Photos from Tournament of the Lily
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Back to Brewing
This weekend, my father came up from Florida to drop off some yard equipment. Yay for having my own lawn mower and trimmer. However, this left us with a Sunday with no real firm plans.
So, it was time to get back to my roots as a homebrewer. You see, I actually learned brewing from my father. I was in middle school when he picked up the hobby, and I used to help with all aspects of the brewing process. I can say I’ve been bottling beer since 7th grade, and it still sucked back then.
To kick off the inaugural batch for my new keg system, I thought something with a nice creamy head would really take advantage of the kegerator. Thus, I pulled out my Creamy Vanilla Ale recipe, and Dad and I spent the afternoon relaxing, not worrying, and making home brew.
Let’s see – I found out that my stove really won’t do the job for bringing wort up to a boil. We had to span the pot over two burners to get anywhere, and it still didn’t really boil like I would have liked. Guess I need to find a turkey fryer (that might be fun in January/February). I also learned that the new yeast smack packs from American Brewmaster really take off. I smacked it at the start of the brew process and the dang thing looked like it was going to explode before the wort was cool enough. Lastly, I think I used the wrong grains – it should still be tasty, but not as blonde as the last one.
Looking forward, I’m planning two experiments in the future. In the near term, I’m going to make one more partial extract beer (to use up some of the malt extract I’ve got sitting around), but this time I want to make it with Durham’s Municipal water. I’ve gotten the watter quality assessment from the city, and it’s not horribly far off the water I’m buying in the stores.
Then, probably after Ymir, I’m going to go for an all grain batch. Considering that there will be lots of opportunities to add hops, I think that one is going to be an IPA.
If all goes well, I should be able to bring a keg or two to Ymir, and anyway, it’ll be on tap at my house. Stay tuned for news of keg tapping day.
The Juicy Secret to Seasoning Meat | Food & Wine
The Juicy Secret to Seasoning Meat | Food & Wine.
No one size fits all rules, here, unfortunately. I suppose that’s a reason to cook more…
Hi, I’m a mystery plant
This is in my yard, just beginning to bloom (maybe a third ofthe flowers are open). First I thought rose of some sort, before it bloomed, then I thought blackberries, now I’m wondering if it’s a rosa multiflora like Jenny’s. Help?
How’s your kit these days, Sire…
There’s often a question as to, “what should my kit look like?” I know that fully encased arm rigs are acceptable for the 14th Century, but so aren’t mail chauces. Should I wear one with the other?
The nice folks over at A Commonplace Book linked to a nifty article by Doug Strong. He did a statistical analysis of 250 effigies in England, and broke down their armor into bar graphs per decade. Thus, I can look at the 1380′s and see that while my arm rig, gauntlets, and breastplate are great, my lack of real greaves and sabatons are woefully anachronistic. (Good thing I play in the SCA, right?)
It’s also interesting to see these graphs in relation to the 100 Years War. When you consider the Battles of Crecy and Poitiers, in 1337 and 1356 respectively, you see a bunch of different styles of armor quickly getting drilled down to one major one and a few examples of a runner up. In most cases, by the 1360′s, armor has standardized to a single type. However, you don’t see huge changes in the 1420′s after Agincourt in 1415.
Anyone still on Geocities?
My hosting provider, Dreamhost, is giving away free hosting if you are. It’s a *really* nice deal… they’re only giving away 1,000 free spots though, so…
DreamHost Blog » They’re Internet History.
Nope, no kickback to me off this. 
Though I still think after yesterday’s post the Met should give me a commission.
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