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11-01-08, 06:19 PM
Today has been great. Not to say yesterday wasn't good - there's something to be said for Halloween at college. Today has been relaxing, though. A lot of 'finally' type things have been done, which means the stress is coming off my shoulders. I have a bit of homework to do, but not much and I can do it tomorrow.
I managed to clean all my equipment from meadmaking (I'm sitting on 11gal fermenting), finally. It took so long because we have no dishwasher and I'm always intimidated by the huge stack of dishes. It's just the pot that's big - 5gal - so it goes pretty quickly.
Brewing-related, I made a new (to me) trick: Rather than spend $40 on a bottle tree (to dry bottles on), I found an effectively free solution. Since I end up buying 22oz bottles, I wind up with cardboard boxes with the little partitions that keep the bottles from clinking together. Combined one of those boxes, sans top and bottom, with a cooling rack (sanitized) and you've got a bottle drip drier.
Another brewing trick I made up: I use an aquarium pump to aerate the must and, from now on, wort. Getting the diffuser stone to sink is nigh-impossible. I figured out that the hose coming from the pump is smaller than the inside diameter of a racking cane, decided to run it through there. I had to snap the bend at the end of the racking cane off to get the hose through easily, but it's working flawlessly.
My car sold, finally. I had it up on Craig's List for a month or so, only ever got three test drives. The first guy took a tone with me, drove it like an idiot, lowballed the snot out of me, then left. He then called back and had the gall to tell me that I listed it too high, that it was too much for his daughter to afford, then gave me a LOWER offer than he had before. For being a jerk and a lowballer, he was hung up on. Amusingly, I sold the car to a nice person today for what the first guy wanted to pay me.
I did accomplish a few things yesterday, but they were overshadowed by rushing around. I mixed up a second 5gal batch of mead, split it into two fermenters, put half my other batch into each of those fermenters, aerated and sealed them up. Made a one-gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Clove Mead, put it up in the closet to ferment as well. Found a few bottles for the bottling.
Overall, getting crap like this done is nice. It's weight off my shoulders.
I managed to clean all my equipment from meadmaking (I'm sitting on 11gal fermenting), finally. It took so long because we have no dishwasher and I'm always intimidated by the huge stack of dishes. It's just the pot that's big - 5gal - so it goes pretty quickly.
Brewing-related, I made a new (to me) trick: Rather than spend $40 on a bottle tree (to dry bottles on), I found an effectively free solution. Since I end up buying 22oz bottles, I wind up with cardboard boxes with the little partitions that keep the bottles from clinking together. Combined one of those boxes, sans top and bottom, with a cooling rack (sanitized) and you've got a bottle drip drier.
Another brewing trick I made up: I use an aquarium pump to aerate the must and, from now on, wort. Getting the diffuser stone to sink is nigh-impossible. I figured out that the hose coming from the pump is smaller than the inside diameter of a racking cane, decided to run it through there. I had to snap the bend at the end of the racking cane off to get the hose through easily, but it's working flawlessly.
My car sold, finally. I had it up on Craig's List for a month or so, only ever got three test drives. The first guy took a tone with me, drove it like an idiot, lowballed the snot out of me, then left. He then called back and had the gall to tell me that I listed it too high, that it was too much for his daughter to afford, then gave me a LOWER offer than he had before. For being a jerk and a lowballer, he was hung up on. Amusingly, I sold the car to a nice person today for what the first guy wanted to pay me.
I did accomplish a few things yesterday, but they were overshadowed by rushing around. I mixed up a second 5gal batch of mead, split it into two fermenters, put half my other batch into each of those fermenters, aerated and sealed them up. Made a one-gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Clove Mead, put it up in the closet to ferment as well. Found a few bottles for the bottling.
Overall, getting crap like this done is nice. It's weight off my shoulders.