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Yes… It’s a learning experience.

This is yet another reason why you don’t want to overfill your fermenter.  Especially with a fruit mead.  The fruit clogged the blow off tube and…  Well, you see the results.  It will be really interesting to see how this mead turns out.  So far, the key word for this experience [...]

So, I’ve taken the traditional homebrewer’s path and I’ve decided to try to make some mead in addition to making beer.  I tried this morning to make a one gallon batch of a berry mead recipe that I found in Brew Your Own.  I succeded in making a big mess and, in a couple months, [...]

I’ve been thinking today about a Neal Stephenson interview where he talks about why he doesn’t answer emails.  I haven’t been able to find the interview that I remember, but Stephenson has apparently written and spoken on this topic quite a bit.  I found an essay that he had written called “Bad Correspondent“, but it [...]

I’ve recently acquired a monocle to be part of a 19th century steampunk look that I’m working on.  The first phase was growing out the mustache so that it could be curled.  Now, I have a monocle on a gold chain.  I thought it would be fun to post a picture here.  Also, in case [...]

Now that my hops have all been harvested, I will list all of the varieties that I planted in order of productivity.  This may or may not be a good indication of how well these hops grow in a Dectur, Georgia climate.
1) Centennial
2) Cascade
3) Hallertauer
4) Willamette
5) Chinook (almost nothing)
6) Fuggle (nothing)

I wrote this on my bike ride to work yesterday.  And yes, it often is a terrifying experience.  Also, this is the TV loop of the song.  There is in fact a tune.  Imagine it sung in an Elvis-like baritone.
Everybody drives a freakin SUV
Everybody drives a freakin SUV
I ride my bike
And that’s so nice
But there [...]

I had to post a link to this blog, just because I think it’s cool.  It’s a blog dedicated to knitting and homebrewing and the similarities between the two crafts.  From the “About the Author” section of the blog:
“A Knitter’s Guide to Beer” is a book project that will find similarities between the craft of [...]

Of course, just minutes after that last post, I went out to look at the hops and realized that some of the cones were turning brown and needed harvesting.  I harvested them by lowering the fence sections to the ground and clipping the cones off at that point.  It worked pretty well in that I [...]

As promised, here are some pictures of how the hop vines are doing.  They’re actually doing quite well as you can see.  The vines look very healthy and I first started noticing cones about a month ago.
The big question now is when to harvest.  From what I hear, the cones begin to feel dry and [...]