Brewing Update 3.0

As of yesterday, gravity hadn't dropped to much from previous measurement, and is approaching final gravity estimate... so I added the gelatin finings to help precipitate out proteins. In 2-4 more days I should be able to bottle, after it's cleared a bit and finished fermenting.

Brewing Update 2.0

Gravity is still dropping, indicating additional fermentation. Good to see the additional yeast is doing it's job. Mouthfeel of the baby beer has improved a bit by sitting a bit longer, and the initial chocolate flavors are mellowing nicely. Slight dry pine flavor on the finish, which I attribute to the additional hops I added : )

Brewing Update

Well, due to some unintended temperature swings, I think I shocked the yeast in the fermenter... so today, I transferred to my glass carboy and added a bit of champagne yeast as per the instructions of a seasoned brewer. Looks to have restored the previous rate of fermentation and shouldn't really add any time to the overall process... and it shouldn't really mess up the taste too bad. Lesson learned. Tomorrow I'll sample the gravity again... I expect a few more days of dropping gravity before it really levels off and then I'll start bottling.

Brewing!

Alright. First batch of beer is now in the fermenting stage. 8 days before the next step, then 5 more days til bottling, then 3 weeks to age.

I decided to start with a Porter. I made some substitutions to the stock Porter recipe to produce a particularly rich, dark brew. I hope it works out. Here are some pictures.

Sterile Tools.


Steeping the grains.


About ready to add the malt.

Ready for first addition of hops.

Hopped.

Hopped again (3rd time actually).

Siphoning the wort into the fermenter.

Wort.

Mess.


Yeast added, this is now baby beer.
In light of the fact that it's a Porter, and the expected rich, dark, exciting taste, I've decided to call this brew:
(That's a picture I took on the beach during our vacation to Puerto Rico 2 years ago.)

And I've decided my "brewery" will be called:

Update!

Long time, no post. Will start posting again now that I'm back in KC with more time.

In short, great break so far. Went to Texas, shot a huge wild boar, went to Iowa, had a good New Year's, got to spend a lot of time with Naomi.

Today, I will start my first beer batch.

Here's a picture of a picture of the boar I shot. Sorry for poor quality. Not sorry for the forced perspective though ;-). In all seriousness, however, it did weigh probably 250 lbs.

New bike parts day!

My birthday present from my mom finally arrived (well, she let me buy it with her credit card).

SRAM Courier GXP Crankset w/ 48t chanring.

We'll see how well I can push 48:16. Pushing a gear a bit too big for me back in Boston (46:16 when I first started riding fixed) is what made my quads get huge... so maybe now that I'm used to 46:16, stepping it up a bit will produce further hypertrophy. Sorry Naomi. (She already thinks I look disproportionate).

Hooray for new bike parts day!

Old Music...

So I was looking through my iTunes library, and found a bunch of old.... "songs" that I have made over the years. Some are pretty entertaining and interesting, although you can tell my musical skills are pretty pathetic, and three funny ones.

The Funny Ones:
Study - Techno Remix. A mind-blowing techno masterpiece I designed for people to listen to while they're studying. It's inspiring, and increases focus. (It should be noted that when I made this, it was supposed to be funny. I never thought it was good.)

pseudotalent3. This one might drive you insane. It's such a cacophany.

MothersDay. A joint effort between B(1), B(2), and M(the). I wrote the amazing lyrics.

The Others:
new welcome. I recorded this for a pseudotalent intro. I actually really like it. I think it's really catchy.

rock. Another pseudotalent one. I like this one too.

Bunch. One I made with Acid, a loop-based music package... it sounds pretty polished because it's built entirely from precorded loops. Kinda neat.

Asada. One that involved some actual instrument playing; I ended up using this in a slackline vido that Bjorn and I made.

work in progress. Another one that included some basic "I can pluck a string" guitar playing, with alot of artificial distortion. I like this.

darkbeat. An experiment in beatboxing.

5 track throatsong. And this one again, just cause I'm proud of it.

Naomi is the best girlfriend ever.

My homebrewing kit arrived in the mail today : )

I'm not even going to think about starting a batch until I'm done with this test, but I'm still very excited : )

5 Track Throatsong...

So, I got sick of studying today, and I decided to play around with some different kinds of throat singing, beatboxing, and Garage Band. I recorded 5 different tracks of my vocals, and layered em up. I only used one effect (to make the beatbox sound a little less like a human voice, I used a "Crunchy Drum" filter on it).

It's pretty rough, but not bad for about a half an hour of editing with buggy software : )

It will take a second to load, but then you should be able to have a listen by clicking the play button below.
(If that doesn't work, click here).

A comment posted about the KHS on Velospace...

:-)

Good News

Although it will screw up my spring break...

Dear Dr. Tjaden, Jr.,

We are pleased to inform you that your abstract submission (Aggressive Evidence-Based Management of Catastrophic Brain Injury: Effects on Mortality, Discharge Status from Hospital, and Organ Donation) has been accepted as a Poster Presentation at the Southwest Surgical Congress.

http://www.hoteldel.com/

:-)

Black Sabbath is Awesome

Give it a shot. Even if you think you'll hate it, listen to these songs. Planet Caravan is just amazing.
*edit: Fixed it, all the songs should play now.

Funny

Sickly!

Ugh. I'm sick as a dog. Have been since the day after Thanksgiving. Sneezing, horribly runny nose, cough. Been very difficult to study. I'm a bit concerned about getting all this stuff learned in time, but we have a long weekend to study before the test... and counting the makeup, I have until December 12th to learn it all. Also, some neat updates:

Pictures from Cranksgiving.

And a video of Bill and I practicing some didgeridoo / bucket jamming. Pretty early in our learning curve; this was our first jam session. We got better than this, and will record some more next time we're together.

That's all for now. Back to coughing, sneezing, &c.

Proof of Concept - Cheapo Helmet Cam

Using some industrial strength velcro, I managed to mount my cheapo digital camera pretty securely in a cutout area of an old helmet. I think it'll work. Granted, I've reduced the structural integrity of the helmet to a point where it may not provide any support at all, but.... something.