The Agrinautica

   A month and a half ago Mark and I made an imperial stout (ie dark strong beer). We then placed most of it in my barrel, which I had been filled with homemade rum until immediately prior (rum is now in a Gallo wine jug). The barrel, obviously, still had rum soaked into the wood. We let the beer age in this barrel for about a month. Saturday we bottled it.

   Even warm and uncarbonated, the beer tasted like awesome! We mixed priming sugar with it as we bottled it, so it will ferment just enough more over the next two weeks to become carbonated. I am extremely excited about how it is going to be when we try it cold and carbonated. This is a beer we can be proud to take to a brew club gathering.


   And then Mark opened a bottle of the belgian ale he had made while he was gone. He aged this one with oak chips (theoretically giving the barrel age effect without the barrel), and had mixed in orange peels and some other things. It had fermented so hard it blew the lid off his bucket.
   This beer also tasted fantastic! Our first batch I'm not gonna lie had been kind of dubious. The second one was barely passable. After that we got pretty good. The oatmeal cream stout I'd made was downright good, but it was, after all, only following a recipe. I feel these last two beers we made though, we could win contests with!


When Things Go Wrong
   Mark reported to me that while I was gone, he was making a barleywine (a really strong beer). One Friday evening just before he went out he decided to check on it. He noticed that the fermentation lock (the valve on top that lets air out but not in, so it doesn't build up pressure but unwanted bacteria doesn't get in) had blocked up. So he pulled it out to clean it.
   As soon as he got it loose however it shot out and yeast gunk shot everywhere, covering him and the surrounding area. Unable to see because he had gunk in his eyes he had to feel his way to the kitchen sink to clean off. Once he was able to see again he could see green handprints all over the walls where he had felt his way to the kitchen. And of course now he had a fantastic mess to clean up. Good times.
   Moral of the story: make sure you're fermentation lock doesn't clog!! (and if it does, be very careful opening it?)

And more pictures of light refracted through bottles because I can never resist

Twitter
   Generally speaking, I agree with superhappytime, that Twitter is strange and useless. I really really don't understand the popularity of it.

   I set up a twitter account awhile ago to see what the fuss was all about and months, 94 updates, and 21 "followers" later, I still don't really get it.

   However, I use it if I feel like exclaiming something that isn't really worth actually telling someone, just for my own amusement. Or if I'm going on a roadtrip I advise concerned parties (such as my mother) that I'll update my progress on twitter, since its convenient for that.


+ Brewing
   Anyway, right now I'm brewing up some beer ("Coffee and Cream Oatmeal Stout"). Usually I rope someone into hanging out with me while I do it to keep me company, however I'm doing this batch all on my lonesome, so you, noble LJists, get to keep me company! And/or follow along at home! Thats right, I'm gonna give you a play by play via twitter! Actually I just realized as long as my laptop is handy I might as well do it via comments to this entry or under a cut here (thoughts on this?) hmm.
   Also feel free to just hang out in the comments and keep me company. (=

   Anyway, presently I'm bringing circa 3 gallongs of water to a boil in my stainless steel 5gal pot.
   Turn your attention to http://twitter.com/Arrrghonaut for further progress. (=