Moving

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This blog has moved to Wordpress, I find it easier to work with than Blogger.


Won't you join me at the new address?


Little House on the Sandpit <----Click Me

Busy day

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  • My Big Mouth IPA is drinkable and very good!
  • Bottled up my 5-22 Ale. 
  • Racked Hayes and Zembiec American Cream Ale into secondaries.
  • Put one gallon of the Hayes and Zembiec on cranberries.
  • Racked my sour into secondary.

Colon Cancer Awareness

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I have begun making things for Colon Cancer Awareness.  Some of the funds I raise from the sale of these items will go towards worthy Colon Cancer charities such as the Blue Note Fund or the Colon Cancer Alliance .  I will be covered for 53 hours out of work which almost gets me to July when Aflac kicks in if I am out another 7 days.  

In other words, things are going to be tight.  And with furlough days already hitting our wallet, and two vehicles about broken down, things are really tight.  Fortunately, we found a van for Sarah so we can get back and forth to Boston reliably.  With my check engine light on, little left on my brakes, and a leaf spring shackle gone (spring lies on the bottom of the truck bed), we are just waiting for the other shoe to fall.

I don't like handouts so I found a way that will help me, help others, and raise awareness of colon cancer.  The prices are higher than I would normally expect, but some of it goes to a cause, and the remainder will be helping me and my family.  Colon Cancer is a totally treatable and beatable disease when colonoscopies are performed when they should be.  If someone in your family had colon cancer, get  colonoscopy as early as possible.  If nobody in your family had colon cancer, get a colonoscopy as early as possible.  Removal of a polyp is nothing, letting it turn into cancer because it wasn't found will turn your world upside down.

My Etsy shop for Colon Cancer Awareness:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScottSchluter
Check back often, many sizes and designs are in the pipeline.

If you are local I am also working on some Colon Cancer Awareness Angels.  I will be able to send these via mail once we figure out the costs.  For now, local pickup or delivery only at $5 each.  I will be adding halos to them.  The hangers are long enough to put around a rearview mirror or can be shortened to hang in a window.  I thank you if you feel inclined to help me or others.  I hope you learned how easy it is to potentially save your life by getting a simple procedure.  I hope you spread the word.

Cooking food in the ground

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This Memorial Day weekend we put perfectly good food underground....and cooked it to yumminess.  We made Bean-Hole Beans and mesquite smoked corn, chicken, hot dogs, venzin sausage, and linquica. 


 Beans soaked overnight and parboiled.

 Beans ready for cooking.

 Bottom of the pit lined with block and rocks.
 Ready to be lit.

 Roaring fire making a good bed of coals.
 Beans ready to go in.
 Coals pushed around the dutch oven.

 Ready to cook some beans.

 Tucked in for the night.
 Smoking away.

 Taking a peek.

 Corn, chicken, venzin sausages, hot dogs, and linguica.
 Digging out the pot.


Digging out the pot.
Pulling the pot out of the ground.
Here is the bean pot out of the ground.  Method of cooking: A (not perfect due to amount of work required).  Recipe:B- (needs to be ramped up in flavor a bit imho)

The best news possible.

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Today the news was good.  My CEA count is <2.5 ng/ml which is cancer free level.  As I understand it, that is good news that this will be an easy treatment.  There is a 3" cancer mass in my Hepatic Flexure of my colon.  Just under the right rib cage.  They found a spot on my liver but are pretty sure it is a harmless hemangioma, but ordered and MRI to be safe.  Next step, MRI, then first consult with the best cancer people in the world.  Basically, you can pencil me in as another survivor of colon cancer.  Here is an updated label where I added the colon cancer awareness ribbon.

Today

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Today is my CAT scan.  Hopefully we can find out just how bad this thing is and how quickly I can beat it.

Sima

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The Sima is good.  Reminds me of 7UP.  Very fizzy, very light lemon flavor.  It would be really good on a hot day.

Happy May Day!

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Today I brewed up Sima in honor of May Day.  5 lemons zested, de-pithed, seeded, and chopped up.  1 cup white, 1 cup brown sugar.  2-1/4 gallons of water boiled.  Add lemons and sugar to the water and stir to dissolve.  Pitch it all into the fermenter for 48 hours.  I pitched mine onto part of a Nottingham yeast cake.


Here is the mixture cooling.










Here it is in the fermenter.

First fishing trip of the year!

