tregeagle's blog

Getting A Brew On

Submitted by tregeagle on 10 April, 2010 - 15:46

Sometimes things just go horribly wrong. On my way back from picking up a new mast for my shipwreck I visited Marks Home Brew shop and picked up a Hoegaarden kit. Today I scrupulously cleaned all the gear, mixed up the ingredients and put it into an immaculate barrel. The brew was a little hot so I had to cool it down with some ice before adding the yeast. It's a hot day so it would not cool down even after I used all the ice. Bugger. Oh well, add the yeast anyway, should be okay. As I popped the lid on I dropped a small rubber washer in. Double bugger. Tried to fish it out with my scrupulously clean stirrer. No luck. Gah... rinsed a sieve and used that to fish out the washer. Whacked lid on quick.


Now I feel like I stuffed up that brew, too hot for the yeast, fishing around for the washer. Ah well I'll let you know if it starts to froth....


Little Black Book

Submitted by tregeagle on 10 March, 2010 - 11:16

I have a little black book in my undy drawer.

It is a travel diary, when I take it traveling and it is a shed/home-brew diary, when I stay home. Here is a brief summary of the shed entries [amended] :

Monday 28th December 2009

Putting a brew on

  • Morgans Blue Mountain Lager + yeast
  • Dextrose/Corn Syrup/dried malt
  • Morgans finishing hops (Hersbucker)

Good flavour, especially after I had left it for the full month! Hops were maybe a little harsh, try adding some lactose next time to sweeten it.

Previous brew from July 2009

  • Black Rock Miners Stout

Came out OK flavour not always quite right probably from brewing temp being too high or perhaps not rinsing off all the meta-bisulphate also a little too much sugar at bottling so too fizzy.

Brigalow Ginger Beer

  • tastes shit, explodes well.

Saturday 30th January 2010

  • Building rudder

ran out of Norseal Epoxy Wood Preserver 50:50 500ml

Wednesday 10th March

Putting two brews on

  • Bishops English Bitter [Morgans] – made in Queensland :)
  • Smelt good, hoppy.
  • Brewcraft English Bitter [Muntons of Stowcraft] – made in UK
  • Lager Brew, Dextrose/Malt mix

Not sure if Cheri will approve of the barrels of beer in the front room for the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed that they don't ferment too excitedly – could get messy.

Australian Daylight Savings - First Sunday in April.

Submitted by tregeagle on 6 March, 2010 - 15:55

Ocean swim tomorrow. Feeling meh. I blame daylight saving. For everything.

In fact I am going to happily set my clock back an hour on the first Sunday this April and never change it again. I will damn well be early for any organisation that decides to muck about with their clocks.

Stealing presents

Submitted by tregeagle on 11 February, 2010 - 19:38

Emrys doesn't read my blog. He is only seven so his Pa's nerdly tinkerings don't matter to him. So, I can tell you all in strictest confidence what I bought him for his upcoming birthday (28/2).

Just playing…

Submitted by tregeagle on 4 February, 2010 - 10:12

MS Word 2007 has a publish straight to Drupal option which I am testing out. If you'd like to try it out register for an account and read this post for set up instructions:
http://www.sysarchitects.com/node/64

Addendum.
An important addendum I might add.
I added this via OpenOffice Writer which is a less encumbered word processing application than Word. It did require me to install a small weblog publishing add-on but it works perfectly.
As you can see.

Trying to tell me something?

Submitted by tregeagle on 4 November, 2009 - 09:57

My crazy brother Dan has sent me this again:

Story of the Fly

Are your trying to tell me something Dan?

Out-cycle the cops

Submitted by tregeagle on 10 October, 2009 - 19:48

Yay, just discovered a bunch of ozzie bike sites I'd missed before. I'm such a saddo bicycle nerd sometimes.

Here is some real bike racing...

Bikey linkies...
http://www.bicyclestore.com.au/
http://www.cheekytransport.com.au
http://bikelove.wordpress.com/
http://austbma.ning.com/
http://www.boutiquecycles.com/
oh... and all these ones:
http://del.icio.us/tregeagle/bicycling

Dance like its 1967

Submitted by tregeagle on 6 October, 2009 - 08:34

My Ma is flying into Oz today, I'm picking her up from the airport after work. So to celebrate BoingBoing has supplied me with this great dance vid:

In other news, we bought a Heron sailing dinghy, It came without a trailer so if anyone knows of a boat trailer going spare please let me know.

Our last day...

Submitted by tregeagle on 20 September, 2009 - 13:22

I found out a few days ago that Daew (one of the boys Evan and I trained with at Lanna Muay Thai Gym) has died.

 

Young Daew was what I can only call a 'Cool Fighter'. Daew-'Tiger'His kick was pure poetry in motion it whipped out like the strike of a beautiful snake. He was a nice looking kid of 17 with wide eyes and an open friendly face. I remember him getting me to change my fighting stance from that which the instructors had taught me. He pulled my hands fore and aft and kicked my feet back a bit, outwards, I asked him why. He looked at me, smiled and said, "You want to look Good."

Daew was a lovely kid and I will not forget him.

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