I am the Walrus

Ok, I know most people have heard about teh Chimp that went nuts and attacked and almos tkilled the lady this week. heck if it were me, I think I'd rather parish than live without my face and an arm. Anyway...

But a walrus is not a human. It has super tough think skin and thus not as easily damaged by a gorilla (even if it is bigger than a chimp). it also has tusks to help it defend itself.

Should there at least be some sort of post to discuss this. I see that the gorilla is a 6;1 favroite at this point, but I am not sure I agree.

Road Rash Brewing Company

My parents were in town this weekend. So in between going to Austin to get some yummy BBQ and spiking a golf ball (accidentally) off of Phishbone23's head while golfing, I used the extra man power to bottle my first batch of beer! Hopefully it will carbonate nicely in the bottles, but even if it doesn't it still will tast pretty good.

I know this because I tasted the little I pulled out of the carboy to use to test the specific gravity before bottling.

The bottling process was probably a bit more hectic than it could have been, but it all got bottled and is now sitting in nice dark boxes in the corner of my kitchen. Hopefully in a week or two I will have some nicely carbonated American Pale Ale to drink!

After bottling I deicded that since the carboy was now empty that meant I could use it for a second batch of beer. So now I have a cream ale that is sitting in my kitchen fermenting away! My hope is that both beers will be ready by the time Kev and Mikey get here in a month!

The next step is to decide if I want to keep bottling or if I want to invest in kegging equipment and a kegerator!

I guess it's back on

The next battle of the beasts is between the gorilla and the walrus. Does any of the other posters here want to take this one? It doesn't matter how the battle is illustrated, just be original about it. Anyways, I'll post the poll on the main page for everyone to vote on the winner. It will expire on Friday night, so get your votes in, folks! Feel free to discuss your pick in the comments section.

Update: I forgot that we also were randomly picking locations for these battles, too. The problem is, I can't find those locations we picked for this. So, let's say this battle happens in a Burger King bathroom. 

Zombie vs. Croc

It was a cool spring night. I caught the scent of fresh blood and my hunger made me pursue. I didn't like the fact that I had an overwhelming hunger for the flesh of the living, but it was all I could eat anymore. I've tried eating grains and fruits and vegetable, and even the processed meat of cattle and poultry, but none of them satisfied my hunger. I needed brains. Fresh brains.

So, here I was wondering through an African swampland, following the smell of life. Ever since my change, my sight has been poor and my hearing has nearly vanished. If it hadn't been I may have seen or heard the splashing as the giant reptile lunged from the tall grass to my right and latched onto my thigh. It twisted and pulled until my entire bottom torso ripped free. I felt nothing, as my nerves have long ago died and rotted. Here I now lie. A torso with no legs, a victim to the workers of nature, the beetles and flies who feast upon my dead flesh. Life enduring from living death. How ironic. Is ironic the right word here? How should I know? I'm a rotting zombie without any legs, and I have lost my battle to the crocodile...

No combo breaker today

Today I am finding out how many shots of vodka I can drink before I forget what day it is. It turns out I can drink a lot of vodka! Anyways, I'm feeling pretty happy right now. It's amazing how that works. You know, I've been thinking lately, I need some sunglasses. Now that I have contacts, I figure I can splurge on some non prescription sunglasses. Yeah, that really is all I have today. You know, I think I have to come up with another couple shticks or something for this blog. The battle of the beasts thing is just too damn time consuming. Sorry! I know it was fun and all, but it really is a pain in the ass to make those little flash movies, especially when the free trial for flash runs out after 30 days. Maybe I'll think of another way to simulate the fights that is a bit less work intensive in the future. Until then, you just have to deal with my rambling, useless posts. You'll take it and like it!

One of those days

I'm worn out tonight. It was one of those days I just didn't want to be at work, and the day just dragged on and everything broke. On a day like today, I like to punch children. I go down to the local elementary school and just go crazy, punching every little kid I can find. They all cry and ask "Why!? Why did you punch me?" and I say "Because I'm having a bad day, now shut up before I give you something to cry about!" Children love me!

I'm posting today!

