Random Stuff

I've been spending time on Salty, so I haven't had much to report on. I've been hanging out for the past week with my better half recovering from surgery. That means I've been sampling numerous brews, watching quite a few movies, and tinkering in the garage.

Speaking of brews, I had my first bottle of a coffee stout I brewed about 6 weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised. The up front coffee aroma is a tad too strong, but it really mellows out in the body and has a great stout finish.

I also sampled my first bottle of what I call "Hoppy Magnum Alexander." I used a Pale Ale Mr. Beer kit, added some Alexander pale malt extract, and did a long 60 minute boil of magnum hops, which have a high 13.5% alpha content. I've been using a simple program called QBrew to make up my recipes, and it is helping me keep track of things. It's also helping me to tinker with quantities to better match up what styles of beers should be, in terms of bitterness and color.

On an unrelated note, here is a quick picture of Salty, my C110 racer bike I've been building over on this blog: http://saltygarage.blogspot.com/



And yes, I need to rake the leaves. But with the wind blowing everyday, I've decided to let mother nature have her way with the trees first. If the leaves happen to end up all in the neighbor's yard, who am I to argue?

C'