Small Thoughts for Small Minds

Well, I somehow made it through the brewing session. Only about four hours longer than usual…

Two problems to start with…

(1) I keep getting a stuck mash, even with a lower than usual flow rate. This is unusual for me. I thought maybe my Bazooka screens (yes multiple - two) collapsed, so I transfered the whole mash into the kettle. No. No problem with the screens. I must’ve just milled too fine. Damn.

(2) I forgot to replace my failing SSR (solid state relay) which controls the RIMS heating element. Apparently the leakage current is higher, because even though it was turned off while I was messing with the mash, it still boiled the contents of the RIMS chamber. Can anyone say "scorched"? I thought you could…

Sigh.

And is started as such a lovely morning…

Then, it got even worse.

After almost three hours, the mash was only 6 degrees over where I doughed-in (130 to 136). At this rate, it would be Tuesday before I reached my target temperature.

So, I finally transferred the mash to the kettle (again) and brought it up to saccharification temp with the flame. Of course, the kettle isn’t insulated, so I had to turn the flame on a few more times, including raising the temp for mashout. 

After transferring all of the mash back to the mash tun (using a one gallon plastic pitcher), I found a LOT of scorched mash on the bottom. (I thought I did a good job stirring, but since I’ve never done a direct fired mash, I shouldn’t be surprised…)

Jeez. And I thought I scorched the mash earlier…

After an HOUR of scrubbing, I finally gave up. This is what it looked like when I "finished" cleaning it:

To add insult to injury (or, more likely, vice versa), while cleaning up, I accidentally banged my chiller against one of the full carboys, resulting in a major crack. I’ll let it finish the primary fermentation before I throw it in the trash.

Sigh.

At least I’m FINALLY done…

All of the problems didn’t seem to have any detrimental impact on the fermentation, though!

Today, I bought new blow-off tubing. More of it this time so I can just use the bucket directly (I have a carboy drain holding up the pitcher inside the bucket to get the end of the hose under the sanitizer).

And, wow! It smells wonderful! (All them hops, ya know…)

Of course, the real test will be in a month when I can taste it (post fermentation, post dry hopping, post carbonation…)

The brew day, as frustrating as it was, wasn’t a complete waste (even if the resulting beer isn’t very good), since I got to spend a nice autumn day outside and drink some absolutely fabulous homebrew, my Belgian-style Dubbel:

Ahhh, beer….

I came home early and tried to take a nap. (Kids have been coming down and trying to get in bed with us EVERY night this week. And I can never get back to sleep.)

I was almost asleep when I heard some intense drumming on the side of the house. What the heck? So, I get up and take a look.

Yep. Hail. Kel’s dad said that it was egg-sized when it started, but I didn’t see any of that. Here’s what I DID see:

and

Yes, this is exaggerated because of the concentration effect of rolling off the roof. But, as you can see, it was pretty thick in the yard as well.

It was raining like a …. after it stopped hailing. I bet we had more than a little localized flooding in the area. (We’re too high in elevation to get any more than some raging runoff, but not by the house…)

Pets seem utterly immune to our discomfort when they want attention…

You can make your own (presumably) witty double entendre (but it’s been done before)…

Kelleigh decided that Dyson’s birthday party would have a knights theme. Ya know, because of the playground castle and Dyson’s fixation on swords…

A dragon piñata, knight cake, and the collection of knight table cloth/napkins/plates/cups…

So, yesterday, she picked up costumes for us. Wait a minute! I didn’t agree to that!! (But, since when did my consent count for anything…)

Here is the royal family, waiting for the arrival of our court:

Kel also bought a helium cylinder. I filled up 35 big balloons and 22 small balloons (not counting the ones that popped before I tied the ribbons on…) A few of them…

Here we have a couple of ladies-in-waiting (certainly not maidens!)

