Anyway… Last year I started experimenting with partial boils, due to not being able to use a garden hose in the winter. And that technique has been working well for me, [...]]]>
Get it? It’s a thermodynamics pun! How many brewing blogs give you wordplay like that? None of the reputable ones, that’s for sure.

Anyway… Last year I started experimenting with partial boils, due to not being able to use a garden hose in the winter. And that technique has been working well for me, though it has some limitations. It would result in an unworkably thick mash when brewing a big beer, for example. More importantly, I anticipate brewing a lot of test batches for Two Mile in the near future, and there’s always the possibility that some unforeseen flavor impact could rear its ugly head.

But even during one of the driest winters on record, the one thing Silverton has in abundance is snow. Sticking the kettle into a snow bank isn’t going to do much (snow being one of nature’s great insulators), but melting some of that snow is going to make a hell of a heat sink. So I have a new toy, a Little Giant water pump. It’s rated 63 gallons per hour at one foot of lift, which turns out to be a little less than I’d like for a five-gallon batch – it took 60 minutes to chill 5.75 gal of wort from 92°C to 11°C. The majority of the chilling was done in the first 20 minutes, though, so I consider that acceptable. Next time around I’ll try to position the heat exchanger so that the pump is fighting a little less static head. If I can get the kinks worked out this may become my standard wort chilling technique, at least during the nine months of the year there’s snow on the ground.

Until the backflow valve on a sump pump broke and I spent [...]]]> At 335 pounds, Tuesday’s grain bill (for our next seasonal, a Smoked Vienna Lager) was the smallest I’ve done yet. It’s remarkable how much more smoothly the brew day goes when you only have two-thirds the usual amount of grist to deal with…

Until the backflow valve on a sump pump broke and I spent half an hour up to my shoulders in sewage, trying to figure out what was wrong, that is.

They still weigh 180 lb apiece though.

Silverton is interesting, and brewing is interesting, and I’m sure I’ll be writing plenty about both in the long, cold months to come. For now, though, shiny things!

Now imagine it with eight feet of snow.

Not only did I not make minimum wage, I had a flat – technically, I lost money by going to work today.

The moral of the story is: tip your driver well. You never know [...]]]> Well, I’m unemployed again. Today’s tips, in order, were:

• $1.11
• $0.09
• $0.11
• $0.21
• $0.00
• $2.10
• $0.01
• $0.00
• $0.00
• $2.32
• $3.21

Not only did I not make minimum wage, I had a flat – technically, I lost money by going to work today.

The moral of the story is: tip your driver well. You never know how many other people you have to compensate for, to keep him from quitting.

Name:    13 June 2010 Date:    Jun 13, 2010 6:17 pm Map:    Google Maps Distance:    48.3 miles Elapsed Time:    1:50:30 Avg Speed:    26.2 mph Max Speed:    55.1 mph Avg Pace:    02′ 17″ per mile Min Altitude:    656 ft Max Altitude:    819 ft Start Time:    2010-06-13T22:17:01Z

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This gag would work a lot better if it was an actual pizza.