Random thoughts on Life, Music, and Beer.

Vacation

Friday, September 07, 2007 - 10:12 AM

I’m writing this sitting on the deck of a cottage in the middle of the woods in Wisconsin.  It’s the start of the second day of our vacation.  Carrie’s collecting acorns whilst I enjoy my coffee.

Yesterday was a good day.  We got up, got ready (finished packing, I had to take the car in for an oil change, etc.), and hit the road a little after noon.  We took our time getting here, stopping for lunch on the way, hitting the Brat Stop to pick up some good cheese and fresh, hand made brats.  A little closer to the cottage we stopped at a farm to get some fresh vegetables and herbs.

The rest of the day was just relaxing:  surveying the surrounding area, taking pictures all the way; a dip in the pool while sipping on home brewed wheat ales; dinner, consisting of the fore-mentioned hand made brats, home made salsa (made from the fresh vegetables and herbs), and of course, home brewed beer.  The rest of the evening was just lounging around the cottage.

I’ve taken several really great photos so far, and plan on taking many more.  (Unfortunately, I neglected to bring the USB cable for my camera, so I can’t post any photos until after we get back.)

Well, it’s about time to get back to the relaxing…

Monaco on Flickr and Google Maps

Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 10:08 AM

Continuing with my Google Maps/Flickr integration project, i’ve added photos from the second leg of Carrie and my honeymoon in Monaco.

There’s a big cluster of photos in the Japanese garden, so I suggest clicking on the larger map and zooming in to see them all.

Nice on Flickr & Google Maps

Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 04:14 PM

Well, I haven’t updated much since I talked about finally posing on Flickr - I’ve been a little busy.  First, I’ve added to the Flickr page, this time a glimpse of Carrie and my honeymoon in France, a few shots around the hotel where we stayed in Nice.

But, wait!  I’ve also been busy playing with Google maps, so not only do you have the photos on Flickr, but you can see exactly where these shots were taken:

Slowly Joining the 21st Century

Saturday, August 18, 2007 - 12:01 PM

George Krueger, now on Flickr.

In many, many ways, I’m way above the curve when it comes to the “interweb”.  I was online before there was such a thing as http://www - who here remembers dialing into a local BBS to access your email and usenet?

But on the modern web (I love how the young-uns, the “blogosphere”, and the ever clue-less media call it Web 2.0 - to some of us it’s more like Web 6.0), it’s taken me a while to adapt.  It took me forever to convert the old web page (which was hand written in straight HTML to the very end) to a content management “blog” format.  (It’s funny how my old site was like a blog in format way before there was such a thing - just, like I said, done by hand in HTML).

But I’m slowly progressing, I’ve finally got my Flickr account set up!  I do plan on eventually getting more up there besides Anubis, but for the time being, you’ll all just have to deal with looking at the most handsome cat in the world.

Mystery Ale

Sunday, August 12, 2007 - 05:08 PM

So, last night I brewed what I’m calling “Mystery Ale”.  The reason I’m calling it that is because I’m not sure where in the BJCP style guidelines it lands.

I threw this together based on some leftover ingredients that I had from the Wheat Ale.  I had the Caramel and Cara Pils malts, so I just went to the home brew store and picked up some base malt and hops.  Also, I used a packet of Nottingham yeast I had in the fridge.  (I was going to use some yeast that I had harvested from a batch a while back, but I guess I kept it too long. Since the starter I made didn’t show any signs of fermenting, I just pitched* dumped it and used the dry yeast.)

Anyways, here’s the recipe:

Mystery Ale

6 lbs. Briess Golden Light DME (1/2 late edition)
.5 lb. Caramel 20L
.5 lb. Cara Pils
2 oz. Willamette 4.5% @ 60 min.
1 oz. US Kent Goldings 4.2% @ 30 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss @ 15 min.
1 pkt. Nottingham dry yeast

( *Note on the edit:  I realized, when re-reading this, that “pitched”, when referring to yeast, means that it was “pitched” into the wort.  I wanted to clarify that I didn’t actually use the yeast starter, but dumped it down the sink!)