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Hard Cider, Batch Two

October 1, 2005

At 1:55pm today I pitched one vial of White Labs English Cider Yeast (WLP775) into about five and one half gallons of juice to be fermented into hard cider. This juice mixture contains the following:

Five Gallons Yates’ Apple Cider (fresh juice, for non-US people)
Three Fourths of One Pound of Lactose
One Cup of (mostly) Dark Amber Grade B Maple Syrup
Two Cups of Unfiltered Honey from Honeyflow Farm in Dryden, MI
Five Teaspoons of Yeast Nutrient
Two and One Half Teaspoons of Yeast Energizer

Yes, this is pretty much the same as before, except I’m not going to add spices to this batch. I figure that since cider is only available fresh this time of the year, making 10 gallons would be smart, as it should keep for a while. This way I’ll also get some variety in flavor. Hopefully it doesn’t suck. :)

For the record, the OG of this batch was right about 1.070. I think that’s because there were less solid bits of sugar in the honey this time.

Mmm. Now to enjoy this Boss Coffee (regular double roast one) and hope that hiking this afternoon pans out.

Hmm, it seems that I can get raw honey for $1.50/lb from Honeyflow Farms. I think I should make some mead…

beer moved from livejournal

AT&T Alascom

September 30, 2005

Systems like this (warning, PDF) are why I find systems like AT&T Alascom impressive. Hell, I remember some of the events on this timeline, especially the 1996 install of the 4ESS, which I noticed when phone calls to Alaska stopped having the CHIRP-CHIRP sound before and after connecting. This is the same sound heard during Pink’s phone call home in Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Also, before then it was possible to leave one of the phones off the hook for hours and the phone on the other end would be completely unavailable and remain connected. I remember this being a problem when I’d fall asleep while on the phone and leave my end open for a few hours… Whoops…

Man, and with the US$400 – US$500 phone bills I was racking up in 1996, that’s more than my current house payment when adjusted for increased wages and inflation.

Anyway, yeah, I find AT&T Alascom damn impressive. I mean, hell, look at all those interconnected points across the state.

Oh, in this photo one can just barely see an AT&T Alascom microwave repeater on top of the mountain. This is very likely the Tern Lake repeater, or possibly the Cooper Landing one.

found things moved from livejournal

μziq

September 28, 2005

Did you ever find yourself in the keyboard section of K-Mart as a little kid, banging three keys listening to how the sound changed as you moved your head around? Not listening for the melody, but for the swirling sounds as the overdriven speaker in the Casio bounced sound off of the shelf, the ceiling, and whatever else was around?

Maybe it’s just me. I still love noisescapes, though.

I need to build another synth.

electronics moved from livejournal music

iPod Camera Connector

September 26, 2005

Well, the iPod camera connector is a lot smarter than I originally thought. After a bunch of poking around with a multimeter, it appears to do the following:

– Pass the USB GND, DATA+, and DATA- signals straight through to the dock connector.
– Bump up the +3.3VDC that the iPod provides on dock pin 18 to +5VDC in order to power the camera / memory card reader that is attached. (This, along with the disk access, explains the horrible battery life experienced when using the reader.)
– Somehow flip pin 21 to a value (10k? — perhaps in the presence of power?) which indicates that a photo adapter is connected. I was unable to establish this value.

Also, the connector is glued shut, so I’m unable to open it without trashing it. I guess I’ll take it back as soon as I get confirmation that the external hard drive memory card reader device that I’m looking at is shipping to me.

< sigh >

Yet another disappointment… It’s too bad I just spent $24 on ten iPod dock connectors. I hope they come in handy for other things…

Any friends want custom car adapters? Like, iPod dock to tape deck or car charger or something?

computers electronics moved from livejournal

Jesus Juice

September 23, 2005

[Cross posted to and …]

Click for more…

Well, as of a week ago I had been making hard cider. Now I think I’ve realized that I’ve made a whole different beast… For I tried a sip of it when I was racking it, just to see how it was coming along, and despite being extremely tasty, it made me a bit light headed.

So with racking the cider into the secondary fermenter I added spices. To the five gallons of cider which were put to ferment with two cups of honey and one cup of grade ‘b’ maple syrup I added the following:

· 11g cinnamon sticks, broken
· 3g nutmeg (one whole, crushed)
· 4g whole cloves
· 3g whole allspice
· 11g dried orange peel

Hopefully those spices will polish off the cider and make it oh-so-wonderful. We’ll just have to see… Oh, I’ve also got two photos of the spices floating up into the neck of the carboy here and here. I’m not sure which I liked more, so I just uploaded them both.

If you’d like to see the rest of the photos, they can all be seen here or you can look at the (recently updated) recipe here.

beer moved from livejournal

USB 2.0 High Speed CF Reader

September 23, 2005

Does anyone here have a USB 2.0 Compact Flash reader which I could borrow / buy / have? I’m specifically looking for one that is extremely low profile, somewhat similar to this. I’ve found them on eBay from the UK, but I need one here. :\

Oh, I got one of the iPod photo adapters, and based on a test of 185MB of photos copying in just around seven minutes, I should be able to do a full gig in around 45. Well, that’s straight off the camera… I’d like to use just the reader and the iPod in order to save the batteries in the camera.

