reallyfinsweet's Xanga

but

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:42:27 GMT

(So here's where recession meets phil.)
I have a job interview coming up. Its in North Seattle.

I'm top 5 (out of 400+) in the WA region right now, but if I take this new gig I risk that due to shitty market.

But its a bunch of non-incentive money.
But if I don't deliver, I'm on the old chopping block in the post bush economy.
But I should be doing that shit anyway...right?

Job security vs. mo' money and potential advancement.

risk it?

late to the party

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:17:06 GMT

But I finally started listening to Pandora on me ipod and, like everybody else, I am totally loving it.

late to the party

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:37:16 GMT

Man, I really dig Google's browser, Chrome.

It seems like it runs with minimal resources from my overworked little computer! Thats the main thing I need with the app right now and it seems like they nailed it compared to the other browsers I've used in the past (FF, IE, Opera, etc).

-

Anyhows a lot has been going on with me lately and I haven't touched the old blog lately.

Small example- I bought a place.

So I'm not big on the communication thing, sorry. I will try harder for any potential blog perusers and my own chronicle.

Happy holidays folks!

kegging is frustrating

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:21:25 GMT

So there's clearly a leak in my co2 regulator, cause I'm out of gas one day after my force carb began.

annnnd I don't have a wrench to take off one of the stripped couplings on one of my kegs.

annnnd the beer that I did actually get to taste out of said keg was nasty. I thought I had worked pretty hard on sanitation & cleaning of the keg but clearly not. There's five gallons of ruined beer in my keg fridge that I can't even get to if I wanted to as the gas is effing leaky.

Bah. I have two beers that I'm really excited about in fermentation. I'm considering making a basic extract beer to put on tap because I'm concerned that the hard work that I put into those two complicated, all grain brews would be lost due merely to dispense options.

sigh.

Belgian Tripel

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:12:51 GMT

Its day two of fermentation on for my latest beer, a Belgian Tripel, and I woke up to go take a peek. I'm using my plastic fermenter for four gallons, even through the plastic its clear that this beer is alive. My airlock is moving quickly, about two or three times every other second. The krausen is rising, so far it looks like a hefty 3 inches.

12.5 Lbs pilsener malt mashed one hour at 153 deg f single infusion. Runnings were hazy a bit longer than last batch, 2 more qts re circulated.

Sparged 3.5 gal at 165 deg f. Collected a scant 4 gallons of wort, there was more in the tun. Should have used the rest to ferment a nice small lager. Lessons learned I guess.

Boiled 1 hr with 1lb candi sucrose (adjunct) and 1/2 lb pilsener DME (just in case )

OG read a little shy of the spec 1.081, more like 1.065. hopefully the dme and sucrose gave a decent boost. Will have to thief a sample to test another time...I'm late for work

Pitched at 74 deg f, got some orval to culture bottling yeast at another time.

EDIT 08/03/08

Took FG reading today, 2 weeks in secondary left the beer at 1.010, just off of the 1.012 target. Reading past notes reminded me that the OG was running low. I'm interested to see whats going to happen.

Force carbed at 15 psi for one hour...

Corny's

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:14:52 GMT

I kegged batch three (Dino Amber) tonight. Its the first batch I've been able to keg.

I got a noseful as soon as I opened the lid on the primary. It was a huge whiff of stale, malty co2. Racked the batch into the keg, ran through just a smidge of the wort for a taste. It was very thin. We'll see after its bubbly, but this might not be the greatest batch.

All-Grain, no kidding!

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:06:40 GMT

Yesterday was a day of brewing and brew related activity. I obtained a Keg Fridge with a two tap tower! I've wanted one for years. Now I just need some Cornelius kegs and a couple of fittings til I'm ready to start kegging!

I've taken a drastic leap with my brewing, making my first ALL GRAIN batch yesterday night.

Oak Butte Brown (Palmer's How to Brew)

Mashed 1 hr 153-151 d(f), no mash out, sparged 3.5 gal @ 166 d(f)
7 lbs american 2 row
2 lbs Crystal #80
.5 lbs Victory
.5 lbs Chocolate

Mt. Hood @ 60 min
Willamette @ 15 min

forgot irish moss, broke stupid hydrometer!! Dammit!!
used new mash tun with great success, lost one degree in one hour, no clog, recirculated ~3 qts until clear runnings.

Cooled in ~40 minutes in sink and picnic cooler with siphon/sprayer/ice all going in both sinks. Pitched another dose of rogue's Pac-Man (Wyeast). Excited to start cultivating that strain .

Fermenting in glass w/ blowoff hose July 3 expected pull is July 17. By next morning the blowoff is bubbling rapidly!

Totally stoked for this batch to come out, might keg rather than bottle...we'll see

Brewin'

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:16:02 GMT

This is a nice obsession.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Sun, 11 May 2008 05:15:19 GMT

Bad workplace sign #132

I've been sick for a whole work-week and too stressed out to realize it.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:22:06 GMT

I keep reading this bitchy review of one of my employer's banking centers on yelp. This lady is whining about a fee that is extremely reversible. I have never spoken to this woman, just reading her yelp profile shows me one way I can eliminate that fee. Its so simple! She doesn't need to open any other accounts or sign a single document.

Why complain on the fucking internet when she could just ask a banker to fix something? Too high on herself to admit she doesn't know everything in the world, I guess.

On the work-related plus side, I'm hitting my goals for work.