look out and all the bulbs have been pushed out of the soil and and there are green sprouts growing.  I dug some up and its the alleged malted barley germinated and growing in thick mats in my flower pots. 
So how could malted barley sprout again?  This is really gonna be messy because I've tossed that grain all over my back yard with the bird seed.

12

The Pub / Drunken bugs already

« on: February 25, 2012, 06:22:16 PM »

Today I'm sitting under a shade tree, it's 70F but windy, and I see a black floater in my glass.  I figure it's just everyday flying debris but then I notice it's doing the backstroke.  I finish that one, pour another and after 5 minutes I see 3 of the drunken swimmers in my glass.  It's way too early to have to put up with these evil creatures.

13

The Pub / Compact fluorescent bulbs

« on: February 07, 2012, 03:34:27 PM »

What kind of experiences have you guys had with these?  I've been using them pretty much since they came out for most of my fixtures, but I haven't found that they last any longer than incandescent bulbs.  Since we can only recycle our light bulbs twice a year I get an accurate count of how many I use so I know they don't last the years the advertising says they will.  In the last 4 months I've replaced 4, and I only need 26 bulbs for the whole house.  I average taking 3 or 4 to be recycled every 6 months, that's too many.  I've even changed some fixtures but that hasn't helped.

14

The Pub / A cautionary tale

« on: January 28, 2012, 04:53:26 PM »

I spent the morning helping my neighbor pull all the sheet rock,appliances, toys, etc from his garage.  He was lucky that when he set it on fire there was no real structural damage, only smoke damage.  He did something I've heard warnings about all my life but really didn't believe.
After doing some remodeling in the house he took some rags that were saturated with linseed oil and put them in a plastic bucket with some other debris.  He put the bucket in the garage and went to bed.  4 hours later he wakes up to the sound of the smoke alarm.  He thought because it was in the 20's that night the rags would be safe until he could properly dispose of them. I've always heard oily rags could start a fire but never really believed it, but it does happen and a lot quicker than you might think.
Luckily his wife and kids were out of town, there would have been some serious panic if they had been around, and there would have been a pickup truck in the garage as well.  His homebrew kegerator, 2 kegs and the CO2 bottle are all fine..

15

The Pub / "Typical French a**hole"

« on: January 26, 2012, 06:57:48 AM »

I see this a lot, usually from somebody who may have been to Paris or Toulouse for a working week and suddenly they are experts on French culture and people.  I've been married to a French woman for 31 years now, she has 10 siblings and they all live within  3 miles of each other.  Over they years we've spent a total of about 3 years in France, but I still don't consider myself an expert.
When I'm in my wife's village I know everybody and it's normal that we are treated great by everybody, even the ones who claim to dislike one thing or another about America.  They're usually like the Americans I meet who dislike France(ignorant).  When we're away from home base I still have never been treated with anything but respect, even in Paris. When I go somewhere on my own, with no French inlaws with me, I still have never experienced rudeness.  In fact I've had people ask if I'm american and then buy me a drink and ask me questions. I speak my own version of French but it's close enough to the real thing that people understand me and they appreciate that I've taken the time and effort to learn French. Here in the States when I see tourists from Europe they will always have somebody in the group with a good working knowledge of English.  When I see Americans in Europe they seem pissed that the waiter doesn't speak perfect English.  I've seen Americans get angry that when they order "iced tea", a drink not commonly enjoyed by Europeans, it comes with 2 small ice cubes, or when the food they order is not at all what they expected it would be.  In general 95% of the a**holishness I've seen in Europe originates with an American tourist who can't comprehend why things aren't done like they are in America.  Last year In Germany I unknowingly ordered a medium rare pork steak(my German is limited to ordering ein bier) but I ate it and enjoyed it because it was my own stupidity, not the waitress.  It's my responsibility to learn a foreign language when I travel, not theirs so any misunderstandings are my fault.
End of rant