Learning first hand what it is like to be a fermentation vessel this weekend.. too much live yeast still in the small sample of newest beer that has been fermenting and conditioning for four weeks.. will give it longer and also look into conversion kits for my Cornelius kegs to draw the beer from the top, rather than the bottom and avoid the sediment.. This is a lesson that I could have done without!

I replaced the gas regulator for my kegerator set up this evening s the last (cheap) one was leaky despite much tightening.. also started phase one of swapping over from barb and clasp connections over to john guest push lock connections.. the clasps were probably fine but I prefer the push locks as that’s what I’m used to from almost two decades in beer cellars. That said, the pushlock connectors are more sensitive to movement so I’m going to have to see if I can somehow connect the gas splitter to a wall of the fridge..

Spent a few hours cooking for pleasure today, it’s a bit of a rarity as I try to compress as much brewing into the year as I can but happy with results so far!

Made a Scotch broth inspired soup to go with the rye bread that Sakino is baking and a batch of chili non carne for nachos later.. will make guacamole and salsa once Islay is asleep.. first time cooking with chillies since Islay started eating the same food as us and am very excited about eating it! All #vegan of course.

Will post some photos later when the remainder of the dish is made and nachos constructed!

Replaced by continuous integration process flow, which automatically updates the website when I post, with a very simple script. It seems to work well on my other site so testing here.. fingers crossed

Something keeps breaking my website.. when I delete a post the site doesn’t appear to rebuild correctly. Hoping that this post will fix it again.

My next brew day is Sunday and for the first time I’ll be kegging a beer on the same day as making the next one! Going to try and focus on reducing potential oxygen uptake during kegging.. thinking of doing a CO2 purge of the keg before pouring and then do a gas release and refill after sealing to push out any stowaway oxygen.

Learned a bit about barrel-aging and environmental issues and factors relating to packaging, today.. Both very important to our future plans but I don’t think the course will go into any more depth about the former, so I’ll need to focus on it after I get through the mid-course assignments relating to filtration, pasteurisation and sedimentation.. Somewhat drier and less relevant to someone who doesn’t plan to filter or pasteurise their beers..

I’m not really enjoying this semester’s course so far, it was always going to be the least interesting of the brewing related courses, but the 3+ hour lectures and dearth of links to further reading are taking a toll.. Hopefully, it’ll improve in the coming weeks. Just a shame that the first assignment doesn’t interest me at all.. Low enthusiasm but will do what needs to be done!

I decided that for my next brew day which is on my birthday weekend to change it up a bit and try a recipe from a major brewer which I have both tasted and enjoyed and as they open source their recipes, that brewer is Brewdog and the beer is Alice Porter.

Normal 80/- focussed service will return afterwards.

Brew day #10 today! A re-run of last week’s 80/- brew based loosely on ‘Williams Bros’ grain bill but timings, hops and yeast chosen from other similar style beer recipes.

Hopefully nothing wil sabotage this brew!

Just cooked a roasted butternut squash, brussel sprouts and mushroom dish based on the recipe at the bottom but I used chestnut mushrooms, had only (slightly insufficient) fresh flat leaf parsley and cooked freekeh (for the first time) rather than hard red wheat.

It was very tasty! I love freekeh it turns out, have eaten bulgur wheat many times in then past and freekeh is very similar just a better texture.

One issue was the cooking time.. Converted the fahrenheit oven temperature to celcius and thought this must be too high.. But went with it.. After 30 minutes (15 early) I took the tray out and the sprouts were overcooked and had lost their bite.

Didn’t take pictures but Sakino wants me to make it again for lunch tomorrow so will try to remember to take a few snaps.

https://industryeats.com/brussels-sprouts-butternut-squash-mushroom-veggie-bowl-recipe/