Alrighty. It's been a long as time since I've posted. Now for some updates.
Here it is, May 18th, and I'm in a very happy relationship now, and have been for nearly two months. I'm happy, and that's all that I'm gonna say about that for now ;)
In other news, on April 25th, at like... 8pm, I planted my hops. Finally. And now, they're sprouting! My hops are growing! *bounce* *bounce*.
I really am quite happy about this. I'm not sure what it is, but it makes me all giddy thinking about my hops growing, and being able to use them come end of summer for brewing. Yay!
It's that time again. It's time for another 'Adventures in Homebrewing'. On Tuesday (2006.2.21), I started another delicious homebrew attempt. This time, hard apple cider. I decided to use the 'Sunset Cider' recipe taken from "The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide". The recipe is as follows:
* 5 Gallons Fresh apple cider (with no preservatives).
* 2 Pounds Light Brown Sugar
* 1 Pound Clover Honey
* 1 Pount Buckwheat Honey
* 1 or 2 packets Champagne yeast.
Alright! Secondary fermentation is go! The primary fermentation went well. I probably could've waited longer to transfer (the recipe gave a primary fermentation of 7 days, mine was slightly under 5).
This time, the transfer went much smoother. I had a slight issue with the yeast bed getting in the way, but it was not nearly as bad as the first time. Smells great too.
So. The Stout is now sitting on my counter, cleaning itself up and conditioning. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a hydrometer reading before moving it to the carboy. I'll let it sit until next weekend at the earliest, probably until after Thanksgiving.
w00000000000000000000000t! I have finally been accepted into the D&D Online beta. The client is currently downloading. I can't wait! Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to blog much about the game, due to those pesky NDA's, but rest asssured, I will post what I can without violating it. w00t!
In other news, the Stout has began fermenting, I will probably be transfering it in the early/mid next week into the secondary fermenter. Should be able to bottle around Thanksgiving. Man, I love brewing beer.
That's it for now. I think I'll update the last Adventures in Homebrewing post so it's up to date, might add to the homebrew book, then go get myself a haircut. NaNo Write-In and other fun stuff later today.
It's that time again. Time for more adventures in homebrewing. This time I brewed a Chocolate Cherry Stout. I'll be uploading pictures after I post this to the usual spot: http://gallery.nulldomain.com/v/Photography/Homebrew.
Read More for more info (like ingredients, etc)
Ok. Here is the recipe: http://www.skotrat.com/skotrat/recipes/ale/stout/recipes/76.html I won't repost the actual recipe, however, I will point out that I did alter the recipe slightly. Instead of using 1oz of each hops, I used 1oz of the Saaz and 1oz of the Hallertau at the beginning of the boil (for a total of 60minutes) and then I added the remaining 1oz of each at 30 minutes in (for a total of 30minutes in the boil). (When I purchased the hops, I got 2oz of each, and didn't want to throw the rest out, and without plans to brew for at least another month or two, it felt like it would be a waste to not use them. I will find out how well it turned out in mid to late December).
Ok, so, as anyone that has been following this blog, or talked to me recently really, knows, I am now a homebrewer. In otherwords, I make my own beer (and eventually, wine and cider and stuff). So, to continue on with my Adventure in Homebrewing blog series, I decided, I should dedicate some space to keep track of what I'm doing, and what I make. And so, to do this, I have created Homebrewing with Nulldomain in my 'books' section. I'll post the recipes I use and make, as well as information on how the turned out, and information on starting up, and joining this wonderful community. Right now this will mainly just be a collection of information and resources, but I will start adding my own, homemade recipes, and tips and tricks on getting started, or continueing on. Let me know if you have any good resources that should be added, or anything you'd like to see incorporated.
w000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000t!
It is 7:24pm (PDT) on 20 September 2005, a Tuesday. Around 6:00pm I put one of my babies in the fridge to cool. I just opened it up, poured it into one of my lovely #include
Oh my. This is some damn good beer for a first attempt. The flavor is a little odd, but not bad. I like it. The head is a little weak, but it tastes abso-fscking-lutely delicious. Happy!
I will grab a camera and some friends and post some pictures sometime in the next week or two or so. All I have left to say is w00t! This turned out extremely well. Go \0!
Yup! I finally got around to uploading. Homebrew pictures are here
and PAX pictures are here. Enjoy!
Also, I went out shooting this morning. Had a blast. Finally got to shoot a 12 guage, mostly training rounds, but did have a couple buckshot rounds that we fired off as well. Did fairly well at hitting the clay pigeons for a first attempt, but I could definately use some practice. And my shoulder/upper arm are thanking me well for the .. exercise. (I have a nice big bruise on my right upper arm now ;)
w00t! Bottling Day! I'll upload pictures later, but there are pictures! I'll post a link in another post in a day or two when I get around to posting them (as well as the PAX05 pictures that I haven't gotten up yet).
I woke up around 10am, and thought, I want to bottle today. I didn't actually get around to it until sometime after 8pm. Go me! But either way, it worked out well, there were five us that ended up bottling everything. We had a nice assembly line going. I think I probably under filled most of the bottles by an ounce or two, but oh well, I'll do better next time.
Anyways, I haven't bothered checking the gravity, and I didn't bother to check it until after I had everything prepped. It did seem a tiny bit high, but should still be ok, I guess I'll know in a few days when the bottles explode or not :)
Alright! I'm still nervous, but this looks like it's going to turn out alright. I'm happy.
The primary fermentation stage has come and gone, and its time to let the beer condition. It could, possibly, be bottled right now, but I don't think that'd turn out as well as it could, and I really need to let it sit for a while away from the hot and cold break, and the hop and yeast sediment.
As it sits right now, the carboy and transfer hose are sterilized and I'm waiting for the carboy to cool down to do the transfer (I used hot, near-boiling water to rinse out the sodium bisulfite sanitizer). And, by the way, sodium bisulfite is some interesting stuff. It puts off a smell thats reminiscent of chlorine, and its extremely strong. (If I remember correctly, it releases sulfur into the air).
