Meanwhile, LAST Week!

[aggienaut]

   Last week I went up north and hung out with the delightful and lovely miss gratefuladdict. Adventures were had, which I wrote about in more detail here. In lj related news, however, I met blueashke, supremegoddess1, lostin_thestars, and stagger_lee77 while up there. They were all delightful and good times were had. In LJ Idol news, this means LJ Idolists emo_snal, gratefuladdict, blueashke and supremegoddess1 were all in the same place at the same time! Shenanigans.


Picture of the Day

I ordered a 5 gallon oak barrel myself the other day, I'm quite excited.

More pictures from the trip

Comments

[blueashke.livejournal.com]

I always love that view. Now if only SOMEONE would send out the picture of all of us!

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

SOMEONE didn't look at my flickr page! ;D

[blueashke.livejournal.com]

Lol... That's not ALL of us you silly man! I meant the one currently hiding in Lee's camera I believe from the end of the night.

I DID look at flickr! :)

Someone

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Oh, THAT someone. I thought someone was about me (cue the "you think this is about you" topic haha). Was gonna say, this is the best I've got!

[gratefuladdict.livejournal.com]

I love how I'm obviously giving a speech, but manage to be facing and gesticulating off toward the wine bar (talking prosciutto maybe?), and having no idea that everyone is instead looking at a camera.

This is why I plan the events rather than hosting the tours. Apparently I'm not in touch with my audience!

[blueashke.livejournal.com]

I wanna know what the look on my face is about!

[heethen-crone.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures, especially the MacMurray ranch ones. Looks like a wonderful time was had by all. BTW, the thing that Stacey is using to draw off the wine is called a thief ...... um can't remember the rest of the name. Shoot. We have one or two at the Vikingstead for taste testing mead.

Vikingstead?!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I remember her calling it a "wine thief", which I thought was a silly name.

Vikingstead?!

Re: Vikingstead?!

[heethen-crone.livejournal.com]

Wine thief! Yes, that's the term. It's because people would sneak tastes of the wine as it was fermenting. They'd move the metal bands that hold the cask just enough to drill a small hole in the top of the cask, dip in with the wine theif, and take a taste. Then later, when the keg was empty and they'd remove the bands and clean, there would be all these little holes in the top.
Vikingstead. I belong to Fjellborg Vikings. www.fjellborg.org , a dark ages viking re enactor group. We call our leader's home the vikingstead. It's where we stash all the big projects, tools, and gear. It's also the meadery. Most meetings usually end up with a mass tasting somewhere along the line.

Re: Vikingstead?!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah. Interesting. I had termed the pointy beard I had my "viking beard" ... but gratefuladdictface made me get rid of it. =[

I think we discussed mead making in an earlier entry no? I looked it up, it looks more complicated than beer! You're supposed to balance the pH of the water (though of course, vikings surely didn't do this so I'd imagine it just helps), and it takes months rather than the weeks beer takes, and you're supposed to transfer storage vessels every few weeks to remove the stuff thats silted to the bottom ... ! /=

Re: Vikingstead?!

[heethen-crone.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've never heard of balancing the ph of the water. We use tap water. It does take months though. Sometimes a year. Depends on the honey, the yeast, what you've added to it. You only have to transfer once, occasionally twice if you have a lot of sediment. Some folks just gotta make stuff really hard. Some people add camden tablets to stop the yeast action. You don't have to, you just don't use as much honey or use a lower alcohol yeast. There's a lot of stuff out there about specific gravity too but again, it's up to you if you want to test for that. What you do have to be careful of though, is mineral content of your water. If you're not sure of what's in the water, you may want to use bottled. I do 'cause our water's crap here. We did discuss mead making before. I may have to do a lj post on that sometime soon.
I like the viking beard but that's just me. LOL

[fsk8ing-judge.livejournal.com]

Great photos. My favorite is the Frei Ranch Winery. It looks so space-age and high tech next to the above post of barrels.

[pixieinthemist.livejournal.com]

your barrel totally owns my pony keg...

and I felt so special for a while *le sigh*