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.
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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:
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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!)
Wheat Ale, Scotch Ale, etal.
Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 10:51 AM
I haven’t posted in a while, so it’s time to play catch up. There’s quite a bit of news in the home brew front.
First, I brewed a Wheat Ale last Saturday. This was from a recipe in the July-August edition of BYO (Brew Your Own) magazine. It’s the Michigan Summer Wheat Ale recipe, although I used less coriander than the recipe specified, which was unintentional (I just read it wrong).
Anyways, I transferred to the secondary last night, and it really looked nice. Normally when transferring, I’m paying attention to the odors of the beer to try to judge how it’s coming along, but this time it was the appearance that I noticed. It was just, really, a nice looking beer. It’s certainly the lightest beer that I’ve produced so far. (For those of you unfamiliar, brewing using extracts tends to create beers that are darker than you would normally expect for the given style. It has to do with the way they produce the extract.)
Also, on Friday I bottled the Scotch Ale. I was a little worried about this one when I transferred it to the secondary a couple of weeks ago. First, it spent two weeks in the primary because it took so long to ferment. It was apparently a “stuck” ferment, which kicked back up after the first week, and took a few more days after that to finish. Aside from that, it was another warm ferment (around 75~74º F), and when I transferred it, it smelled a little fruity. Not a good thing for a scotch ale. I contemplated pitching it then, but I decided to wait.
I’m glad I did. On Friday, when I transferred it to the bottling bucket, that fruity smell was gone, and you could really smell the smoky peat malt. I took a sample of it while we were bottling. Wow. This one tastes good already, and I can tell by the time it carbonates and ages a little, it’s going to be fantastic.
I’m really glad of this, since the previous two batches have had issues.
The Spiced Ale it a little too strong with the cloves, and it fermented a little too warm so it has too fruity of a quality to it. A little bit of that fruitiness would be good in this style, but it’s currently too much (especially when combined with the cloves). I’m hoping that if I let it age the flavors will balance out (and it’s starting to, I had one last night and it tastes better than the one I had a week ago).
With the Stout it seems I over sparged the specialty grains. Not too much, but there’s definitely a slight astringent bitterness to it (not the “good” kind of bitterness from the hops that you expect in a beer). Again, I’m hoping more time in the bottles will help alleviate this malady.