December 11, 2006 - Monday  | My weekend So, I came home from work on Friday, and I started the weekend off with two and a half shots of Jack Daniels. Yeah, I know, what a way to start off a weekend.
So, we went down to the Tri-State sale and were hanging out, looking for bargains. So, I was walking down towards the brewing section. A few minutes pass while I am browsing, and this old guy comes up and says to his wife, "Oh, look, we could learn how to brew beer." About 30 seconds later, he asks me, "Do you brew your own beer."
Of course, if you read my blog, I am trying, so I tell him I'm trying, and that it's not working out too well. I tell him I have made 2 batches, the first one was pretty weak, and the second one, I haven't even tried yet. We got to talking for a few minutes. He had been brewing for years, and had made a couple batches of beer, but mostly he made wine. He asked me if I had a glass carboy, I said no, he said he had like 20. One of us brought up apple cider, I told him I made some once, and he told me he had about 30 gallons or so sitting at home. His wife said she wished someone would come and take some of it from them. He said they would just have a party to get rid of it. "Oh, no, we won't!" she said in her old lady voice. He told me that it was a good hobby to have, and that just keep trying and I'd get it right.
I ran into that guy a few more times and I smiled at him as I was walking around Tri-State. He was a nice old guy, and he would have been fun to talk with for a few hours. We also ate 75 cents worth of 25 cent hotdogs for dinner. That's right, we spent 75 cents on dinner. We left Tri-State and we headed to the Christmas concert at the UI.
Now, UI doesn't have a bad choir, but compared to ISU, it's nothing. It wasn't a bad concert, but it wasn't great, and the sound was too loud, and it was really echo-y in the Kibbie Dome.
Saturday, I found out that the gravel pit that I've been shooting at a few times before is now closed to the public. So, rather than make Jessica go with me to Troy, we head back home, and I'm pissed off. So, we head home, and I sit around and do nothing all day.
Sunday, I lay in bed until my wife reminds me that I have to be home in time to go to Applebees at 1. So, I jump up and head out to White Pine to sight in my Tikka .30-06. It's a sweet shooter, and I put 40 rounds through it. I made some progress with it, and I got closer than it was, but it's still not close enough to hunt with for long distances. I also put 20 rounds through my 8mm mauser.
I headed home, and showered up. We headed to Applebees to pick up lunch, and then to my wife's friend's house. Ella, the friend, had a baby a couple months ago, and we haven't seen her yet. So, we met Lily, and had lunch with Ella. Lily looks just like her dad, who wasn't around because he was at work.
I went to my wife's study group for math, and sat about 10 feet away, stalker style, while they went over some concepts, and talked about the test.
Then, we went home, I played SOCOM, and we ate dinner, hung out, and I went to bed early.
Today, I kicked ass. I know that today wasn't really part of the weekend, but it needs to be put on my blog anyway. I fixed a few bugs today, and they were some pretty big ones too.
Then, I came home ate dinner, and then started to bottle my beer. I used a tube as a siphon, which means that I had to start it with my mouth, and it tastes pretty good. It's definitely stronger than my first batch, and it tastes a lot better. I'm still not ready to say that it's good, but I think it will end up aging into a decent brew to drink.
So, I'm sitting here watching Jeopardy and that's the end of my blog for today.
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| December 6, 2006 - Wednesday | As I sit and watch the Colbert Report I'm chatting with my buddy Jason and thinking about what kinds of things to take with us over Christmas break.
I don't know exactly what, but I'll be taking my 3 shootable rifles and a good chunk of ammo, my laptop so I can make plans with the friends that I can reach most reliably online. I'll be taking my nice new $14 jacket, of course. The Subaru, well, mostly for the gas mileage, all wheel drive, and the CD player. The Christmas presents that I need to take with me to give to people. Probably some of the beer I made for my dad to taste (if the 2nd batch is worth drinking by then). I don't know what else, but the Colbert Report is over, so I think it's bedtime.
