.: May 2012

27 May, 2012

Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet

The annual show and swap meet at the Elks Lodge was today. So I set the Indy 500 on record, and rode the beastly Miyata over. I didn't see many swap meet parts I needed, but was part of a few conversations between old timers talking about how rare and valuable an old crusty Honda S90 is. "When was the last time you saw an S90, sonny?" "Um, I've got four of them on the side of my garage." Here are some snaps, with a few captions.

Stunning BSA:

Front forks on the BSA

Hot little Rudge:

How the Ariel Square Four gets its name:

This was one of about a dozen original crusty old bikes:

Landspeed racer, complete with supercharger:

This was one of three bikes with mixed chassis and engines. This was a Greeves and a Triumph:

Love these old school leading link front ends:

Another crossbreed:

Great weather, great bikes, and a lot of old codgers shooting the shit about bikes. My kinda event.

24 May, 2012

Old Photos

Just some photos of yours truly:

L to R: Sis amanda, Cousin Lori, Mom and her sweet afro, and me

Me, sis, mom, and Gampa, playing his banjo:

Grandpa Dick and Grandma Pauline:

Me and Sis, and my bright blond hair:

Me at 1 day old, with Dad wearing his finest robe:

23 May, 2012

New Mash Tun

I realize I'm pretty far behind the times when it comes to my brewing equipment, but I finally built a mash tun out of a 5-gal cooler. I made up a false bottom out of some stainless sheet, drilling a bunch of 3/32" holes in it. The end result was more room for mashing all grain recipes. I also built a simple wort chiller too, which did a great job of cooling the wort down to 70 degrees in a matter of minutes.

Stainless false bottom:

Mash tun, made out of cooler:

Tonight I broke out the equipment and brewed up a 2.5gal Imperial Red Rye recipe:

- 3 pounds of two row

- 1 pound of crystal 60

- 1 pound of rye

- 1 pound of belgium aromatic

1/2oz of magnum at 45 minutes

1/2oz of cascade at 20 minutes

1/4oz of citra at 5 minutes

1/4oz of crystal at 5 minutes

1/2 teaspoon irish moss

1/2 teaspoon gypsum

1 packet S-05 Dry yeast

OG = 1.079

Estimated gravity of 8.9% abv

IBU = 46

Bisquit Malt Pale Ale

16 May, 2012

Owl Video

Co-worker Brian got video. Apparently he drank 10 gallons of coffee before shooting this, as he is shaking like a demon.

15 May, 2012

Owl Cam

We have four owl nests at work. This is just one of them, located about three stories up in the batch plant. We have to scare momma owl out of the room, which gives us about 2 minutes to take pictures and get the hell out before she comes back.

Baby owls are ugly. And no, the two little ones in the green spotlight (from Brian's camera) are not dead. They are just smaller.

09 May, 2012

Kona Brown

Kona Brown, with toasted coconut chips. Not bad, and I usually dislike coconut flavored things. The toasty flavor is what dominates, and makes it interesting.

Mead sampling

Sampling some meads. Lemon, pyment (grape), and blood orange tea, from top to bottom. All three still needs more time in fermentation, but they are getting better. Especially the lemon.

07 May, 2012

Dogfish Head Aprihop

Dogfish Head Aprihop. 12oz., 7% abv.

Quite possibly, one of the only DFH brews I like. Mostly because it is fairly mild. I get little to no apricot aroma or flavor. Which just left a nice IPA type base with a bit of alc warmth. Good, but not great. And not really apricotty.