This Sucks...

I have tried to not let the whole rising gas prices get to me. However, I'm to the point now where it's getting ridiculous. This is what I see on my drive to work...

Beth actually told me this weekend that I could get a motorcycle. I've always wanted one for fun, but I can see my motivation changing to necessity more every day...

Las Vegas and Kegging Homebrew

Hello All. Sorry for the delay in posting lately, but spent the last 2 weeks in the Nevada desert doing a project for work. I was out at Nevada Test Site, the place where the govt decided it would be a good idea to test a bunch of nuclear weapons back in the 40's & 50's. Trust me, if you're a rad geek like me, there's no shortage of things to work on out there. Don't feel too sorry for me, as I did get in some Vegas party time. No gambling (not really my style), but saw some sights, drank some beers, and had some really great food. It's looking like I'll have to spend more time out there this summer, so perhaps I'll do some gambling then. Here's the view from my hotel the first week. Not bad for a camera phone...

The latest batch of homebrew was started before I left for Vegas, but didn't get done until I returned. The batch is an extract kit from Northern Brewer based on a Fat Tire clone recipe. It's not all that close to the original, but it's still really good. This is my second time brewing it, but the first time kegging. More on that later... The Yellow Jacket Amber name came about when I noticed that a yellow hjacket landed in the brew kettle during the boil. Poor sucker didn't know what hit him, but since he didn't drink much and I've got the Ga Tech connection, the name just stuck.

Since my last brewing post, I've got some upgrades. Mainly, I'm doing full wort boils now (thanks to a honkin' turkey fryer burner). This allows Russ & I to do most of it outside, which makes Beth happy since I no longer occupy the kitchen while brewing. :-)

The shop now doubles as a brewhouse, as seen by the workbench being occupied by a fermenting carboy. The blue thing is my temperature controller, which I have in line with a heater that's wrapped around the carboy to make sure I keep a nice & even fermentation temperature throughout. I'm learning that temperature control is one of the keys elements in going from making so-so beer to really good beer. That, and making yeast starters, which I'm doing now too :-)

And after about two weeks, we racked the beer into one of my newly purchased 5-gal Corny kegs. These are actually used Pepsi soda kegs that are cleaned, filled and pressurized with CO2. These things are cheap and readily available these days since soda distributors don't really use them anymore. And let me tell ya...I've seen the light! I may never bottle a batch ever again. Having to clean only 1 container instead of 40 is a blessing I can hardlt describe. Plus, it's just too damned cool to be able to pour DRAFT beer at home! DRAFT BEER! All it took was removing a shelf from the beer fridge to fit the keg and CO2 bottle. I've got room for 2 kegs in there at a time and have already begun the thought process of installing faucets in the front door. Yeah, Baby!

The next batch is going to be a hopped-up version of the same recipe to make it more of an American Style Amber. I hope to have it in the fermenter by mid-June.

Lunch Time Fun

Benefits of working across the street from a bowling alley!  Even better, when I went in, I saw Mikey from OCC shooting scenes for an upcoming American Chopper episode!  I took a camera phone shot, but must have forgotten to hit the save button :(  Anyway, If you see a bowling alley scene on American Chopper, I was there.  WooHoo!

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Happy Birthday Auntie Dee Dee!

Last weekend I traveled back to the homeland, Chicago, to celebrate my Auntie Dee Dee's 75th birthday. This was a surprise party organized by my cousins Theresa, Rosie, and Rita. I come from a very large extended family on my Mom's side. My Mom is from a family of 11, so even if all of my aunts & uncles had small families of their own, it would be a rather large family. Well, Auntie Dee decided to have 9 kids! I stopped doing the math years ago, but figure I have close to 50 1st & 2nd cousins just on my Mom's side! Here's a photo of me with the birthday girl. It was funny as she didn't recognize me at first. Guess losing all that hair made me incognito...

Here's one of me with my Uncle Joe. He's my Mom's younger brother and one of my namesakes. My grandfather was named James Joseph, so Mom just switched the names to get mine. As you can see, we have alot in common. I can easily see myself looking just like him in 30 years.

And here's a shot of Auntie's Dee Dee's clan (at least a portion of it, with in-laws). It was great fun hanging with all of them, catching up on old times, and getting drunk along the way. I hope we get many more chances to do this in the future.

Happy Birthday, Auntie Dee Dee. Hope you have many many more to come :-)