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| Tikka I now own a lovely scoped Tikka T3 Light, 30-06 with a synthetic scope. Which means I "have" to go shooting on Saturday. AHHAHAHAHHAH
Weak sauce blog today...not much to say.
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| December 4, 2006 - Monday | weak sauce blog I felt like shit for most of the day. But I worked through it. My stomach and head were both bugging me. My stomach was pretty bad, but my head was hurting really bad. I've had a migrane all day.
I'm feeling much better now, but my head still hurts like a mofo, not as bad, but still no fun.
I kicked some butt at work today, I took care of a couple big things that have been on my list for a while, and they haven't been any fun.
That's it....that's all I got today.
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| sled 2.0 holy crap, it took a while to get started, but I was able to rebuild one of my sleds yesterday, and it's pretty sweet. I haven't had time to try it out yet, but I think I will tonight.
I took the pallet completely off, and I instead took 2 1' 2x4 posts and connected them with a 2' piece. Then I took that and attached them to a ski. I built 2 of these, and I connected them by putting a few boards on the top to create something that looks like a pallet on top. Then to give it strenth, I took 2 boards and put them on the front and back to give it some lateral strenth.
It feels pretty strong, but it's the type of thing that you won't know until you test it, and test it, and test it. Which is what I'm going to tell my wife when I make her go with me to test it. ;)
Anyway, it's Monday, and it's also the day that I'm dropping off my pickup loan check, so I'm slacking off for a bit this morning until the bank opens. I really should make that an automatic check too. I guess we'll see how all my auto payments go.
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| December 2, 2006 - Saturday | First home brew, and my Tikka Today wasn't a terribly good day. I'm not a fan of the mall in December, but I spent a lot of time there today. I got a haircut. I also got a coat for like $14. It wasn't a total waste of time, but I still hate being at the mall this time of year.
I went bird hunting this morning, and it was pretty fun. I found a few birds, but they were too far away to shoot at. The snow wore me out. I did shoot at one, but it was too far away. So, I didn't get it.
The next big action I took was to head to the local sporting goods store, where I bought a Tikka T3 Light Synthetic .30-06, with the blued barrell. This is a super fabulous gun, but it won't be in until the end of the week.
Now, I'm sitting around drinking one of my first home brews. The flavor has mellowed, and I'm drinking the whole thing. It's not really strong, the flavor is pretty light, and I wish it was less hoppy (my 2nd batch reflects this theory). But, overall, it is definitely beer. I guess we'll see what the alcohol content is after I stand up, but I don't think there is much. Oh well, that will come as I get better at this.
Also, it wasn't very carbonated. It had a very small pop when the lid came off. Part of the reason I wanted to try one of my first batch before I bottled my 2nd batch was to check the carbonation. These practice batches will help out when it comes to making real batches. I'm also going to make my first real batch with canned malt extract for that extra help in getting a real batch going.
Anyway, wish me luck, I'm going to stand up and head off to scavenge for food, pajamas, and the tv remote.
The flavor is really smooth and mellow, and really wheaty. There is a really
hoppy, pretty bitter, aftertaste.
So, my next batch will have more
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| November 30, 2006 - Thursday | Pistol shopping and such I went pistol shopping today. I thought I was interested in a semi-auto, but I started looking at revolvers too. Now, I'm not sure. I'll wait for a while before making a decision about a pistol. I've still got a rifle that tops the list of guns to buy.
Anyway, I ended up in a ditch while I was playing around on the way to work today. I got out, but not until some scary rednecks stopped to not help me because "I don't want to mess up my rig." So, f that guy, and hooray for my super truck!
That's pretty much it for now.
PEACE
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| November 29, 2006 - Wednesday | The next brew I used a touch less chocolate malt, and a bit more of the golden malt for my latest brew. My first brew made a whole 3 bottles, my 2nd brew won't be bottled in the Grolsh bottles, instead they will be placed in plastic bottles due to the fact that I like Grolsh, but not enough to keep buying it for the bottles.
