Willimantic with Will.. and the BIG egg!

Took alittle trip with Will Siss "The Beer Snob" last saturday, and was truly shocked by what happened when we arrived. Get this, with photogaphic evidence..

On arrival, we ordered a beer.. here's a shot of me looking dapper as usual:

But Will only ordered a *half* pint.. here's evidence of that (a Redhook Nitro Porter, if I'm not mistaken..):

From there, I ordered the following sampler:

The best beer of the bunch, was easily the Three Cents Pale Ale. Lots of hops, great balanced bitterness, un-filtered. Really excellent, all around. I could easily have drank a couple or three pints of that in a row.. really drinkable beer. Not a big one, either.. not quite a session beer, but darned close. I was a little let down by the Double IPA.. and the Harvest Ale fell a little shirt as well. The Oktoberfest was awesome, though.. and the Stout in the middle is escaping me for now. Apparently, it was forgettable.

..but Will, on the other hand, ordered water! Here's the shocking evidence caught on film!:

This is big news. This expose is really going to rock the beer world, I know... but I felt it needed to get out. Always in search of the truth!

In other news, check this:

Oh, snap! That's a 63.3 gram egg! Just found that beauty, along with the other average (for them, so far..) sized egg not on the scale, in the coop this morning. That egg makes the first for one of my girls in the Large class. All of them, so far, were in the "PeeWee" category, i.e. under 15 ounces per dozen.. this one is nearly 1/3 larger than their normal egg average so far. Time for breakfast! :)

Oh snap! Breaking news! This just in:

So that's the reason why it was so big and heavy... a double yolker! Just the one on the left, kids.. the one on the right was one of their previous 42 gram beauties. They've both just been assimilated as my breakfast about 2 minutes ago, and were tasty indeed!

Eggs and Imperials..

Somebody in the hen house fired off another egg this morning.. not sure who, though. It's on the small side, at 42 grams.. I'm not sure it was the Barred Rock who layed the other day.. but it might be. That makes her on a less-than every other day cycle already. Good times! Today is the ON day for my R.I. Red, if she's gonna stay consistent. Fingers crossed..

In other news, I drank this beer:

last night with [Person's name withheld to protect the innocent]. Heh... me and [Person's name withheld to protect the innocent] also had a few "virtual beers" with both Timmay and Pete W. via Skype, making for a bigger party than originally planned, and neither Timmay or Pete had to drive home when we were done. In retrospect tho, it sure seemed like Timmay might have needed a hand getting up the stairs to his bed at the end, there.. 

In any case, on sale for $2.99 a Bomber at The Depot, this creation was a great beer! Eel River's 'Raven's Eye' Imperial Stout. 9.5% on the scale, it also clocked in with *huge* coffee/chocolate cake flavor. Big body for this thing, and went down a lot smoother than one might expect for a big beer. I quite enjoyed it, and would recommend it to the masses. Strangely too, it is labeled as certified organic, making it possibly the first organic beer I have ever really enjoyed.

I'm not sure if I've ever posted this before, but, as a general rule, organic beers suck. Organic anything is all fine and well for the planet, and I dig the idea.. but in general, I find organic stuff lacking in the distinct flavors I expect from non-organic beers. I'm not sure this qulaifies for stuff that isn't beer, but I'm no expect on lettuce or chives to say for sure wether that makes a difference in that particular ballpark. But yeah, as far as beer goes, organic has not impressd me.. until now.

Carry on.. nothing to see here.

Another chicken laying!

Yessss!!!

Heard a lot of commotion out inthe henhouse a few minutes ago.. when I went to check, I found the Barred Rock just climbing out of the nest box. Inside, I found a TINY little very warm egg, having just been fired off by said Barred Rock, and a much cooler one, that was apparently shot out a few hours ago (see previous post..) by the R.I. Red. Great! The R.I. Red egg is the biggest yet at 47.6 gram and the little Barred Rock egg checks in at just over 34 grams. That makes the Rock egg a PeeWee class, but the Red egg just squeaks into the Small category! We're getting there! Both chickens should eventually lay Medium and Large size eggs, when they're fully grown.

