wacky1980

glass is nice for this reason, and this reason only. well...that and it's easier to clean without etching the surface like with plastic, which creates bacteria wells that can survive wash+sanitize cycles. but once you're comfortable with trusting the process and measuring fermentation by other means (airlock activity, gravity readings, etc) glass starts to have drawbacks. it allows light in, which can affect flavor over time. and glass/plastic carboys are a bitch to clean compared to stainless vessels. but as with all things, the nicer stuff costs more money and requires more knowledge/skill to use effectively. i'm still fermenting in glass because it's cheap and accessible. but i'm eyeballing a nice stainless conical fermenter that can ferment up to 10 gal. that will be the fermenter i use for my e-biab setup, that i'm about halfway done building. hopefully this coming winter...

some of it is, absolutely.

i felt like participating in the making of the booze portion of this thread, so i talked wife into assisting in a small batch pale ale last night. it was a really simple recipe, just some extract and some azacca hops. i beat my initial gravity projection (was supposed to go into the fermenter at 1.070 but it actually started at 1.076...oh well!) and i over-scaled the batch a bit. when i built the recipe, it was for a gallon of finished beer. but these new little gallon fermenters didn't have additional head space to accommodate a gallon of liquid. i could only put about .85 gallons into it to leave some headspace, and even that was too much, as fermentation kicked off overnight and already has started to clog the airlock. so i have to find some 1/2" tubing at lunch and replace the airlock with a blowoff hose, before it clogs and goes projectile. i do have a small fridge i'm using to temp control my fermentation, which is a new thing for me. should help combat some of the occasional off-flavors i get when fermentation happens at a too-high temp from sitting on a shelf out in the open. if we manage to get this thing fully fermented, i'll be manually carbing it in a 1-gal mini keg. fermentation should wrap up around 7/13 and the carb process should take maybe 3 days total. if all goes well, we'll have about 3/4 gallon of homebrewed azacca ipa.

we've missed out on a couple lottery-based grants so far. we did get a PPP loan, but that ran out in the first week of june. i have one need-based grant app still out, but award notices were supposed to be sent out within 30 days and i've yet to receive any updates thru 40 days post-submission. and i have one more lottery-based app still out, and that submission window is still open thru 7/5 so we won't hear anything on that one til at least next week. our covid-related operating losses smashed through my personally-set limit last week, because we had to spend every last dollar to build inventory in advance of the friday re-opening. and some family members scraped together a gift to help us get there as well. we're hopefully going to start stabilizing now that the indoor venue is re-opened, but i fully expect we'll enter another shutdown in the next 30 days. when that happens, and with no gov't assistance to prop us up, that will probably be the end of it. whatever, right? businesses fail every day.

i don't make mead so i can't tell you just by reading this, if you'll need more fermentables to hit your target gravity. i know when i'm small-batching beers, i usually use around 2lb of dry extract or 3lb of base grains per gallon of water to get into that 5-7% range. so you're probably in the ballpark on that. the ingredients give me a strong cider vibe, which i think is probably good for a late summer/early fall mead.

it's literally a dirty wooden spoon. not worth the risk of contamination, unless you have very stringent handling & storage conditions. buy a yeast pack like a good homebrewer.

another round of grant applications has been submitted. still 0 awards. it's ok though, we'll probably get shut down over covid again well before they turn our power off.

ok, clear head and work-casual attire. i'm ready. 1. i have presented and represented my wood adequately to other board members 2. i have talked about my wood ... like, a lot 3. i will continue to talk about my wood, how well it holds up to a regular a beating from friends and strangers alike, and how often i need to rub it to maintain its strength and beauty

i'm not above serving people what they want, even if i'm ttly judging them for drinking it.

not much of a hard liquor guy, but i've been drinking the absolute fuck out of bourbon lately. and fireball is foul. don't put your body through that.

eat shit zoomer! i'll check in on monday.

no worries either way. just holler at me if you decide to swing by.

backwoods doesn't necessarily mean backwards. the only racists we have left around here are harmless old fucks who would probably cower in fear at the sight, and a handful of facebook warriors, most of whom we've run off for being shits. the indoor side is closed from covid restrictions. but the outdoor side is wide open, as long as you don't mind the elements.

i mean ... i'd buy the first round or three if you (two?) stumbled into town.

not sure which side of the river you're on now so i'm not sure. cedar rapids is like 3 hours north-ish of here.

one of us. one of us.

...i don't know?

there's not a whole lot to do outside in cedar rapids anyways, so this plan is best plan. and yes, 100% country boy.

i'm really only familiar with the eastern half of iowa. spent a lot of time in dubuque and cedar rapids as a kid. coming from a town of 400, those were fun places. as an adult, they kinda lost their shimmer. haven't been back to iowa for a few years now, even though home now is only an hour SE of there.

i could do about 90% of my job from home. but i don't think i could stand being at home all day and then all night too. also, my boss will never let me work remotely because they don't understand how using a VPN actually keeps internet traffic in-network. 'IT'S NOT SECURE!!!" :eyeroll:

adventureland, not the one in that shitty movie from a few years ago, is in des moines. and there's a couple decent breweries in iowa. and a couple fun college campuses...campii...yeah. but that's about it. mostly just fields and amish folk.

shit, we never shut down at the bank. not for a single day. not so much as an afternoon off for cleaning.

it's called "all parents matter" day. that's what i've learned from my conservative friends anyways. also, i made mothers out of at least two women...bending the curve on this virgins vs dads scale.

it was over 666 for a time, and in the last week or so it was exactly 666. this is disaster mitigation in practice.

wearing five pounds of filth on your body & hair?