Japanese Journal Entry #14 – まだ 仕事が 急がしでス
Posted by bradinator in Japan, Japanese Language, Language Practice on March 10th, 2010
仕事が まだ いそがしい です。 よく 遅くまで 働きました。
Work is still busy. I have worked late many times.
この週末に 父が 誕生日 （たんじょうび） です。 父のトラックに 使うものを 母と 弟と （おとうと） プレゼントを あげます。
This weekend is my fathers birthday. For my fathers truck with my mother and brother we bought a present.
このプレゼントで トラックは 早く なりますよ！ でも ちょっと 高かった です。。。 大丈夫ですけど！ パーテーは たのしい でしょう。
This present will make the truck go faster! But it was a little expensive… It’s alright though! The party should be fun!
New Words -
誕生日 （たんじょうび） - Birthday
使うもの - A thing you use (basically its ‘To Use(v) + Thing(n)’)
Bottling from square one
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing on March 10th, 2010
Bottling is a huge undertaking no matter how you approach it. The entire process from start to finish usually takes at a minimum 2 hours to complete. My last bottling session was no except.
I usually begin by calculating the number of liters I am bottling, the number of bottles it would require and cleaning that many, plus an additional 15. I have never used the extra bottles, but I would rather have them available if I needed them then having to put the bottling on hold to sanitize more. Starsan is a no-rinse cleaner and saves a lot of time, but still requires about an hour to dry. My greatest challenge is finding places to dry the bottles!
So many bottles, so few places to dry them
The Mistaken Ale had some issues… There were floaties of an undetermined origin in the brew. These exsisted from the start even before pitched the yeast. This leads me to believe they were undissolved clumbs of dry malt extract. I came to this conclusion because I have never made an all DME brew before and I have never seen this strange floaties until then either.
I don't know what these are for sure, but I know that I do not want them in my beer!
I may not know where they came from, but I knew for sure I did not want them in my beers. I mulled over several ideas to keep them out of the final product and settled on cheese cloth over the bottling bucket to catch these lumps as they were siphoned into it. It worked like a charm! I should note I boiled the cloth prior to using it to lessen the chance of contaminating the batch.
The cheese cloth caught most of the floaties
Filled and ready to go I moved the beer from the bottling bucket, which I had primed with 3/4 cup of dextrose which I dissolved in 1 cup of boiled water. Bottling takes a lot of time, but the swing-top (or Grolsch) bottles shorten it by removing the need to cap each bottle.
The beer is primed and ready for bottling
Swing tops are a god-send when bottling beer
Once I got these into the bottles I moved on the task of doing the same thing, 4 more times for the Yeast Experiment beers. Each 1 gallon fermentor required me to to move it into the priming bucket, then into bottles, cleaning everything I used and doing it all over again.
It was quite the pain doing each 1 gallon fermenter, one at a time.
I took a gravity reading for each brew (list in a previous post) and took a small sample taste from each. I take the taste-test to check for contamination but also for curiosity sake. I ended up throwing out the 1 gallon fermenters simply because I was too tired to bother cleaning them. I can just as easily buy more and convert the juice into more delicious Apfelwien.
Taking a gravity reading between filling bottles
The semi-finished product. Crystal clear!
Routine of the Day – Angie (As Rx)
Posted by bradinator in Fitness, Routines on March 9th, 2010
Warm Up – 3 Rounds for Time
- 10 Pullups
- 20 Situps
- 30 Pushups
- 40 Squats
Finished in 3:21
This is the Crossfit classic, as received.
Angie – Complete each exercise before moving on to the next (the numbers in the brackets are how many unbroken sets)
- 100 Pullups (40-20-12-12-8-8)
- 100 Pushup (60-40)
- 100 Situps (80-20)
- 100 Squats (50-30-20)
Finished in 7:17!
I am very pleased with my results, especially when compared to others Angie times. I started serious Crossfit (calisthenic versions anyway) and the improvements are still mind blowing. I searched my old records from when I started and my original time was over 24 minutes…
Brew Updates – Bradinator’s Mistake and The Great Yeast Experiment bottled, plus some tasting notes
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Beer Tasting, Hobbies, Home Brewing on March 8th, 2010
So I spent the better part of my day yesterday cleaning, bottling and cleaning all over again. The entire process, not including my breaks took nearly 4 hours to finish but hopefully it will be worth it.
Bottling the Mistake Ale required the use of cheese cloth to catch some undissolved clumps of DME. This worked well and the final product is already showing incredible clarity. The final gravity reading was 1.011 which is higher then the last time I took a reading. This leads me to believe I didn’t take it correctly. The ABV is around 3.5% and each pint is only 150 calories! That is as much as a can of beer would normally have. The sample taste left a lot of be desired; I know I was trying to get a light beer, but I found it somewhat watery and bland. Hopefully next week when I sample a cold one the final product will be better.
The Yeast Experiment was a pain to bottle. To try to keep the results as consistent as possible I moved each gallon fermentor, one at a time into the bottling bucket and then into bottles. After finishing each bottling session I would clean everything with hot water and start the entire process over again.
The final gravities are as follows for each yeast.
S-04 – 1.016 (ABV 3.2%)
S-05 – 1.014 (ABV 3.5%)
S-23 – 1.020 (ABV 2.7%)
S-33 – 1.020 (ABV 2.7%)
To be honest I am not impressed with any of their fermentation’s. I was expect these “premium” yeasts to reach at least 1.010 (around 4% ABV) at a minimum, especially considering that I used 11.5g vs. the 5g I normally do. I was very disappointed in the results of the S-33 “Robust” ale yeast. High attenuation my ass! It fermented out at the same final gravity as the lager yeast, which probably struggled due to the warm fermenting conditions (lager yeasts prefer colder environments for better fermentation). That aside the sample tastes I took from the beers were not as disappointing; For a flat, warm beer they all tasted quite good. I cannot wait until I can try one!
http://www.bradinator.com/an-experiment-in-brewology-beer-yeast/
Routine of the Day – Tabata This! Round 15…ish
Posted by bradinator in Fitness, Routines on March 8th, 2010
Tabata Intervals - 14 lbs training vest
20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, including between exercises. 8 rounds per exercise. Best is marked by lowest obtained repetitions.
Pullups 22 16 10 10 7 6 5 5 Total: 81 Best: 5
Squats 27 25 25 25 22 22 22 23 Total:191 Best: 22
Pushups 34 23 22 21 20 19 15 15 Total: 169 Best: 15
Mt Climb 25 25 25 25 25 25 23 25 Total: 198 Best: 23
Dips 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 Total: 200 Best:25
Strict Situps 19 18 15 13 9 10 9 9 Total: 102 Best: 5
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Gallery
