Chaos is.. over? A few beers otherwise...

This is me and Tim P. s a while back.. can't remember exactly when. Invited down for a pint or two of brew, and did up a couple commercial treat a while I was there. Tim is a collector of beers, it seems.. has a closet full of gold, and breaks one out occasionally for a special guest. That would be *me*. In this case, it looks like Sam Adams Longshot winner Mike McDole's IPA was on the list, which was a clone of Pliny the Elder, as I understand it. Amazingly hoppy, this beer was like spooning a mouthful of hop pellets into your face and chewing on them. It was a veritable MEAL of hops. Just sick! Next on the list was Sam's Imperial Pilsner.. which wasn't quite the hop bomb I remember it being the last time around.. but still pretty potent. I remember being nearly killed by the hops in this beer the first year I tried it.. so maybe they scaled it back a bit to keep everyone else alive who wasn't quite used to a thing like this? Hmm.. Last on the list, another hop monster, the Sierra Nevada "Torpedo". Also, not quite as powerful as the Longshot winner, but damned close. This is a really sweet brew. Props to Tim for the introduction. Too many of these will really kill a fellows taste buds though.. and they're pretty high alc. too. Careful kids! :)















Oh no! The Chaos Pale ale I brewed with Pete a while back, when I totally forgot I had no yeast and had to fall back on, and used the wild yeast cultured form a bottle of Oro de Calabaza is killed! Here's it's dog tag for proof.















This beer will be missed. A little strange tasting out of the chute, it really mellowed out into a beauty in it's end days.

Fortunately, this keg was replaced by the Oro de Maggie, my tribute beer to my sadly deceased dog, Maggs... A review will be forthcoming, upon it's carbonation. I just tossed it in the fridge today, so stand by for that one.

And finally, here we have the first shoots of my 2009 hop crop coming up. Hacked down last year to make way for the new deck, this year should produce something. They're in the ground, making their way towards the deck rails where I hope to shoot 'em straight up a trellis of some sort.. both to get 'em up in the air, and to shade the unshaded portion of the deck. We'll see what happens. Stand by for more pics as the year goes on...



















Now, go click my money ads, you cheapskates. I know you haven't been lately!

Bagels.. and some coop updates. But no chicks!

So, like so many other things in my life I get involved in for the most minuscule of reasons, I took up baking today. What?!? How, you ask? Well, I like the bagels at Stop and Shop. I like Dunkin' Doughnuts bagels too. But the darn things only last for about 2-3 days before they turn to solid rock, so you really can't buy a good supply of them, and I just *need* a bagel for a bagel, egg and cheese sandwich in the morning. I live for those things. So, I get to thinking.. "what's it take to make a bagel?" and then it's all downhill from there. From someone who thinks it's a challenge to get more than one food group on a plate at the same time for a meal, this is really an undertaking.

As it turns out, they're not that difficult to make, really. And hell, it involves yeast, so I'm halfway through the battle.. my beer making skillz make yeast ranching a breeze for me! A bit of flour, some salt, yeast, water, mixing and.. wait, boiling? Damn, that works for beer making too. See? Bagels are a natural progression for a home brewer after all. Then, a short trip to the oven to seal the deal and you're done. I even poppy seeded, Kosher salted, and sesame seed the things to give 'em that "everything bagel" sort of theme. I should have taken some pics, but I failed. Next time! These didn't turn out perfect, so they're really not pic worthy, but the next ones, after a short tweak to the recipe, I think might be. Then, I'll post more on the process. Can't wait till morning to try these babies out!

In other news, this is a pic of the chicken coop door thingy for the chicken ingress and egress to the outside of the cage world.















This one is a pic of the caged in portion framework that's getting framed out now.. we're getting really close now. Got one of my boyz hooking me up with some vinyl flooring for the coop floor and then we'll bolt on the roof. Still no chickens, though. I was hoping this week, but it looks like it might be next week now.. rats.