Hey Mr. Darwin, happy birthday! I did a bit of drinking after work today, but I got back in time to post before the day is out! Hmmmm... I, of course, have nothing to post about. So, let me just state in this post that I hate Eastern Europeans. That's right! I said it! You're all jerks. That's the sole thing I learned today, and I pass that knowledge on to all of my loyal readers. Also, pie is tasty.

Alright folks!

I have completely neglected the blog which is a horrible thing. It's not exactly like I have anything else going on, either. So, I'll tell you what, I'm going to make an attempt to make a post a day for an entire week, and hope that it gets me back in the mood. I guess that makes today the first day. I really don't have any clever ideas of what to post about, so let me tell you about my day. This morning I got up and drank a bottle liquid that I found outside on the side of the road last night. I have no idea what it was, but I just woke up! I have no idea what I did all day, but now I have only 8 fingers, and a tattoo of a Mexican dancing girl on my back! Crazy!

Beer Update

So I haven't been posting the day to day pictures because they all pretty much look the same. The foam has subsided and I am now just waiting for it to settle to the bottom before I double check the specific gravity (to make sure I am not going to be building little shrapnel grenades) and then bottle. I am sure that bottling will be an interesting process given the number of bottles and the size of my kitchen, so hopefully there will be good pictures soon.

36 Hours of Fermentation

After 36 hours of fermentation (to 5:30am) I have seen increased CO2 output as well as a lightening of the color of the beer. The house has also acquired a mild overtone of fermenting beer.

Road Rash American Pale Ale

Phishbone23 and I brewed our first batch of beer yesterday using the equipment and American Pale Ale kit that he got me for Christmas. In order to prepare for this endeavour, I spent Saturday purchasing what I thought was all I would need to brew my first batch of beer. The beer kit has all of the ingredients needed for making the beer. They are all premeasured and the grain is even ready to go into the pot.

The equipment kit that Fish got me for Christmas has almost everything I needed in it for brewing, but I still had to get a pot (5 gal), a steel spoon, and I went ahead and got bottles for when I bottle it in about a week.

To get all of this equipment, I went to the store where Fish got the kits. The store, B&S Brewers Guild, is amazing. They have all kinds of grains and other stuff. They say they have enought variety to make 42,000,000 different kinds of beer. Using combinatorics I don't think that is really that difficult (especially since a slight change in amounts will brew a different beer) but still it is rather impressive. Even more cool though is that they do brewing demonstrations every Saturday. This is especially cool because, since they do brewing demonstrations every Saturday, that means they have lots of beer sitting around just waiting to be drunk. Since they don't have a liquor licence instead they have a freezer full of cold glasses and beer that they just give away! So I spent Saturday afternoon sipping on beer and learning about what I would be doing myself the next day.

Early Sunday afternoon Fish and I decided to start brewing the beer. This is when I realized I don't have a thermometer (not totally necessary, but being a scientist I like to be precise) so we ran back over to the beer store and got a thermometer. When we got home we started brewing the beer. Since it was Super Bowl Sunday I was also trying to multitask and make a cheese dip while my grains were steeping. Of course the ingredients and equiptment for brewing took up most of my counter space so I while I was making the dip, I accidently knocked my hydrometer on the ground where is promptly shattered. Luckily the beer store was still open. Fish, being the kind fiance that he is, ran back over and got me a new hydrometer.

This was only one of many mishaps I had while trying to brew the beer. The most painful of which consisted of trying to squeeze almost boiling water out of a cheesecloth bag with my bare hands. I think I can do better next time.

The most frustrating part of the whole process was getting the wort to cool. It took it over an hour to get down to below 90F. This is when I could siphon the wort into the carboy for fermentation and add the yeast.

As of 5:30am this morning the yeast seems to be doing its job and hopefully I will have good beer in a few weeks!

Some pictures from the brewing process are below! (I will try to add ones with Phishbone23 later, but his bright shiny face is just too brilliant for pictures, so they need to be doctored a bit.)

Steeping the grains

Boiling the wort

Cooling the wort

Just into the carboy with the yeast added

12 hours later at 5:30am today

It's a froggie!