Random Thoughts

I am now able to bottle my second batch of mead – the cherry mead.

I siphoned off the mead from the 1 gallon and 5 gallon jugs into a plastic container with a filter attached.  I wasn’t trying to filter out the last of the yeast or anything, just taking out some of the larger particles.  I then took that into the bottling bucket.  I tried to eliminate any extra CO2 in the mix before bottling – don’t want any extra fermentation or corks popping.

I collected about 30 empty wine bottles and clean them all out – ran them through the heat cycle in the dishwasher to sterilize.  I then filled 24 bottles, corked, and shrink-wrapped sealed them.  I put two in the fridge to chill to taste in a bit.

The flavor is slightly sweet and a definite alcohol content.  According to my calculations, it is around 16% ABV.    Now I plan for the next batch.

Tags: alcohol, bottling, Brewing, cherry, cherry mead, corks, honey, Leeners, mead, water, yeast

Since I had the three-day weekend, I was able to get my Christmas lights hung inside.   Tree is put together and lit, and I hung lights along the rail and banister to my loft.  I also put lights around my bar area and behind the bottles.

Tags: banister, bar, Christmas lights, handrail, loft, tree

I’ve been fighting with a few WordPress plugins for the last few weeks, but was unaware of it.  I have had problems uploading pictures to the site – hence for the lack of posting and I finally went through tech support.  They didn’t have a problem uploading and posting images, so clearly I thought I was an idiot.

So I did what I should have done weeks ago to avoid this whole situation – I disabled all my plugins (the handy apps that allow me to showcase things like Last.fm and paypal in my sidebars) and tried to post something.

Success!

So I re-enabled the plugins one by one to find the culprit.  It was some non-descript plugin having to do with Google+.

Aargghh!!

Tags: plugins, posting, wordpress

Shop Amazon’s Black Friday Week

The weather was great today, and I had an opportunity to go for a walk in the park with some friends.  It was a little chilly yesterday, but things changed and it was a fantastic day.  There was nary a cloud in the sky.  Pictures below.

Tags: park, pictures, wildwood

Halloween Costume 2011

Following up from last year’s “Dr. Who” costume, I decided this year to go as “Ron Swanson” from NBC’s Park and Recreation.

It was a pretty easy costume to pull off.  I let my hair grow out for a few months so I could get the “poof” of the hair close enough, a short-sleeved polo shirt, and a pair of khakis.

And the mustache!  I tried to grow a mustache but it just wasn’t going to be as full for the party and I opted for a fake one from Target.  I did pick up some spirit gum to glue it to my face, and I did get a buzz off the fumes.  The glue lasted about eight hours before it failed – not too bad.

I wanted to get a toy gold gun, but Wal-Mart was sold out and Target doesn’t carry any.

Tags: Halloween costume, mustache, Ron Swanson, Target, Wal-Mart

I set up the Facebook page for the Winter Beard Coalition 2011-12.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/Winterbeard2011/

It is a celebratory group, open to the public to share pictures and experiences with growing the traditional “Winter Beard” (started at the first snowfall and clean-shaven by St. Patrick’s day – or later weather dependent).

spread the word.

Tags: cold, facebook, snow, snowfall, St.Patrick's Day, winter beard

Saturday was a complete “movie geek” day for me and my friends.  I thought it would be a good idea to have some friends over, make some food, and watch all six Star Wars movies on Blu-Ray in “story” order from #1 through #6.

I started the first movie at Noon, and took a few minute pause as the first of my friends rolled in.  I bought a variety of movie candy and set up the couch and chairs for comfort.  I knew this was going to be a long day.

I had 2 friends who made it through the entire series.  A few left early, and a few showed up when we started #4-6.

First note:  I was amazed at the remastering of the movies.  The original trilogy, which was made over thirty years ago looks as though it was a recent release.  Except for the retro set designs – you could swear that it was out over the summer.  The sound and special effects were fantastic.  Overall, the visual aspects of the movies was top notch.

I did pick up a lot of things that I normally wouldn’t have picked up if I watched the movies separately, but viewing them back to back it was pretty apparent.  There were a lot of references to the phrase “I’ve got a very bad feeling about this.”  There was a reference by Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) when he was battling General Grevious, he shoots him with a blaster, making a comment about it being a “vile instrument, lacking finesse”.  In Mos Eisley Bar, he makes a similar comment about the amount of guns.

Ewan McGregor did an amazing job of “channeling” mannerisms and the voice of Sir Alec Guiness.  It was impressive.

The additions to the Blu-ray set threw me off a little, Obi Wan’s scream on #4, the “Noooo!” by Darth Vader, and Ewoks blinking were unnecessary and seem to be added because they could.  I’m still upset that they have Greedo shooting first – takes away from the Han Solo character.

Overall, I had a lot of fun – we laughed all day.  I think with the weather getting colder – I may end up doing another one of these.

Tags: A New Hope, Attack of the Clones, blu-ray, DVD, Empire Strikes Back, movie marathon, Phantom Menace, Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars

Its been a little over a week since I transferred the mead to the new containers.  I haven’t gotten any new activity (aka the airlock is stable) so that’s a pretty good sign all the fermentation is complete.

So I hydrated 1/2 tsp of Bentonite with 1/2 cup of HOT water.

This took a few minutes for the bentonite to turn to a slurry.  I then added it to the mead to help clear.  The bentonite has an ability to clear out the proteins out of liquids.  The slurry electronically bonds to yeast cells and weighs it down.

This should work within the next week.

Next: Bottling

Tags: bentonite, carboy, cherry mead, clarifying, mead, slurry, yeast

I realized that the weather is changing quickly and wanted to get some friends to walk the park, get some fresh air and catch up.  It was 80 degrees in Toledo last week, and was 50 today.  The wind was SEVERE!  Most of the leaves were blown off the trees at the perimeter.  Once we got into the woods, there were still a lot of green leaves.

They were tearing down the spot we usually meet at (the large map of the trail).

The sun was out and it was pretty warm by the end of the walk.

Tags: hike, Metropark, park, Swan Creek, Toledo, Toledo Metroparks