As the kids arrived, we gave them inflatable swords and inflatable shields. They ran all over the house fighting. At one point, Princess Keira was fending them off with her Kei-Fu fighting technique. (No, it’s not a real fighting technique. She came up with the name - Kei from Keira, if’n you missed that…) Princesses have to get a broad and diverse education…

While most of the boys were beating up the string of little balloons hanging from the ceiling fan in the sun room, Dyson and his best friend (well, best human (and real) friend - yesterday, the algae in the pool was his friends and he didn’t want me to treat it), Nicholas, were hiding under the table in the unnamed room between the kitchen and the sun room. The table which had the cake and decorations on it. I’m not sure what they were up to, but it involved a lot of giggling…

Finally, the rain let up and were actually able to play in the castle that drove the whole dang theme of the party.

We came close to a couple of accidents as several kids walked in and out of the club house/dungeon without paying attention to the glider swing. One of the parents called it a design flaw. I resent that - if their kids are too dumb to avoid rapidly moving swings, it ain’t my fault…

After the kids used up some energy, we put up the dragon piñata. Each kid had two swings, then on to the next kid in line. Some of the kids barely made contact, while others really smacked it. Dyson was in the former category…

After four or so "rotations", we decided to let the adults take some whacks. Here’s Donna winding up for a power hit.

After the full adult rotation (which included one adult knocking the "hanger" out of the piñata, but leaving it otherwise intact), in my second "at bat", I managed to break it open. Sprayed everyone with the contents. Kel bought a package of "piñata prizes". Half of them broke after that major beat down…

Here’s the final state of our little green dragon:

One of the piñata prizes was psychedelic glasses. Almost all of them had the cardboard circles knocked out of them, but that was easy enough to fix.

Then, of course, we did the singing of the birthday song and the blowing out of the candles and the cake and ice cream. Here’s Dyson as he blows out three of the four candles. He came through on the second effort, though…

After everyone went home, Keira wanted to give the mini-ATV a whirl. While still wearing her Princess outfit. As I took the picture, I told her to give me some attitude…

Then it started raining again, so we went back in…

I think it was pretty successful…

Despite my masters in electrical engineering, I do no engineering whatsoever in my job. I’m a salesman. Yes, I know the industry. Yes, I understand (better than most salesmen in my industry) how the control systems work. But, my job is to talk to people.

(Pretty funny for someone that doesn’t like to make small talk…)

Anyway, what’s a frustrated engineer to do? Focus that suppressed geekiness on my hobby, of course!

Last night, I finally took care of a long-term problem I’ve had with my serving fridge. The beer lines go about 18" out of the chest freezer (through a wooden "tunnel") and then up about the same distance to the taps. During the summer, those lines get very warm. The first draught from the tap is all foam. Unless you get a glass every half hour, you have to run a bunch of beer down the drain to get a full pint. During the winter (when I have a heater in the fridge), the beer lines freeze.

To fix it, I bought (on eBay) a fan with a dual blowers. I tested it with AC line voltage, but it was too powerful. So, I picked up (also on eBay) a 24 VDC power supply. Just the right airflow. Maybe too much still.

Anyway, now I had the issue of how to get the air from the rectangular output of the blowers to the inside of the tap towers. A little time at Lowe’s and I came up with the solution:

The blower is in the center. I used a 1 1/2" to 3/4" elbow to transition from the rectangular output to the 3/4" PVC that I used. (Thin wall stuff to maximize airflow, since I don’t have any pressure)

The PVC pipe goes into the wooden "channel" then takes a right angle up into the tap tower. The pipe goes almost to the top of the tap tower. Then the air has to return on the outside of the PVC pipe, cooling the beer lines on the way.

This next picture shows the inside of the tap tower. (No, there are no beers on tap in this tower, which is why no tap handles are attached. I really need a couple of brew days to catch up…)

An unanticipated problem: it’s too good! Despite the insulation in the tap tower, the tower gets cold enough to incite serious condensation. Even the taps are chilling enough to drip with condensation.

The next thing I did was to move my CO2 gauges/manifold outside of the chest freezer. Having that massive wad of gauges and hoses sitting on top of the kegs was really awkward. The blower pipes made it even harder. So, I drilled more holes in the 2x4 collar for running the individual CO2 hoses.

