Home

The Den

Relax, take your shoes off, stay a while...have a beer!

Suckerfish top bar links

  • Home
  • Photos
  • Music
  • Beer
  • Contact
  • About
  • Search

Welcome!

DSC00598For what it is, here's my website! The Den is a place where I can share various things from my life with friends and family, near and far.  Its also a place where I can share my webserver itself with friends who have photos, opinion, or something else to put online.

Most of the stuff at The Den is listed in the links across the top, and in the sidebar. The side bar changes some as you surf, so check out whats there. 

Please do leave comments on things - just click the "Add new comment" link at the bottom of a post. Also, feel free to use the Contact link in the top bar if you have any questions. When submitting something, you'll type in one of those funny-looking words - sorry 'bout that but its necessary to prevent spammers from posting to The Den.

The Den is always a work in progress, so expect to see changes, eventually. If you have an RSS reader, feel free to subscribe and you'll see just how infrequently I post stuff!

Thanks for stopping by!



Equinox IPA

Submitted by chris on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 20:04

Beer Name: Equinox IPA
Style: 
IPA
Date Brewed: 
Sun, 09/20/2009

Notes:

The starter was good, took off in the fermenter within 6-8 hrs
Gotta remember that 10gals of IPA needs 15+lbs of extract if using all LME.

Dry hopped by dumping in the pellets directly - immediately after which I remembered I wanted to put them into a bag and hang them. Oh well, next time.

Yep - wasted at least 2/3 gallon to the hops - next time bag'em and weight them down w/marbles.

Also - yah, min 15lbs extract (LME) ...  it's waaaayyy to light bodied



  • Add new comment

Wheet not Weed

Submitted by chris on Sun, 08/09/2009 - 13:11

Beer Name: Wheet not Weed
Style: 
Wheat Beer
Date Brewed: 
Sun, 07/19/2009
Brewed With: 
A pint of IPA

Notes:

Nice flavor at pitching time, might have wanted more honey, we'll see!

Yes more honey next time - I don't want mead, but I'd like the honey flavor to be at least present.

I think I'd like to try this with a better german hefewiezen yeast too - I recently tried a new one (for me) at Barclays and it had the most wonderful clove flavors. Hmmm honey and cloves - sounds like a baklava beer :-)



Tags:
  • Beer

  • Add new comment

Independence IPA

Submitted by chris on Sun, 08/09/2009 - 13:03

Beer Name: Independence IPA
Style: 
American IPA
Date Brewed: 
Sat, 07/04/2009
Brewed With: 
A couple pints of earlier batches!

Notes:

First batch in the new Blickmann Conical Fermenter!

Definitely a change in procedure!  Once I get it down & get used to it, I'm sure it'll be much nicer than using carboys for primary. For now, I'll just deal with the 2 gals of sanitizer soaking in the rug, and hoses & parts everywhere.

Doing the no-rinse thing with the carefully-meausured iodophor, trusting all the ppl on the web who say that yes, its all cool.

The pump is cool - not using a hose clamp on the kettle fitting allows a tiny bit of air into the line, which the pump happily disperses in the filter, giving good aeration - just gotta be careful not to let it do that the whole time, it foams up a lot as it goes into the fermenter. (yes, I'm aware of the debate about using unfiltered room-air for aerating wort. I've been doing it for over 16 years when shaking in the carboy and I've never had a problem, so until I do, I don't feel the need to worry)

Slightly lower OG than the previous brew of this recipe (a 5 gal batch)  is caused by less evaporation than I expected. Started with 12.5 gal of wort, 75 min boil only reduced it by about 1 gallon, maybe 1.5, so 11-11.5gal in the fermenter.

I think next time it'll be easier, especually when I'm not making duck confit, & stock from 6 ducks at the same time.

Racking:  I decided to rack & dry hop into carboy-secondaries because I plan to brew next weekend, and dryhopping is 3 weeks or so. (Nice to have the option!) Some day I'll do both primary and secondary in the conical, when I'm not brewing as often. The actual racking was simple, just open the valve and rotate. Next time I'll dump the trub earlier, give it at least 3 days to settle, so that I can get better yeast harvest.

