Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Snow Day Brew Day

Trying out a Dunkelweizen kit from Great Fermentations. This is batch #5 of my homebrew career, first batch of 2015, and first Dunkelweizen.

Flavoring grains steeping.


Assistant Brewmaster FUZZ* watching some CatTV while the kettle comes to a boil.


Almost there!!!


Chilling the wort! WINTER IS AWESOME!


Ok, chilling the wort outside took a lot longer than I thought it would. Shoveled my driveway and it was only down to 140F. Shoveled my sidewalks and my neighbor's sidewalk and it was down to 120F. Went inside, watched Iowa State get their 20th win of the season. It took about 3.5 hours for the wort to get down around 75F.

Into the fermenter:

Easily the darkest-looking beer I've made so far.

Assistant Brewmaster Smokey* says "Hurry up and pitch the yeast so you can get my supper!"


My previous beers have all fermented in the front closet, but I'm leaving this one in a bathtub for easy cleanup, as I know from experience this yeast knows how to have a good time.


And the sun sets on another successful brew day.


* All my beers have a "less than 1% cat hair by weight" guarantee.

Throwback Thursday: Citizen Photojournalist For a Day

Rather than repeat the story, I'll let you read it at Ace of Spades HQ. I still occasionally get hits on the pictures.

I have not been that enthused about anything since I moved to Indiana. I made some effort in 2012 but the locals made it clear only married homeowners are welcome, so screw 'em. I got TV to watch.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Beer and Cat

Smokey guarding my FUZZbräu from its namesake.

FUZZbräu is the beer I make. This is my second attempt, a German-style wheat I call Fuzziwheat. My first was a Belgian wit style I called FUZZiwit (my German beer-drinking expert pronounced it "süffig" which I believe translates to "I did not go blind"). Currently in the fermenter is a second German-style wheat I will call FUZZirazz after I add three pounds of raspberry puree.

OK, naming things is not my best talent, which is why FUZZ named himself. OTOH, I am good at slogans. "FUZZbräu! Taste our disdain!"

[Obligatory promise to blog more instead of just tweeting.]

This Feels Like Yesterday

But it's been five years.



It was delightfully chilly that day; I wore my new Mackintosh over my Milwaukee Brewers hoodie, and I really needed the hood for warmth on my first full day in central NY. I had purchased a book on the shores of Lake Ontario the night before after I got into town; I thought the lake might make a reasonable substitute for Lake Michigan but after a few long walks I loved it for itself.

The start of a new adventure.



Today in central Indiana it's too hot to go outside. But that is somehow OK, because there are no lakes or adventures. I bought a new blue and green shower curtain; it is not enough but it's all there is.

Wordless Wednesday

NOOOOoooooooo!

I hate spring.

Made the year's first trip to the zoo today; the butterflies don't officially go on display until next week but there were a couple of early emergers out in the conservatory. The polar bear was offline, but the rhinos were little more active than usual.

Wordless Wednesday

Caturday

File photo of Satan's Little Helper drinking my coffee, as he's trying to do right now:



He used to wait until it seemed I had finished before he would stick his face and paws in the mug, now I cannot leave my coffee unguarded...not even C₂H₆O-enhanced dessert decafs. At first I thought he just wanted the cream, but he ignored cream poured into his dish. And then he ignored coffee poured into his dish--it's gotta be in a mug. My mug. Of course.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Brunch

I say "the birdfeeder is the best cat toy evah!" but I spend most of my weekend mornings watching the action myself (as I type this, the cats are asleep well away from the backyard windows, harrumph).

The feeders are squirrel-proofed, but I accidentally bought a seed mix with peanuts and the birds here don't eat them, so I've been scattering the peanuts in the snow when I refill the cardinal feeder (next batch of seeds is only black oil sunflower, millet, and cracked corn). They've been crawling under the store, and jumping from bootprint to bootprint, and when one finds a motherlode, he'll chase the other squirrels away...but while A is chasing B, C will move in and start digging around. Hours of entertainment you can't buy in stores.



I haven't been keeping good track of which birds I've been seeing, but off-hand: three different kinds of finches, juncos in the winter, titmice, woodpeckers, blue jays, and of course cardinals.



Also have a few starlings, who will move in and empty the suet feeder in an hour. Attention people from NYC who get all butthurt that the hix from the stix don't all admire you 24/7: Start with the fucking starlings.

Quando Omni Flunkus...

My birdfeeder has brought hours of entertainment to my backyard--for myself and the cats, who were both sleeping in another room when this guy wandered through. Harrumph.

Wordless Wednesday...with words

Wordless Wednesday is a thing from about ten years ago where a blogger just posts an image--something that evokes a mood or tells a story without using words.  Quilt bloggers sometimes use them to post progress on a project, or to inspire a new project.  Some people create a new image for Wednesdays, others post an image they came across on someone else's blog but really like.

I have kind of a thing about only using images I created myself, but I'm not hung up on "recent" or "new."  I like to go back and look at old pictures (I realize on the internet anything more than a week ago is "old").  If you need a title or location, click on through to Flickr--or ask in the comments.  I like comments.