Then I mounted the gauges and the high pressure manifold on the wall. The hose on the left of the high pressure manifold is for force carbonating beer externally. I ran out of this type of hose, so the hose on the right of the high pressure manifold is missing (it will run into the chest freezer for force carbonating inside the chest freezer.)

Each gauge is split in two. After the split, each line has a check valve (to prevent beer from backing up and ruining the gauge). The lines on the top half run to the right and the lines on the bottom half run to the left. They go into the chest freezer in the same order as the gauges so it is easy to tell which hose belongs to which gauge.

Here’s a shot of the inside of the chest freezer, showing the CO2 hoses were they penetrate the 2x4 collar. I need to purchase more of those hangers to hold the unused CO2 lines/disconnects.

Next, I want to replace all of the beer lines. I haven’t done that since I built the beast back in 2000? 2001? Whatever. Needs to be done….

The mad brewer at work…

Well, not so much mad as just a bit irritated…

Since Kel & I were watching college football (while I was also working on my beer fridge*), Dyson wanted to watch a movie on my computer.

Apparently, closer is better…

Could be a bit closer, I guess, but it might make breathing a bit more difficult…

* I am too ADHD to watch a football game without doing something else. Which is why I’m currently doing this blog thing. (While "watching" the OSU/PSU game…)

The party is tomorrow (the 24th) but Dyson’s birthday was the 19th. Here he is with his cake (and the sword that Keira gave him):

He still has his birthday kid crown from school.

Kel & I (meaning Kel picked it out and I put it together) got him a mini-ATV. To make it even better, it is a "Kawasaki Ninja" (Dyson’s big on ninjas…)

Obviously, he wasn’t quite ready to give up the sword. Also, he was a bit confused on the controls and steering. But it didn’t take long for him to get the hang of it…

Of course, Keira had to take a spin:

The party will be a knight/castle theme (to capitalize on the playground I built). Kel bought all kinds of crazy accessories, like inflatable swords & shields(for the boys), maiden hats (for the girls), costumes for Kel, Dyson, Keira & I, and a bunch of other stuff. (Kel and I are the queen and king. Crowns and all!)

Of course, no-one reads this stuff, so posting a "teaser" doesn’t make much sense….

Kel bought a Power Rangers costume for Dyson. As if he didn’t have enough "dress up" crap scattered throughout the house. Since Dyson doesn’t watch the Power Rangers (except, perhaps, on occasion at school), he’s used this primarily to be Daredevil, and sometimes Spiderman…

Of course, he doesn’t need one o’ them fancy store-bought costumes to dress up. Sometimes all it takes is a pair of Kelleigh’s underwear….

(It’s going to be soooo easy to blackmail this kid when he’s a teenager….)

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Kel’s mom was having headaches and blood pressure issues, so she went in to the emergency room. While there, they found out she had shingles on her face. She spent around five days in the hospital before being released, but she’s still really weak. For a couple of days after getting out of the hospital, she was complaining of double vision, so we let her use Dyson’s pirate eye patch.

While she doesn’t have double vision any more, she has reduced vision in that eye. Her eye doctor says it is possible that she’ll permanently lose sight in that eye.

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Apparently someone forced another car off the road, and it hit our mailbox. You can see the mailbox (black, circled in red) in the far left of the picture, while the support is on the far right. That’s at least 25 feet away. The mailbox survived the impact, so I just put it back together, got it upright and propped it up with some rocks…

There were some pretty wild flowers near the spot the mailbox landed…

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I was in New Orleans last week. Because my time was mostly occupied by the conference I attended (including a reception & meal each evening), I didn’t get out of the French Quarter or the area near the conference center. My view from the hotel room was awesome (if you like the shipping industry):

Since downtown and the French Quarter are on "high" ground, they didn’t get flooded. But there are still businesses and restaurants that haven’t reopened. I’m sure the relative lack of tourists, a full year later, contributes to the problem. Bourbon Street was practically dead (compared to our last visit, but that was on a weekend.)