After 4 weeks dry-hopping in the basement, very nice and yummy. I love simcoe hops!

One keg is destined for the Olde Snot Otter in a week or three.



Tags:
  • Beer

  • Add new comment

Beer Recipes

Submitted by chris on Thu, 04/02/2009 - 18:41

You might have noticed a couple of beer recipes being posted lately! Among the changes made during recent upgrades to my server, I've created a pretty simple way to store beer recipes for all the batches I brew.  While I've been brewing for about 16 years now, I don't think I'll post all the recipes from all the way back.

(more...)


Tags:
  • Beer
  • The Den

  • chris's blog
  • Add new comment
  • Read more

Changes afoot at The Den

Submitted by chris on Thu, 04/02/2009 - 18:26

Hi Everyone!

You may have noticed a few things are looking different on the site - indeed its true! As I mentioned in a post about a year ago, I was eventually going to upgrade my server in many ways. Its been happening slowly, and finally the visible changes are underway. I've upgraded the server itself to the latest OS and gotten all the services working decently, and just recently I took the plunge and upgraded Drupal, the software that runs the whole site, to the latest release. 

(more...)


Tags:
  • The Den

  • Add new comment
  • Read more

Shakey Visions

Submitted by chris on Sun, 03/29/2009 - 00:00

Beer Name: Shakey Visions
Style: 
Belgian Golden Ale
Date Brewed: 
Sun, 03/29/2009

Notes:

Started boil at 24qts (6 gals) for better hop utilization. Should do this more often, but requires boil-over diligence.

This was going to be a Kölsch, but  the wyeast kolsch yeast was kinda old - pkg'd in july 08. In fact, it was dead - transforming this beer into a belgian golden by adding 1 lb boiled candi sugar (in a 1/2c water) and pitching Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale yeast #1388. This raises the OG from 1.046 to about 1.055



Tags:
  • Beer

  • Add new comment

Lights Out

Submitted by chris on Sun, 03/22/2009 - 00:00

Beer Name: Lights Out
Style: 
Dry Stout
Date Brewed: 
Sun, 03/22/2009

Notes:

Very dark at brew time, nice molasses overtones, but just a hint.



Tags:
  • Beer

  • Add new comment

Rufous

Submitted by chris on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 01:00

Beer Name: Rufous
Style: 
IPA
Date Brewed: 
Sun, 03/01/2009

Notes:

very deep red color (hence the name)
Peppery hops, not as floral as the others



Tags:
  • Beer

  • Add new comment

Devil Dog

Submitted by chris on Sun, 01/18/2009 - 01:00

Beer Name: Devil Dog
Style: 
Belgian Golden Strong Ale
Date Brewed: 
Sun, 01/18/2009
Brewed With: 
Victoria, Niklas, & Mio

Notes:

3 weeks in primary, and still very cloudy, and fermenting slowly. But, so tasty at racking - very fruity, with some tartness, and a hint of hop bitterness. Spicey tones. MMMmmm



Tags:
  • Beer

  • Add new comment

Avoiding storms in Brisbane

Submitted by chris on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 11:31

Tripper and Oliver
After three fun but too-short days in Adelaide, it was off to Brisbane to meet up with my friend Oliver.


(more...)


Tags:
  • Friends
  • Travel
  • Oliver
  • Tripper
  • Australia
  • Brisbane

  • chris's blog
  • Add new comment
  • Read more
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • next ›
  • last »

Random photo

DSC00286

Recent posts

  • Equinox IPA
  • Wheet not Weed
  • Independence IPA
  • Beer Recipes
  • Changes afoot at The Den
  • Shakey Visions
  • Lights Out
  • Rufous
  • Devil Dog
  • Avoiding storms in Brisbane

Topics

  • Beer (46)
  • Family (11)
  • Friends (9)
  • Home (12)
  • Misc (2)
  • Music (3)
  • Travel (19)
  • Whisk(e)y (3)
  • Work (4)
  • Request new password
RoopleTheme