Kevin's musings

Finally got around to pulling pictures off my camera from last month…

I went out to Fudcon Boston 2007 in the first part of the month…

You can read my writeup of it Here at my tummy journal.

Here’s the view from my hotel room:

The main meeting room at BU:

The Banner:

I made a batch of porter the other day… it REALLY decided to go… good thing I put it in the sink:

and what photo post of mine would be complete with out yet more doggie pictures:

Merlin:

Kurt:

Nash:

I’m a slacker and haven’t updated in quite a while…

Just a few items:

• Nash and I have enrolled in a Basic Obediance Class. It remains to be seen if thats for him to be more obediant to me, or me to be more obediant to him.
• Enough of the snow melted today that I could move the trailer to a level spot and get it all situated right. TIP: don’t leave a case of diet coke in your fridge in a trailer over december and january. (Luckily it wasn’t too bad to clean up)
• Unloaded Nash’es old old crate. (36″). Way too small for him anymore. Anyone want a crate?
• All the toys I left in the trailer got moved inside. The pups were very very happy to see them!
• I had a lovely time on my trip to Boston. For a more detailed write up see: Fudcon Boston recap
• I am REALLY Looking forward to being able to go on camping trips with the trailer this spring/summer.
• I have a bunch of pics on my camera I need to transfer. Hopefully a big photo post soon
• Meadfest was a lot of fun. Pretty nice fun group of people
• Taxes suck. Since this year I have a form K-1 from my dad’s estate, I have to use a service that can deal with that. Turbotax claims to, but they don’t have the finalized worksheet for that form yet. Not until next week.
• We bottled the plain mead we made, and made a Vanilla/Peach. It’s bubling away next to me now
• I also made a porter, just to have something with more immediate gratification. Luckily I had it in the sink, because it Really decided to ferment for the first few days
• My family is doing a trip down to Karchner Caverns next month. I’m considering going, but I need to probibly do another trip in the trailer with Nash and confirm that he’s ok with being left out while I am gone for a while. Anyone planning any camping soon?
• Looks like I ordered a new laptop. I think it should be a good one and my tax return should just about pay for it.
• I have a bunch of stuff I should ebay/craigslist/get rid of. I really should work on that sometime.

Look for hopefully some pictures soon…

My friend S was watching my cat while I was out of town on my NM trip and when I asked her if there was anything I could do for her in return, she said she wanted to make some Mead. So, I got off my lazy butt and we made 2 batches this last weekend. They are busy fermenting away now.

A plain batch made with some organic honey.
A blackberry/vanilla bean batch.

I’m going to try and get back into the habbit of making some every 6months or so, so I refill the pipeline and always have some mead ready.
Also, I should make some more beer. It’s easy and is done so quickly.

It’s kinda nice. I have absolutely no plans for today. I slept in (well, with a 8am letting loose of the hounds) for the first time since I can’t remember when. Of course the fireworks people have started in, but I gave kurt some Melatonin and he’s been coping OK so far. I’m thinking I will watch a few movies later and enjoy a beer or three. I thought about inviting folks over for movie watching, but I never got around to sending out invites. Oh well.

Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday.

A while back some folks made an Open Source Beer. J and J and I decided to try our hands at it here. Of course we didn’t have the same ingredients, and here in backward USA the measurements are not in metric, but we did the best we could.
I guess this would be a patch on the orignal recipe. We haven’t yet bottled or tasted it, but hopefully it turned out well.

1) Steep for 20 minutes In 15 gallons of 160 degree F water:

2.0 lbs Munich malted barley
1.0 lbs 55L Crystal malted barley

2) Take out the ‘teabag’ of barley and add Fermentables :

6.0 quarts Pale Malt Extract
1.0 lb Maltodextrine

3) Bring the wort to a rolling boil, and boil until the bubbles
formed are nice and big. This is to ‘crack’ the sugars.

4) Shut off the heat, let the bubbles settle

5) Bring the wort to a rolling boil again, and boil until the
bubbles formed are nice and big.

6) Shut off the heat again, let the bubble settle and SLOWLY add

1.50 oz Tettnang hops
1.25 oz Hallertau hops
7.00 oz Powdered Guarana beans

7) Bring to a medium boil for 30 minutes

Turn off heat and add 2 pellets of Irish Moss, wait 5 minutes

9) Filter mixture, add 3944 Begian Witbier Yeast and ferment for
2 weeks at room temperture.

—> 2 weeks later 2 weeks later and until gone <—

11) Drink beer