Kel and I got married on the 26th of August in 1995. This year, for our anniversary, we decided to go to Bermuda. Just for three nights, since Kel only has two weeks (total) of vacation each year.
We stayed at the Salt Kettle House in Paget, just across from the "capital city" of Hamilton.

The cottage we stayed in was simple, but roomy, and right on the water.

We arrived on Saturday, just after lunch. After a brief "orientation" by Hazel Lowe (the owner of Salt Kettle House), we took the ferry over to Hamilton for lunch and a bit of shopping in the rain. Well, Kel shopped. I bought a book and hung out in a pub.

We bought three day passes for the ferry & buses. (Which we ended up only using a couple of times.)

Here’s a picture of Kel and I on the way out for a very nice dinner at Silk, a Thai restaurant in Hamilton.

We finished the evening off with a pot of kopi luwak coffee.  If you don’t know what that is, definitely click on the link!

Sunday morning, after walking around looking for a bus stop, we decided to go for the flexibility of having a scooter. Here’s Kel hanging out in the front yard while we waited for the shuttle to the scooter rental shop.

I thought this shot of a hillside cemetery was interesting. Dunno why the graves (tombs?) are above ground, especially on high ground.

We went to the Bermuda Aquarium. Here’s Kel looking out over the bay, making use of the shade.

After the aquarium, we had lunch at Café Gio in St. George, and then went to the Crystal and Fantasy Caves (Here’s a video tour of the caves.) I’ll put another post later with some cave pictures. We drove around for awhile, then stopped at the North Rock Brewing Company for beer and appetizers. North Rock no longer brews their own beer. All their brewing equipment was sent to the Frog and Onion in The Dockyard, but at least they served the beer made in the Frog and Onion, so we did have local beer. In the place of the brewing equipment, they put in a sushi bar. Kel really liked the mango sushi. We went back to the cottage, drank some wine, read for a bit out by the waterside, and then turned in early.

Monday morning we went to Church Bay Beach, which some claim to have the best snorkeling in Bermuda.

It was funny how many people snorkeled within a dozen feet of the beach. And they were so excited to see one or two fish. "Hey Margaret! I saw a purple one!" You have to swim out a couple hundred feet to the large rock/coral formations. While not as good as many spots in the Caribbean, there was a nice variety of fish and coral. The surge over the formations was pretty rough, but usually deep enough (>18") to swim over. Kel went out with me once, and I went solo once. Then I went climbing on the rocks. The erosion caused some interesting formations in the volcanic rock.

For lunch we went to the Lighthouse Tea Room at the base of the Gibbs Hill lighthouse.

Then we climbed to the top to take in the view of the island. Here I am doing my "Tourist Guy" impression…

After lunch we went out to Warwick Long Beach. The water was a lot rougher with correspondingly lower visibility. Kel just hung out on the beach reading while I went snorkeling and climbing on the rocks.

I waded/swum out to this rock and climbed to the top. Getting up the first few feet was the toughest as I was standing in strong surf and the rocks were slick (and razor sharp at the same time).

It’s amazing where plants can get a foothold…

Here I am on one of the ubiquitous scooters. (Yes the scooter was still up on the kickstand. I was waiting for Kel…)

We then went to the Royal Naval Dockyard and had a beer at the Frog & Onion. We went back to the cottage, had a short nap, and then went out for an excellent (and really expensive) dinner at Port O’ Call in Hamilton.

Tuesday morning, we went for a walk on Elbow Bay beach before returning the scooter. Then, unfortunately, we had to pack up and head to the airport.

Oh well. We still packed a lot in those three days…

Out of curiosity, I googled [coins weight] and found some guy that claims that the typical distribution, by weight, of coins that people get as change is:

I weighed the five gallon carboy 2/3 full of coins, weighed an empty carboy, and determined that I had 84.2 pounds of coins.

According to that distribution, and factoring the weight of each type of coins, I have approximately the following quantities of each type of coin:

That totals up to almost $1100! Whoa!

Once we get around to filling this thing up, we’re off on a mini vacation! Boo ya!

(By the way, how do you redeem coins in bulk? The thing at Kroger charges something like 7%, which is too much, in my opinion…)