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I got a 12" large mouth bass and a 12" pickerel.  Here's the label for my brew today.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

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 Do you pay attention to the school lunch menus of your children?  You should.  GARBAGE food is being fed to our kids.  Jamie wants to change that.  There is no reason that healthy meals made from whole foods, not processed, can't be fed to our kids.  This isn't about going vegan.  This isn't about tofu burgers.  This isn't about healthy but tasteless food.  This is about french fries not qualifying as a vegetable.  This is about white milk instead of flavored milk that has as much sugar as soda.  This is about good, wholesome, flavorful food.  This is about teaching our kids how to eat right...what the original purpose of the school lunch program was.  Sadly, for many children, this is the only chance at a healthy meal all day. 



Please sign the petition  <-click the link

Label

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Label

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Label

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Weiner or Winner...both?

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Shameless shot of my winnings.  I got two free Guinness glasses from Beer Blitz Here is one of them filled with my Glen Charlie Pond Grapefruit Pale Ale.  Unfortunately, the post office broke one of the glasses.  Oh well, one free glass is better than none! 

Catching up

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It's been awhile.  Sorry, been a bit busy.  Just wanted to get something in to catchup.  I've got two more great beers in the drinking stable and hopefully one more in a few weeks.


Here is my Karankawa Pale Ale. It is in the cellar to drink.
A:light caramel, two finger head.  Very clear.
S:sweet, faint lemon
T:citrusy and sweet in the front, then a light bitter after taste
M:thin, watery, mid carbonation bite
D:light quaffer, would be refreshing on a hot day, nice and flavorful






 


Here is my Glen Charlie Pond Grapefruit Pale Ale. It is in the cellar to drink.
A:Pale straw yellow, three finger head subsides to one finger of fluffy large bubbles. 
S:sweet, fruity
T:subtle but strong grapefruit flavor.  Not the overly sweet flavor but the sour tangy part.  A little sweet but the tart marries well with the hops bitter at the end.
M:thin, watery, light carbonation bite.
D:VERY drinkable, this would be awesome on a hot day.  A quaffer but be careful it isn't as light as it tastes. 







Here is the Sumpfhaus Bruan. It is bottle conditioning.
  

Harvesting Yeast Experiment

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J ust attempted to harvest yeast from a Dogfish Head 120 and Goose Island Sophie. I believe the DFH is Wyeast 1187, Ringwood Ale. I have no idea what Goose Island is but it is a Saison yeast.


What I did:


Prep.
Boiled three baby food jars and caps. Took jars out full of water with boiled tongs. Scooped water into jars to overflowing with boiled tongs. Put caps onto jars with boiled tongs. Screwed caps on and let them cool down. I put them in the fridge later.


Why? Sterilize the jars and get water with low oxygen concentration to make sleepy yeasts.


Enjoy
As soon as I poured the beer out into a mug (save the last couple swigs with all the yeast dregs), I placed a wine sampler cork onto the top and put the bottle back into the fridge.


Harvest
Uncapped two baby food jars with water. Uncorked beer bottles. Poured one baby food jar into the beer then a few extra splashes from the second baby food jar. Swirled the water in the beer bottle. Dumped the beer bottle contents into the baby food jar, overflowing it. Screwed the baby food jar cap on. Placed into the fridge.


We'll see what happens. The Sophie is pale cloudy and the DFH is yellow cloudy so there is definitely yeasts in there.
Here is the Ringwood.
 



Here is the unknown Sophie.

Steinbier

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S
tienbier time. Wow, that was fun. Fire, hot rocks, pokers, poles, and wort. What more could you ask for?



Blowing off the rocks with an
air compressor




Making sure the beer won't taste like ash.




Going from cold to steeping
temperatures was going to take
more day than we had...




...so we called in the propane burner
and eventually brought it up to almost boiling
temperature.







In goes some malt. It was supposed
to be a 33# jerry can but the LHBS messed up.
10 cans, oh joy.






In goes more malt.






In goes more malt.






In goes more malt.






Carrying it all over to the fire.






We placed it close to the fire to lessen the
transport of hot rocks.






Got to boiling quickly.






Lots of blowing off ash.






Hops time.






Nice boil.






More hops.






More hops.





Stir in the hops.





Very nice boil.






Almost boil over.





Lots of splashing.





”I am a 10th level beer nerd.”





”Grab my poker please!”





So many choices when a bunch of brewers
and a 10th level beer snob come to the party.






Close to finishing.





Transferring wort to carboys.





Carboys ready to be filled.






”I drink the beer that I brew.””No ,wait.”
“I brew the beer that I drink.” “And I
make my own cheese too.”





Sumpfhaus Bruan ready to start
fermenting.












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