Next week, I'll be ready to taste test my first brew, and also to bottle my 2nd brew at the same time, which should make for some time wasting for a night!
I think this brew will be a bit better than the first one, but we'll see.
So, there you go.
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| November 28, 2006 - Tuesday | the jeff update 
My father in law took me out to play with his toys. The above picture is one of them. Also a Glock 45 semi-auto pistol, an old 9mm Luger style semi-auto pistol, and he took a few shots with his 30-06.
But the star of the show was his state-issue M4 carbine. ("They always are," says my friend Jason.) It was a total blast to shoot. I'm not used to putting 2 boxes of shells into a gun at a time. I'm also not used to shooting 3 rounds per pull of the trigger either. It was a kick in the pants. A quick pull of the trigger, and 3 .223 rounds would fly off toward the target, or, in my case, in the general direction of the target.
Of course, as usual, the safest place to be when I'm shooting was dead center of whereever I was shooting.
I was impressed by the 9mm pistol except that it was old and jammed too often. The .45 was just a blast, and it was a hell of a lot more hardcore than the 9mm. I wasn't really ready when it went off the first time.
The rest of my trip to Twin Falls wasn't too bad. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with my wife's family and I played video games while my brother in law wrote a paper.
I beat SOCOM: Combined Assault! I beat an entire game. I beat it on "easy as crap" and I don't care what you say about it, I still beat it.
My Grandma Barb isn't doing too well, and so that's no fun.
It's been snowing like a mofo around here, and apparently it has been all around the country.
That's been my life in a nutshell.
Word to your mom, I came to drop bombs, I got more rhymes than The Bible's got Psalms.
Peace
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| November 26, 2006 - Sunday | I'm back to civilization More later..... 5:15 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove | |
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| November 20, 2006 - Monday | I've got something in my front pocket for you Ok, here's what happened to me on Saturday.
Cam told me that he was going to be alone, and I was going to be alone for the weekend. So, I headed over there around 4. We kinda watched "V for Vendetta" while we went through a 6 pack of PBR and played WOW (World of Warcraft). 3 beers in, my wife and my mom called (seperately). My wife caught on quickly, my mom might have been tying one on herself ;).
While I was on the phone with my mom, a coyote came around looking for something or other, but it was crazy because it was right in town, all cocky-like.
Anyway, we headed down to Conoco and bought some more beer. I picked up an 18 pack of Budweiser and a tallboy of MGD. Cameron picked up a bottle of Boone's Farm Fuzzy Navel and a 12 pack of Coors Original. My hope was that I would have beer for the entire time my wife was gone, and some left over.
We started drinking and playing WOW some more. I started my own character and Cam gave me pointers while he played Madden.
For some reason, we got bored and decided that we wanted to hang out with other people, so we went for a walk. We didn't get 2 feet out the door and we heard voices, so, of course we headed toward them. We found this girl outside on her phone, so we asked her where the party was, and she told us how to get into her house, and to tell everyone that....
"Erin sent us," we said as we walked in. We made our introductions and sat down to bullshit with these people we had never met before. We had brought our own beer, so it's not like we were after free beer or anything.
Let me introduce a couple characters (I'm going to describe this whole party with introductions):
The gay dude: this guy was the former FFA president. He was flaming gay, and kept saying, "Cracker, uuuuh." He was funny, but Cam thought he might be gay for the attention. He was the life of the party until we showed up.
The skinny drama queen: I never got much background on her, but she would have been a really good drama queen. She was fun, but she was over dramatic. It might have been the wine, but that was her.
The quiet dude: There was one quiet little blonde dude hanging out on the couch. He didn't talk unless spoken to, but when he did, his comments were pretty funny.
The bitchy red-heed and her fat friend: These girls worked at Wells Fargo and they were bitchy, but the red-head was pretty hot. I talked to them most of the time they were there because they were the liveliest.
The complete and total badass: This guy was wearing a sweat shirt that had the video game rating "Rated M" symbol on it. He played video games, and hunted and such. I didn't get his number or anything, but he was pretty bad ass.
