Nothing Happens At Ten

That is the number of the current batch of beer I am making. I made my first batch in 1996, and now I am on batch number 50. Time flies like an arrow (fruit flies like a banana).

In honor of this batch I treated myself to a new, stainless steel brew pot. Here it is.

That is a Big Pot! What a beauty! It is a Tramontina. 18/10 stainless steel laminated-base induction-ready 22 quart stock pot!

I also treated myself to a new thermometer to hang in the wort while I steep the specialty grains for 30 minutes. Here they are, steeping away.

My new recipe calls for steeping the crystal malt for 30 minutes at a temperature between 160 and 170 degrees F.

Nailed it! This new pot has a laminated bottom with a stainless/aluminum/stainless sandwich, so the heat transfer is really even. After I steep the crystal malt for 30 minutes, I put in the honey, hops, and extract and take it to a full boil. I stir it really really fast.

After a while, I get that “Creature From the Black Lagoon”, heaving, rolling, foaming living, breathing effect.

It’s Alive! Bwaa haa haaa!

OK. Enough of that. Here is why I need a huge, 22 quart pot.

At this stage, my wort foams up to fill that entire pot. The original 6 quarts of beer wort has grown into 22 quarts. In my old 16 quart pot, that would be a boil over, and we all know what that means….( well OK… I know what that means…. a sticky mess to clean up).

After a few minutes, the wort settles down and goes to a simmer.

It got pretty boring after that, so I didn’t take any more photos. Maybe later I will post another photo of the bubbling bucket like I did a few months ago. Right now, I am in violation of my 15 second rule (“If it takes longer than 15 seconds to read a blog, it is too long”), so I am signing off.

Are you kidding me? Look at this temperature!

It does say “Date 3/18” down in the lower left corner. What is up with this weather?

Next thing you know, we’ll be getting another blizzard!

Oops. Jinxed it.

This is the last time I will post about the Augernaut…. really…. I mean it… it gets old…. but I had to show the machine working in its true element….. 24″ of snow.

When we bought this thing we were told that it will throw snow 40 feet. What do you think?

It threw snow not only into the middle of our yard, it threw snow into the middle of the neighbor’s yard.

Arrr arrr arrr!

Of course, there is a downside to throwing it upwind.

It’s snowing! Check it out.

Really.

OK. Slow day. Back to the pre-game show.

Check out these temperatures.

Colder.

Still cold.

‘Nuff said.

I decided to clean out the computer this morning. It gets dust bunnies in it, and if enough dust collects on the heat sinks, it can cause the computer to overheat and let the smoke out.

Computers really run on smoke, you know. You can tell it’s true because if you let the smoke out, the computer will stop running. That happened to this computer a few years ago because I didn’t clean it out.

So, I opened the hood to expose the guts of the computer, and blew out the dust.

The part I am cleaning in the photo is the heat sink of the CPU. Here is a closer view.

All of those fins have to be clean or it will smoke itself.

The thing that I am using to clean the computer is a Giottos Rocket, which I bought from Amazon for about $10. It replaces expensive, wasteful Canned Air for blowing out the dust. It is a rubber bulb with a valve on one end and the spout on the other. Squeeze it to pump air. Simple. The rocket works fine, and air, after all…. is free… right? Get the Large version if you get one.

Here is another photo of the Rocket.

Ignore those two stuffed shirts sitting next to it. They think that they are Rocket Scientists, but they are really only Linux Mascots. They act up in order to get attention. Ignore them, or they will never stop.

Today we got out the Augernaut to deal with this recent devastating snow storm.

Well, OK it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster. We got maybe two inches of the stuff, but it was heavy. The Augernaut was advertised as able to throw snow 30 feet. I think it did pretty well. You decide.

I guess it depends on which end of the plume you measure it. There was a little blowback in the wind.

Anyway, BIGASS snowblower, littleass storm. Who’d a guessed?

It’s Christmas Eve, and I thought I would share with you one of our favorite ornaments.

This little guy is a bit stressed, but we like him so much we can bearly stand it.

Have a Very Merry Christmas.