Thanks!

acquired things computers moved from livejournal

iSight Tripod Adapters For Sale

September 19, 2005

iSight Tripod Adapters For Sale
US$30 Shipped ^†

As I’ve posted about here in the past, I’ve been manufacturing some adapters which allow one to mount an Apple iSight on a normal camera tripod. Well, they are finally finished and available for sale.

A few months ago I was desperately looking for a way to mount my iSight on a camera tripod so that I could take stop motion video out my window. Well, there seemed to be no commercial options available beyond a simple, and quite expensive, plastic clip which required one to provide their own Firewire cable. In order to resolve this need, I went into my workshop and built something better. Becuase of the interest in the adapters after I showed them off around here, I decided to make some for sale.

As these were hand made by me in my workshop, they are limited to a quantity of 39 pieces for sale. At this point I have no plans to make additional pieces beyond this first run.

Anyway, I’ve personally hand-made these adapters to meet my needs, and they include the following features:

· 15′ Firewire Cable
· 1/4-20 Threaded Base (Standard Tripod Mount)
· Solid construction from impact-resistant plastic

All of these adapters have been tested and are assured to work. So buy one, fire up your favorite iSight-compatible software (iChat AV, QuickTime Pro, EvoCam, etc), point the camera at whatever you’d like to record, and (thanks to the 15′ cable) leave your Mac a safe distance away.

Be it watching the world out the window, keeping an eye on the pets, seeing who is coming in the door, or anything more personal, these iSight Tripod Adapters finally allow you to point your iSight wherever you want!

Along the right side are photos of the adapter in a few positions. Click those images for larger copies, or click on here (photo gallery retired) for a bunch of pictures of these adapters. Please note that the tripod and tripod bracket are pictured for illustrative purposes only. This sale is for one adapter with integrated cable. The additional hardware is pictured because I want to show how the adapter can be used with a standard tripod.

So, if you’d like one, go ahead and click the button down below to send payment (US$30) and I’ll get your new iSight Tripod Adapter shipped out to you right away.

If the button is missing, I have sold out of the adapters. Sorry!

^† US addresses, PO Boxes, and Military Addresses Only. Please contact me for international shipping rates before sending payment.

electronics making things moved from livejournal

Cider…

September 17, 2005

Ahh, I just pitched the yeast into the cider and gave the carboy a shake. I hope it starts fermenting before I get home…

(This is mostly a note for my own timestamping purposes.)

beer moved from livejournal

Cider…

September 17, 2005

[Cross posted to and …]

Click for more…

Well, despite my original plans to get the hard cider started today, I actually did it last night. It (and I imagine wine) is surprisingly easy. Much easier than making beer…

So what did I actually do last night? In short, I heated one gallon of cider to 100°F, stirred in a bunch of things (honey, yeast energizer, yeast nutrient, lactose, and maple syrup), dumped that cider in the carboy, added a chemical called potassium metabisulfite (used to sanitize liquids) and left it to sit. Monday after I get home from work I’ll be adding the yeast, and hopefully things will begin fermenting then. Woo!

If anyone is interested in the recipe I put together for this, it can be found here. It’s a bit of a take-off from the recipe I originally got from . It’s also likely to change… I may be replacing the orange zest with dried orange peel and adjusting some of the spices a bit more. I’m still not sure on the spices yet, but I should have plenty of time to figure it out.

Anyway, if you’re interested in seeing more of the pictures from the getting-cider-ready session, just click here (photo gallery retired) or on the photo up above.

beer moved from livejournal

Booze of all kinds…

September 16, 2005

Click for more…

After a stop at both Cost Plus World Market for spices and Linens ‘n Things for a citrus zester, I swung by Yates Cider Mill and picked up six gallons of cider. Mmm… Guess what it’s going to be? Hehe…

Hopefully I’ll get everything mixed up and sulfited (to kill off any organics before I add the yeast) sometime tomorrow. It’ll likely involve warming a gallon of cider, stirring in the honey, maple syrup, yeast nutrient, yeast energizer, and lactose, then putting that gallon plus four and a half more in the carboy, adding sulfite, stirring the hell out of it, and letting it sit for three days. Then after those few days I’ll go ahead and dump the yeast in, and hopefully ferment properly.

I’ve got quite the sugar high from the doughnuts I purchased at the cider mill. Wow. I also had to remember to wash my hands after petting the sheep and goat at the cider mill before eating the doughnut. Wool tends to be quite dirty, probably because it’s really good at soaking things up.

Anyway, here are some other pictures from today:

· Dixie Crimson Voodoo Ale, which I purchased because I believe the brewery has been completely destroyed.
· Linens ‘n Things seems to be selling the Speck iGuy. They are really cute in person.
· Pictures of sheepies and a goat from Yates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
· The apple press inside of Yates.

Oh, and yes, I know the cider is pasteurized… I’m fine with that, as it is quite tasty, so it should still be pretty good. It has no preservatives, so I have to make it quickly.

beer food moved from livejournal