Erin: The host. She was really nice, and she was a kick in the pants when she would interact. She wasn't quiet, but she wasn't as lively as the rest of us either.
So, after the party, we left and I crashed on Cam's couch and slept under a sleeping bag from about 2:30/3:00ish until around 7:30 in the morning. It was over quite a bit of time, but when all was said and done, there was 2 Coors and 6 Budweisers left when I grabbed my beer and headed out around noon.
That was the party. It was fun. I don't plan on doing it again anytime soon, but I'm glad I did.
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| November 19, 2006 - Sunday | First beer impressions Ok, it's not aged, carbonated, or cold.
BUT
It is not entirely bad.
It's toasty. It's kinda wheaty. I like the hops, but I think there's too much, so less next time. It smells like yeast, but it doesn't taste like yeast.
Well, it's sealed up, and aging in my cooler in my office.
I guess I'll have to see once I get back from Twin, but it's not a failure. I'm not claiming success yet, but I definitely didn't fail.
Last night, I drank some beer.....a lot....Cameron and I crashed a party, it was pretty fun. The sheer amount of beer I drank last night might be affecting my beer tasting capabilities...again, we'll see.
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| November 15, 2006 - Wednesday | The Brew Ok, so, here's what I did.
Last night, I told you that I broke up the wheat.
So, I put it in the coffee pot when I got home. As per the instructions, I put 2 cups of water in and turned it on. It came out a nice brown color. Note to self (any one else) it doesn't take much chocolate malt to turn the beer dark. So, again, as per the instructions, I added one cup of water and started poured it back. I did this a total of 5 times, adding a cup every time except the last time, I added 2 cups.
Once it was done brewing in the coffee pot for the 5th time, I poured it into my big pot, and turned it on high to bring it to a boil. It was almost half a gallon of water that I ran through the coffee pot. Some of it was already gone due to the coffee pot. Well, it promptly boiled over (remember? it was already hot from the coffee pot) so I, using my head, uncovered it--I should have turned it down.
20 minutes later, I was supposed to add the hops, according to my recipe. So, I added the hops. When I dropped the muslin bag in, I only saw bubbles. Well, I guess between the steam and the dehydraded hops sucking a bunch in right away, there wasn't a lot of water left......and when I say that, I mean it. There was almost nothing left. So, I got some new water and poured it into the pot. I didn't know how much to add, so I didn't add much, but I was pleased to see it take up the nice brown color the wort (that's what it's called at this stage) had before it had all evaporated.
The reason I think this might still be ok: steam is just water, so steam is escaping, and I just replaced the steam that had escaped. When the steam left, it left everything the water had dissolved. So, the water I put back in just diluted it back to the original strength.
Anyway, so, once it had boiled for another 30 minutes, I took the pan off the stove and dropped the pan in a sink full of water, with some ice, to cool it off. Once it was less than 80 degrees, I poured it into the milk jug that I'm using for my fermentation chamber and realized that I didn't have much of the original half gallon. But...I added the yeast, and it's all nice and dark colored, and so, I've got 3/4 of a gallon of beer that might or might not be brewing, or that might or might not end up being beer, or might or might not be any good at all once it's done.
I'm leaving it on the counter, hoping it will start bubbling a bit tonight before bed, if not, I'm going to put it in the closet in my office so that it will brew up nice and good without being all skunky from the UV.
So, the damn wind is blowing my porch swing over (again) so I better go find a way to secure it.
OUT.
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| November 14, 2006 - Tuesday | The first 2 nights as a "brewer" I haven't brewed SHIT, but I'm ready to start tomorrow.
Yesterday, I cleaned up the coffee pot, and did research. It was pretty uneventful, but I took the coffee pot and sanitized it and cleaned it as best as I could. I also made sure it worked and let it soak in vinegar overnight. It's clean enough now. Also yesterday, I looked at online sites.
