Brewing report

So much for the once a month posting. Two beers to report. The Belgian was brewed on Dec. 20 and the Dry stout about 3 weeks later. Bottled the Dry stout today. The Belgian turned out really well, but seems to get more banana flavor over time. At first it was very spicy and clove like. The Dry stout it will be two weeks till I know. Yeast fo the Belgian was the White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale yeast, and the Dry stout was White Labs WLP004 Irish ale yeast.

Nov. Posting

Just in time to have a post for November. Brother Tyler and I bottled the Poor Richard's Ale. Tastes...uh...I guess we'll see what it's like in a couple weeks. If you google around for "poor Richard's ale extract" you'll see the recipe. The only change I made was no corn, and slightly different hops (kent goldings). I used the White Labs Scottish ale yeast. I might, might, be brewing next weekend. It would be a solo brew, and I think it will be a plain ol' stout.

Also, finished my single speed conversion/referb of my dads old Firestone "Dix Vita" 10 speed. There is not a straight joint on that cheap frame. But, it was all about learning, and learn I did. I have to un-thighten a couple of links in the chain, as it wants to skip a little, and the seat needs to go up, but asside from that I am happy with it. All told, I have $50 into it, mostly for tires and getting a new axle for the rear wheel. I guess if it really sucks, I can take it apart and build a garden cart, or something.

Howdy all. I changed the links a little. The VanOeveren Standard has been dead for a while now, so I got rid of it. To bad, it was nice to have some alternative view points linked here. Big Damn Heros went the way of the doo-doo what with Adam being real busy getting his phd in Economics. Also, I added a link to the Every Day Carry Forums. Lots of neat info in there about the stuff we do, or should, or would like to, carry with us. Everything from pens to guns to flashlights.

Brief brewing update: Brother Tyler and I have 20 gallons of cider a bubbleing away, and this weekend we are bottleing the first 10 gallons. Huzzah! Carl, Brother Tyler and I are spliting it 3 ways. We did 5 gallons each of cider yeast spiced and unspiced and mead yeast spiced and unspiced. Should be interesting.

I was over at action-squad, and the little tag thing that pops up with my link is "beer and guns...but mostly beer", and that is true. It's been a while since I had a nice gun post. Much to my chagrin, it's tougher to find the time to head off to the range then it is to putter around the ol' home stead and make beer. Brother Tyler and I are knee deep in cider season, and it will be at least 3 weeks before we get a beer going.

I did head out to the range Saturday. I wanted to test out some loads for Cousin Tyler's 7mm Remington magnum. Wow, does that thing have some recoil. Brother Tyler and I split the shooting, and both of our soft shoulders were a little sore. Even so, I got the data I needed for my reloading. Looks like 65 grains of IMR 4895 gives me 3000fps with a 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. That is just about perfect. So, the next step is to get some loaded up for Cousin Tyler, and hope he gets a deer.

The other goal was to test out some loads for my Model 19. FAIL! IMR4227 and .38 loads do not mix. Lots of unburnt powder. Drat! I guess I'm going to have to look else where for a hotish .38 load. I do have good luck with Win 231, and I have read reports of people going with weights up to 5 grains with good results. I'm at about 4 grains now. I really need to get the pistol metering rotor for my powder measure. Seems like that would give more accurate results a smaller weights.

In other pistol news, Brother Tyler and I are planing to take pistol class next year. I'll need to save up, and buy at least a case of ammo, but it will be good to have some formalized training. I'll need to keep the bike riding up as best I can to make sure I have the stamina to get through the class, but I don't forsee it being overally demading.

Up coming beer will be a amber of some kind most likely. Brother Tyler got his hands on some fresh hops of an unknown variety. Hopefully we can get that knocked out and move on to some Oatmeal stouts. It will require a partial mash, but we have purchased a mash tun for just such an occasion. That should take us to end of December, and if the weather co-operates Carl and I will be making some lagers. What a brave new world.

Hops

There they are! I have about six little hop cones. Hopefully next year I will have more. These are the Cascade hops, and thus far the only ones that have produced any cones. The Zeus hops have grown lots, but no cones yet. The Centennial and Fuggles, almost no growth at all. Tyler called and said that the price of hops is around $30/lb, and he thinks we should sell them locally (when we have more then 1/2 oz that is) .

FHAPA? What style number is that? 23R?

Beer first!
I tried the "APA" that Carl and I made yesterday. Well, where to start. It can't really be called an APA at this point. Because I used the CaraPils malt, there was a lot of unprocessed starch in there. And because of all that starch, I think it got a infection. Now, this may seem like a bad thing, and it could have been. However, as luck would have it, I got a "good" infection in my beer. Wether it was a wild yeast or Lactobacillus it turned sour. Good sour. So, now it tastes like a Belgian style farm house ale, or maybe a little lambic. Either way, it is pretty good. I need to drink it up fast so things don't get worse, but when was that a problem?

Note to self: NO MORE CARAPILS & GO TO ALL GLASS FERMENTORS.

Brew Report...and Gun Report

Guns first. My mom called me Friday from an estate sale. Long story short, she found an Enfield No. 1 Mk. V, which is a kinda rare variation, only 20K made (No.1 Mk.III's made: 3 Million or so). Did some looking around and if it was mint: $600-$800. However, it was sporterized, which means some knuckle head made a "deer rifle" out of it back when. So, it's only worth about $150-$200. Also, the safety was busted, and that is specific to the rifle (big "V" on the side). She paid $50 for it, and I sold it for more then that at the gun show. She let me keep the profit! A win all around. At the same show, I found a nice 1100LT 20 Ga that my step dad wanted me to find for my mom to hunt birds with. Really nice looking gun, and I got it for $435. New, it would be about $600-$800. This one is interesting in that it has a straight "English" stock, and most have semi-pistol grip.

So, beer. Carl and I bottled the American Pale Ale last week. I'm a little concerned that my choice of Carapils as one of the speicalty grains was a bad choice. Apprently, it's kinda a crystal malt, kinda not. It's "suggested" that you mash it, but you "can" use it steeped. Needless to say, the beer is kinda cloudy with all the unprocessed starches. Should taste fine, but it may not be "on style". One more week before I can test it to find out. FG was around 1010, and it reached it before we racked. In fact, the beer fermented out between Saturday when we brewed, and tuesday when Carl checked it. Huzzah for temps.

Tyler and I racked the RIS before he left for Ireland. Gravity at the time was 1030. We are going to bottle in a couple weeks. Looked, smelled and tasted awesome at racking!

Today I made the above recipe, all by my lonesome. I used white labs WLP013 as the yeast. OG came in at 1041. Ah, session beers! Basement is around 70 deg.