Here's how I found them, just after the Rock climbed out of the box..

Here's the two side by side:

And here's a size comparson with my thumb. Tiny!

 

Good times!

Abid Clever brewer and another egg..

Yo..

So, the new Abid Clever coffee dripper/brewer arrived yesterday, just before I left for work. I was just able to put it through it's first run just a couple hours ago, and man, am I impressed! I did a 15 gram brew for a standard 9oz mug, and it was *bright*, really bright, and had huge flavor. I did an identical brew with the same amount of coffee to water ratio in one of my vacuum pots and the resulting cup was also very delicious, but notably less "powerful" in the cup.. as if I had used less coffee (which, as mentioned, I did not..) and a pretty fair ammount LESS of bright acidity in the cup. It was a faulous cup of coffee in it's own right, but just radically *different*. The vacuum cup was actually what I'd consider a normal strength cup.. the Abid brew was actually sort of "over the top". And that's something, coming from me! It's exciting news to me, because it shows that, with the same bean, I can emphasize or de-emphasize certain charecteristics based upon what I want the cup to taste like.. sorta like "do I feel like brewed coffee this time, or an espresso?" i.e. same coffee, different result, because of brew method.

One disssapointing aspect? Packaging! I bought this from Spronomy, in PA, and the crazy bastards put a label on it and sent it off in the box it's supposed to be on the store SHELF in.. no other packaging in sight. Check it out:

In that photo, I'm pointing to a large dent in the box.. but you can also see the bottom of the box is just bursting open, about to let the brewer fly free into the Post Office room floor. Un-sat!

Here's a pic of the thing in hand:

 In this one, I'm pointing to the Sweet Maria's logo on the side, a well known and respected green-bean re-seller. Weird how it's on my particular brewer, since I didn't order it from them, though..

I'll get some more brewing tips and info, and maybe an action shot or two in a later post, when I learn a bit more about this thing. Stand by for that...

In chicken news, I'm sort of expecting another egg today.. I'm thinking it's an every other day sort of project for my R.I. Red so far, and I'm sort of thinking we're gonna get another one today. I was just out in the garage a second ago, when I heard an amazing cackling song from one of the birds.. I turned to check it out, and found the one egg laying Red was in the coop, fussing about in the nest, arranging feathers and wood shavings in there. She had sung this fantastic song, and I think it's the famed "egg song" I've heard so much about.. she's still out there messing around in the box, and no egg yet, but we'll see how that goes.

I also just switched 'em all over to layer feed, too. Maybe that'll help the process as well..

An egg!

So! Yesterday we went to a party in NY State, at Erin and Kevin's house for his big birthday bash/Octoberfest combo party. I had let the chickens out for a couple house prior to us leaving, so they'd be able to run around a bit before getting locked up for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the kids seemed to scare 4 of the 5 away into some place we couldn't find them *just* before we left, so we had only the one lonely hen in the coop.. and then it was time to leave, so they were out for the rest of the day, on their own.

Just before we left though, I checked the box one more time, and saw my biggest R.I. Red was actually sitting in the next box.. I thought that was curious, but didn't think much of it cause I was still a bit irritated lookig for the rest of the flock which were quite cleverly hidden still. Come back to this in a moment..

So, we go to the party, and good times were had by all. It was a great fest, and the 'brats were really tastey, and there was a good cheese selection as well. Yumm!

On arrival at home many hours later, it turns out that the coop was all locked up.. seems our friendly neighbors to the east were able to locate the birds that evening and secured them up for us. Thanks guys! In addition to all 5 chickens being found, when  I opened the nest box door for a cursory glance inside, I found this:

I almost pee'd my pants, I tell you! 20 weeks, 2 days and one evening later, my chicken's first egg!  Of course, I suspect the R.I. Red that was in the nest box just befor we left.. she's one of only two really developed enough to produce an egg at this time, and she was last seen in the area.. so.. you do the math. Here's an up close pic taken during daylight in front my my computer here:

As you can (?) see, it's a slightly odd shaped egg, a bit long and pointy shaped... and quite on the small side.  Actually, a quick trip to the gram scale (at 41.2 grams) puts it on the high side of the "peewee" class.. the smallest size egg recognized by the USDA! It's normal, according to my research, to have chickens start out with small and unusual sized eggs, so I'm not worried.. just sorta curious when the rest are gonna step up to do their work.

