Berliner update, again... where's my damn camera?

Update. Without pictures. Still can't locate my stinkin' camera that I lost the other day.. drats.

When last I typed, I had just scored a heat-lamp from Deb A. next door and jumped the whole fermenter up on there. No dice! Nothing happened into the next day. At that point, I got scared I was gonna lose the batch to some other bugs, so I pitched my neutral strain and left for work. I did take a sample of the wort, though, and it was as clean and sweet as the day I put it in there. So, no worries on the sanitation aspect, I guess. By the time I got home that night, the ferment was pretty nuts from the neutral saccharomyces and it's pretty flatlined in there now, since they (bugs) didn't have much work to do. I have not had a taste of it since I put the neutral yeast in there. Geoff said his smelled like spoiled milk when he went to pitch in his second yeast, but he didn't taste it yet.  That's sorta where we stand right now..

So.. I wrote back to WYeast, and got this response: "There is a chance you will still get some sour beer, though I doubt it will be as sour as possible." So, we haven't lost hope yet. In any case, I'll have a tiny, wee little Wheat beer if nothing else happens. Hell, maybe Geoff's will be *so* sour, it'll be undrinkable unless we blend it with 5 gallons of non-sour beer (that I just happen to have!) to bring it back in line. You never know.. ;-)

In other news, the chickens are really slacking it lately. 2-3 eggs a day for the past week and a half now.. I'm wondering if someone isn't in for a molt or something right about now? Hmm.. also getting a lot of broken eggs with that one chick who lays the very brittle, weak shelled eggs. Poor thing.

Also as an aside, I'm still driving the wheels off the Rustler VXL I bought so long ago. It still runs like a champ, and I haven't broken anything in like, forever. Ok, like, March of last year it looks like.. I've put a pretty good kink in one of the cells of the liPo pack I've got, but hey, I flung it off the hood of my car a while back if you'll remember.. I'll just cut it some slack as a result of that. It still runs like mad with that pack, though.

Garden is going like wild. The peas just sprouted some flowers, and the chile's broke loose with some tiny little stalk things where the peppers themselves will grow, a couple of days ago.

Planning a beer to brew this coming Monday with Frank for the party at Uncle Mike's house on the lake.. Frank thinks he wants to do something with fruit in it. I think Frank has fruit in him. We'll document that brew as best we can with no camera.. drats.

Ghetto Fridge..

Better than nothing! A keg at the vacation house.. three snaps up for me. This is my weeks beer supply, right here. Behold:


So far, so good. A minor issue with a leak in the regulator to tank at first, but fixed that right up with a quick spare washer I brought from the house. On the side is a six'er of a few Anchor Bocks, an Uncle Mike's Party Pale Ale, an '06 Barleywine, and an Imperial from.. umm.. '07, I think.

In other news, I went swimming with my cell phone in my pocket, so my celly is junk. Killed. No go. Don't bother to call, cause only the fishes will get the message. I am truly on vacation, unreachable, except.. well.. via email, Twitter, Facebook, www.mikesupsanddowns.blogspot.com, and the wife's cell. So, damn.. I guess I am reachable after all.

On day two, I broke the right side outdrive on my Rustler VXL, and my spare is at home in the spare parts box. Snap! R/C down and out for the remainder!

Take care, kids.. I'm out!

Updates and a few fallen soldiers..

As mentioned, there's a couple fallen this past couple weeks. The first, as the pic indicates, is the passing of the famed "1903 Wheat", brewed on the big brew day we had back in the Spring. Brewed up by me and Dan, it was a good beer and served it's term well. Another unit that went just recently wasn't even a beer. It was that damned orange Craftsman 3/8th's drill. I was using it to crush the grain for the Avalon Pale Ale and it was giving me all sorts of issues, but finally I had to take it apart to put the motor brushes back in (!) to get it running again. After that, I was going to us it to drill the axle holes for the coop, but she's since refused to fire back up. As such, I'm now int he market for a new drill. I'm not sure if I'm going to go cordless or corded... but I'll definitely need something before the next brew session, or it's gonna be a long, hand cranked crushing process.

The chicken coop is still working well with the new wheels on. Still haven't fond the camera, so I can't post any new pics just yet of that mod.. but it's much nicer to move now, and nobody gets hurt as a result of the effort. Sheesh.

Speaking of chickens, they're all getting on the big side now. The wander around the yard every morning now, for the past 4 days when I open up the door to change the water-er and feeder. It was my weekend, so I let 'em all out for pretty much the whole day for all three days and we had no issues at all. No hawks in sight, and no dog attacks. We had "Boo Boo" the cat next door come over for a look, but she didn't do anything with the hens.. plus, she didn't stick around long after I dragged out the Rustler with the big battery and started zinging that around the yard. The girls finally found out where the momma's veggy garden is, so they made the trip around the back and gorged themselves on ants and slugs back there. I think Sarah said they might have had a snack of parsley as well, but I'm sure that was just to wash down the taste of the slugs with and freshen up their breath.

And lastly in chicken news, that RIR chick that bashed herself into the cage last week or so and scratched up her ear? She's fully healed up now and back in working order. No harm no fowl! ;)

I also attended neighbor Franks' annual Uncle Mike's Lake house party this past weekend too. Third year for that, and third year we've had a great time. Me and Frank brewed up a 5 gallon log of a Pale Ale to bring with us, and that appeared to be a pretty good hit. It was tapped around 1300 hours and killed at about 1830 hours or so.

