nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

California Style Imperial Pale Ale

December 10, 2004

[Cross posted to , , and .]


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Well, after a ~23 hour lag before fermenting, my second batch of beer, first partial mash, and first with a carboy as the primary is going strong. If anyone would like the recipe / notes that I’m using, it can be found here.

Also available in the photo gallery are two video clips, one of the wort churning around and another of the overflow tube in the sanitizer bubbling along.

Needless to say, I’m really excited about this batch. In order to avoid the hassle of washing and filling bottles, I’m planning on acquiring kegging equipment next week. From my local homebrewing supply store it should only be about $150 for a keg or two, lines, connectors, regulator, and CO2 tank. Not bad, I don’t think… And nice and fun. :)

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Uggh.

December 10, 2004

To make a long story short, I picked up a 512MB SanDisk Ultra II SD card at lunch today. Since I’ve (for the time being) got possession of a regular 512MB SanDisk SD card, I decided to benchmark the two of them. Well, under HDTach, both achieved a straight 1.1MB/sec. Under SiSoft Sandra I got the results detailed above, with the regular card coming in faster than the Ultra II.

I think something is sour with this PCMCIA reader I was using to benchmark them. I think I’ll have to get a USB2.0 reader or something. :\

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!!!

December 8, 2004


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Well, guess what I did today? Yep, the second batch of beer… also stopped by right around the time the boil got going, so we got to hang out, which was a very good thing. Bradd also provided some rather needed help with the brewing stuffs, which made things a lot easier.

So, yep. It’s sitting there waiting to start fermenting. If everything goes as planned, this will be kegged right around New Year’s Eve. Yay!

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Happy Hippo

December 6, 2004

[Cross posted to and .]


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Well, I just finished up both photographing and eating an excellent piece of candy. When I was in Frankenmuth, MI on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (in the US), I picked up a rather unique piece of candy, Kinder‘s absolutely wonderful tasting Happy Hippo.

Individually wrapped in a typically Kinder orange, white, and blue wrapper, this US$0.99 (at a gift shop) really catches your eye. Opening the package, one first notices the extreme cuteness of the product, with it’s amazingly shaped cookie shell, covered along the bottom half with chocolate crumbles.

It isn’t until one bites the nose off (or, I guess you could start with the arse), that you first taste, and then see the amazing creamy milk and hazelnut filling. Both layers melt on the tounge, with the creamy milk dissolving first, leaving a slightly thicker hazelnut glaze sliding the tastebuds, wrapping your entire mouth in a rich, furry blanket-like comfort.

I find that while this candy measures in at a smallish four inches long, it packs a mighty bite. The three segment body is best eaten in a number of bites, as the chocolate-caked bottom and wonderfully creamy center make even the smallest of nibbles a satisfying experience. In fact, the first time I ate one of these I was in the car on the way home from Frankenmuth, sipping a wonderful cup of coffee, and thinking I needed something sweet to much on. Reaching into the bag, I grabbed the first Happy Hippo candy purchased that day, and worked my way through it in approximately 10 minutes, taking six or eight bites to do so.

So, in the end, this wonderful candy definitely receives a big thumbs up from me. Unfortunately, having done away with my second (and last) Mr. Happy Hippo, I’m going to have to wait until I can find some for sale in a slightly closer shop.

Oh, that day I also acquired a Kinder bueno which I’ll review a bit later… I’ve had my share of chocolate for the night, and that bar is almost four times as large.

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It’s done! (Almost…)

November 29, 2004

[Crossposted to and …]


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Thanks to everyone in for their suggestions to bottle tonight. So, I did. It’s done… My first batch of beer has been removed from the secondary fermenter, mixed with the priming sugar solution, and bottled. Yay! It seems rather clear, still tastes like a youngish and slightly sweet (most likely from the priming sugar) Newcastle. This is good, as it’s a brown ale.

With an OG of 1.043 and a FG of 1.012, my calculations put it at right about 4.15% ABV.

It’s now sitting back in the bathtub, (hopefully) carbonating, and waiting for me to sample it in one week.

If anyone would like to poke through the pictures I took at various times throughout the process, they can all be found here. I’ve also got the notes I kept throughout the process here. I think that next time I’ll ensure that I have enough ice on hand, averting a run to the party store in order to cool the wort (it was still cooled to 70°F within 35 minutes), and use a 6.5 gallon carboy for my primary fermenter.

Oh, and next time I’ll be brewing the California Style Imperial Pale Ale kit mentioned at the top of this page.

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Frankenmuth, MI

November 27, 2004


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Well, in a fit of boredom, I decided to head to Frankenmuth by myself today. In case you don’t know, Frankenmuth is a rather interesting German-settled town in central Michigan. It has a really kitschy/campy feel to it, and it’s always decorated for Christmas. Almost as if it’s a storybook Christmas town. I ended up wandering around the town for a bit, poking my head in a few places, and getting a few bits of candy and bread.

While I didn’t make a stop at Bronner’s (which is literally the world’s largest christmas store), I did see a good bit of stuff, including an arcade full of all sorts of old games, which happens to be closing for good tomorrow.

So, if you want to check out the pictures, I’ve got them all uploaded and captioned here. Enjoy. :)

Now I think I’m going to head to Luna… Well, maybe in a few minutes.

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Video Updates

November 24, 2004

Hey everybody… Due to a whole bunch of linking to a video on my site by complete strangers (normally I don’t mind this, but it’s used almost 5GB this month alone) and a desire to clean things up, I’ve moved all the videos that had been found in http://www.nuxx.net/files to http://www.nuxx.net/files/videos. So, if for some reason you are looking for something and it seems to have been moved, that’s where it was moved to. :)

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Help!

November 23, 2004

I’ve got an idea, and I’m curious if anyone can throw an opinion about it my way.

First off, I have a Kodak DC4800, but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. I want a new camera, a Nikon D70, but I can’t afford it yet.

So, here’s what I’m thinking of doing…

I should be able to get a Nikon Coolpix 3200 and matching case for ~$158. Rechargable AA batteries for it will run about about $25 with charger, and 512MB of UltraII SD memory $65.99. That makes it about $250 for a new, smaller camera with about the same capabilities as my current one.

The current one should sell for about $125 on eBay, making it all a difference of about $125 for the new camera. This will provide something much smaller and considerably lighter than my current camera, with plenty of memory. Unfortunately the zoom and resolution of this camera is the same as the old one…

Then, sometime next year after saving up a bit, the D75 could be a possibility. This way I’d eventually have a small, more knock-around camera, and a better one for more serious photography.

How does this sound? Does anyone have any suggestions or better ideas?

Thanks!

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Picture Update

November 23, 2004


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I spent a bit of time last night scanning in still more negatives. The photo above is from the collection of photos taken when I went to England in 1995 with the L’Anse Creuse High School North Wind Ensamble. We toured around bits of southern England, London, Portsmouth, and a number of other places. These photos are fairly randomly taken bits of that trip. If you are flipping through them from start to finish, be aware that the photos towards the end of the collection are more interesting.

While I’m still being frustrated by discoloration caused by rolling at the ends of strips of negatives in all the photos, I also went ahead and scanned in a number of photos which were taken on my last day of high school. This was my carrying a camera around, snapping photos randomly, showing various people doing various things.

So, that’s it for now. Hopefully tonight I’ll get even more scanned in, maybe a Washington DC trip in 1994 with Civil Air Patrol, some of friends from 1996/1997, Undernet’s #industrial people, etc.

We’ll see how it goes. :)

Links Again:
· England with LCN Wind Ensamble (May 1995)
· Last Day of High School

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