As a side note, I'm drinking a vac pot prepared coffee with 14 grams of coffee per 9 oz of water.. this is a deviation from my now normal 18-15 gram hit in the morning. Just wanted to step back to my old standards and see how things tasted. Well.. weak is the word. I don't like it. Time to re-brew and start the morning off right.

That's all for now..

Clever Coffee Dripper.. sort of a silly name, eh?

I couldn't help myself. When a new coffee brewer comes on the market, it gets my attention. When a new coffee brewer made specifically for single cup brews comes on the market, it *really* gets my attention, re: Aeropress, small vac pots, manual pour-overs.. etc. Now, when a new coffee brewer made for single cup extractions comes on the the market and it's DIRT CHEAP, and get's RAVE REVIEWS from the places I look for for coffee info comes on the market, I lose all control of my credit card. I took a second loks, and then a thirteenth look.. and then it happened. I ordered it. $13.50 for the Clever Coffee Dripper (yeah, I know.. but the product is so cool!) and I hope to have it here soon. Pictures when the thing comes in.. there's a million on the web right now, though. Go take a look.

In other news, while doing some poking around at this above-mentioned item, I came across a lot of good info for coffee brewers doing stuff with weights for coffee *and* water amounts, instead of X grams for Y liquid ounces of water. It's all, in my case, 14 grams for 255 grams of hot water. As it turns out, with the fact that water expands when you heat it, it's apparently easier to just weigh the stuff on a scale as you infuse it, instead of trying to eyeball the volumes. I'm interested in using this with my Aeropress in the future, because the only downside to the press is with fresh coffee, the bloom get's so outrageous, it's hard to tell where the actually water volume is inside the tube. If I use water weight after tare'ing out the scale, I'll be much more consistent. I dragged out the brewing scale this morning and tried it, and I'll be darned if it really wasn't so! The only issue now is, the Boss will have my head of I try to keep this other scale out in the easily accessible kitchen area.

Is it just me, or is single cup brewing getting an aweful lot of attention lately? Aeropress, this new Clever dripper, the famed Clover in the big shops.. 5 years ago, all of this would have gotten you laughed out of the coffee shop.. now, it's standard issue. Heck, I was reading just the other day where there's already coffee bars with manual pour-over stations, Clever drip stations, single serve Halogen heated vac pot lineups.. etc, etc. It's not just espresso for a single serve anymore.. I like it!

The final result on the Monterry..

So, I cracked open the Monterrey Jack last night, with the assistance of Don. We actually split it in half, then split one of those pieces in half again.. the remaining 3/4's was re-waxed and put back in the fridge for sampling with a bit more ageing on it. In any case, here's a couple pics:

As you can see here (below), the one quarter that we dug into is a sizable chunk. It's about 0.5 lbs worth right there, and there's still quite a bit left of this first 1/4 for anyone interested in coming up for a try.

 

Some little scrub that came into the kitchen when she heard there was cheese around.. and I quote "Daddy's cheese is good!"

 

Here's another scrub that was in the kitchen, too.. Don! Look at him pimping that SinCity pint glass, too! 

 

And here's a final view of the project after the slicing, dicing and re-waxing of the other pieces. Those are back in the fridge as I type.. and we'll try them out in another few weeks. Like I said, gimme a shout if you wanna try it.

 

The end result of all this being, good cheese! For a mildly aged Jack, it's got a nice creamy flavor, and a slight tang from the acidity to it. It's VERY edible.. I'm quite happy with the way it came out. I'm really excited now to try the Jalapeno cheese now, since I know I did that one better than this first one.

In other news, Don also showed up with hands full.. of beer! That funky Blonde beer I reviewed a while back with the apparent Brett infection? Got a few more of those in the fridge now.. we'll see how they've fared with a bit more time on them. Looking forward to that this afternoon, tell you what.