Also in beer news, the Avalon Pale Ale I've brewed up for vacation next month seems to have ground to a halt in it's fermenter downstairs. I've been monitoring the ferment temps with a thermometer and filling the ol' Styrofoam box the fermenter is in with ice packs to keep the temps down.. and seems to work pretty well. I'm pondering if I'm going to thrown a couple of oak chips into that fermenter for a couple days just prior to racing to give it something to talk about. I also might dry hop it a bit, but I'm a little low on volume as it is at 5.25 gallons, and I don't wanna push it too far with losses to hops. But then again, how much beer can one family possibly consume in just one week?

};-)

In radio control news, that new LiPo battery is still going strong like an animal. Love that new fangled cell stuff. My old Triton (at only 2.5 amps charge ability for LiPo cells) is really showing it's age and totally not keeping up with the times. A newer device is definitely going to have to be in my future if I end up playing with more LiPo stuff. Fortunately, there's some really nice, dirt-cheap chargers out there for Lithium cells only and some really sweet products from Accucell company. I think that's the name, anyway.

Well, I'm off to shape, boil and bake some bagels Ive got going right now.. now go click the Google link!

Long time since posting.. got some wheels though!

Here's an artistic pic of the interior of the coop and several of the girls therein, taken by one of the girls. She took the pic at eye level to her, through the egg access door at the back of the coop, shooting out through the chicken entry/exit door out into the pen area. Good picture!

Well, I'd take some pics of this new modification and post 'em, but the wife made off with the camera, and I don't know where it is. In either case, I'm partially through putting some wheels on the coop now, after pulling my back out of joint and getting myself jammed up and out of work for a couple days. I think it weights more than I though. Like, well in excess of 200lbs. I've got the wheels and the holes drilled for the axles, and now I'm just shortening up the access door a bit to clear the way for the door to open and close to let the chickens in and out through. Not too bad a modification, really.. pics to follow, when the Boss returns the FAMILY CAMERA!

In other chicken news, one of the Rhode Island Reds seems to have jammed itself into the fence, slightly injuring herself in the process, when she was harried by a tiny dog. The chicken was in no real danger, cause she was inside the coop, but she didn't know that.. and subsequently skinned herself upside the left side of her head, just above the ear. She seems to be fine though, and is doing well. Sheesh!

I wanna tell you about the Southern Tier Series One and Two oak aged beers that me and Tim got together and tasted, but I can't seem to find my tasting notes on 'em right now. Darn it! Good stuff, the both of them, though I feel as if I'm partial to the Series Two beer between them. Have not had Series Three yet, so I can't comment.

In other news, I've got a beer fermenting downstairs right now, the Avalon Pale Ale, brewed in a five gallon batch by myself, solo, for our vacation trip next month on the shore. A bit of a sluggish take off on the ferment activity, but seems to be OK now. I've got it in the ol' Omaha Steaks Styrofoam cooler surrounded by ice packs to try and keep the ferment temps down to a reasonable level. She's sittin' happy now at a measured temp of 68 degrees, according to a digital thermo taped to the side of the carboy. This seemed to work well on the last beer too, as I have been fighting a weird flavor in the recent beers I've done here when I wasn't really monitoring the high ferment temps in the summer heat...

Also, in radio control news, the LiPo 7.4 volt cell I scored on eBay for dirt cheap arrived and I'm really happy with it's performance in my Brushless Traxxas Rustler. It's clearly faster than the NiMh cells, as it wheelies on command now and has a hard time keeping it's front tires on the ground.. seems the Low Voltage Cutoff (LVC) seems to be kicking with a lot of juice left in the pack though.. I should be jammin' at full speed for more time than I am, which is still a good amount of time from a 5000 maH pack, though. I'll definitely get some ore of these things, but I think a better charger is in order first. my Triton 1st gen is only capable of 2.5 amps output which takes over two hours to charge this big pack up... I need more power!

That's all for now, kids.. now go click my Google link!

Fixed the truck, saw some chicks, got some pics..

So I fixed my R/C truck. Got some new RPM rear hub carriers that are totally indestructible, according to news on the street. They fit like a glove and my truck is back on the street. Better news is, I scored a new NiMh battery at the hobby shop that's 4600 maH and goes for 3.5 times the duration of my other batteries. Strange thing is, it's a totally different truck with that in there. I can pull wheelies on demand now, off a tiny bump in the road and just flip the truck over backward. Way too fast now, too. Easily 35-40 mph. It's a real handful on the street.

Also, went to Blue Seal last Saturday while waiting for the kids to get out of ballet class. Walked in the door and was immediately greeted by the tiny chirping sounds of baby chickens! Surprise surprise! They're so cute, I wanted to pinch their heads off! A few more weeks till mine get here. Just a few more weeks... still gotta build that coop, too. Hmm...

And finally, got some pics from Will, finally. Finally! {nudge} ;-) Check it:



Here's the man stirrin' the mash in the mashtun, and..



Here we are adding some hops to the boil kettle. This was destined to be an American Amber, so we went with a slight variation on the Rambler recipes, tried and true, version 1.2. It's ready to bottle or keg today, in fact.. but we're not gonna get around to it till next week. Post on that in due time..

Click the links!

Later..