Tonight, I went to Tri-State and got a few things. I decided not to do an Oatmeal Stout because the oatmeal adds a new dimension of stuff to do, and with my first brew, that's probably not a good idea.
So, I got the Chocolate malted barley and some Great Western 2 row malted basic barley. I also got some basic domestic Chinook hops and some basic Ale yeast. I also got a jug of water.
For equipment, I picked up a muslin bag for holding the hops during the brewing process, a funnel, an airlock, a big pot, and a hot glue gun for sealing the airlock to the jug.
Once I got home, I drilled a hole into the jug lid, and glued the airlock to the lid. Then, I measured out 1/4 cup of the chocolate malt, and 1 cup of the golden barley. I poured them into a ziplock bag and pulled out the trusty rolling pin and started rolling. While I know that the "easy" way to deal with the grain is to just buy pre-ground or pre-extracted malt, my instructions call for grinding the grain myself, so that's what I'm doing.
Now, I'm blogging about it.
On a more negative note, my grandmother had a stoke yesterday. She's doing ok, but then again, she's not. It's no fun for anyone. She's in the hospital, and she's going into a rehab program to get back to a degree of normalcy.
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| November 13, 2006 - Monday | Home Brew...Redux Ok, so I want to home brew (again). It's been a long time since I've done any brewing, and now I'm legal to drink the products.
So, here's what I'm doing for my test batch: How To Brew Beer in a Coffee Pot
I've got a milk jug for my fermentation chamber, 4 pint bottles with resealable caps, and a coffee pot. I'm going to head to tri-state and see if I can get some food grade caulking and an airlock, that should keep it sealed up until it ferments.
So, the theory is to make the wort in the coffee pot by grinding up the wheat and putting it in a coffee filter like you are making wheat coffee. Once that's gone through a few times, you gotta boil it for 3 hours, adding hops appropriately.
Ok, so......the past......the home-brew history of Jeff Holbrook.
I was reading online about home-brew and decided that I could use a bucket that had a sealed lid. Originally it was a pickle bucket from Jimmy John's, where I worked. So, I cleaned the bucket up and poured some unpasturized (spelling?) apple cider in the bucket, then I took some champagne yeast and put it in to the cider. I had put a hose adapter into the side of the bucket, and I made the hose run into a bucket of water to keep the air sanitary inside the bucket. I placed it in the closet, and it stunk up my apartment. A couple weeks later, I opened it up and I was going to rack and bottle. But, before I did, I wanted to taste it. Yeah....I dumped it all out down the toilet. It tasted terrible.
Fast forward a year and a half or so.
I was in the dorms at UI, and wanted to try again. So, I got a couple friends together and we followed a very specific recipe that included some chemicals to keep it more sanitary, kill the natural yeasts, and stuff like that, and this time, we added sugar. We ran the hose into a bucket again, and ran a hose out of that into the hallway.....it stunk up my room and our end of the hallway. We opened it up to rack and bottle, but we decided to taste it first. It tasted just like my first batch. Well....I knew nothing went wrong this time, so I put some in a cup and started adding sugar. It went from terrible to bad to not bad to actually pretty good. We racked it a few times to get rid of the sediment, and then placed it in one gallon bottles. We drank it for a week or so until it turned to vinegar.
Both batches were a success. The first one was good, but I didn't know it. I expected it to taste better without adding anything. The second one was good, but we didn't bottle it right. I had made some hard cider, but I always wanted to try beer. So, now I'm going to try it. I want to get a good fermentation chamber, and I want glass. I want a big pot to boil it up in. I also want a good way to rack it and bottle it. I want some bottles. You know, I want it all. Of course.
My first batch should be started soon. I want to get the stuff tomorrow.
Walmart list:
water - they sell gallons of purified water for less than a buck.
that's it there
Tri-State list:
basic malted barley
chocolate malted barley
rolled oats
yeast
hops
air-lock
food grade caulk
funnel
That list should get me started. I'll get all the stuff ready, mill the grains, and get everything ready to get it started on Wednesday.
WHOOO HHOOOOOOO
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