Topic: brewing
I really need to brew more beer, but my HLT is giving concern again. I think I should give
up and buy a new (and bigger) kettle. Now where do I find that at a sensible price?
Topic: brewing, gardening
Also more hop harvesting. I didn't look for a couple of days, with the result that a number
of hops have turned brown. Got the rest of the Pride of Ringwood, and I'll need to get the
other varieties soon.
Topic: brewing, gardening
More hop processing today, and to my dismay discovered that the hops I picked last week had
gone mouldy. The first image shows what they looked like when I picked them:
What now? On the face of it, I should throw them out. But they're Pride of Ringwood,
bittering hops, and they still smell like hops. Put them in the deep freeze to consider.
Maybe I can make some beer for Juha Kupiainen with them. The lesson here: dry them quickly,
then freeze them. Picked the Tettnang hops, which are also a bit old. For some reason the
Goldings didn't bear a single hop, which just leaves the Hallertau to do.
The place for the hops, up against the garage, isn't ideal. It's not high enough, and the
hops only bore at the very top. It's also windy, which doesn't help. I need to find a
better place soon.
Topic: gardening, brewing
Apart from photography, did find a little time to harvest the rest of my hops, the
Hallertauers. I should have done this a couple of weeks ago; I wonder how many of them will
be usable.
Topic: brewing, general
Also washed the car, which needed it, and processed the hops, which I pick with stems and
all; separating the flowers is quite a business, and I ended up with hands yellow from the
resin. When washing them, the water goes bright yellow, more than I would have expected.
Topic: brewing
I've bought a new 80 litre stock pot on eBay—only $102.50. Problem: pickup only, but Daniel O'Connor will do that for me. But
how do I transport it? Called up Pack and
Send, who did a good job sending the 1826
Savary jeune to Venice, and was rather shocked to get a quote of $120 for the
transport. I need something cheaper than that.
Just by chance, Yvonne called up Diane Saunders and found
that only Lynn was there. Got her to ask if anybody was coming this way, and how about
that! Her husband is leaving for Victoria tomorrow evening, and he'll be passing by
Ballarat. So it looks as if we'll get it transported for free.
Topic: brewing
Mail message from Daniel O'Connor today: he's in Malaysia, heading for Taiwan, and he'll be
back in about 10 days, so he can't pick up the stock pot for me. That wouldn't
be that much of an issue except for the fact that Paul is leaving tonight. Daniel
copied his wife Fiona, but didn't get a reply during the day.
Sent a message to the local free software links asking if anybody could pick it up for
me—not made any easier by the fact that they had to fork out $102.50 on
collection—and David Newall offered to do so. Also got a call from another person
whom I don't know (I think—I didn't get his name, and he didn't follow up with
details), who was also prepared to do it. I think he was a little upset that I already had
somebody, though clearly it's good to have a backup.
Getting hold of Craig (the seller) was also an issue; ultimately, I didn't, and David just
called up. Finally, by 20:00, David had delivered the pot to Di's place, so all I have to
do now is drive to Ballarat in the middle of the night to pick it up.
Topic: brewing, general
Up early this morning to wait for Paul to call me from the highway. He didn't, and after an
hour I called him to hear that he was just
passing Ararat. Off to the west
of Ballarat, and with a bit of coordination found him and picked up the stock pot.
It's aluminium! The eBay description
said stainless steel, which is a big price differential. I suspect that the seller
didn't know the difference, but that's still annoying. It's also quite dirty, and somewhat
bent—in significantly worse shape than any of my other pots.
Topic: brewing, general
Somehow I'm dragging my feet getting this new HLT together, but finally went into town to
buy another hole cutter and back to try drilling a hole in the old HLT first. That worked,
but the hole is still not very pretty. Still, I should be able to get things sorted soon.
That's a good thing, because despite my intentions to build up a stockpile of beer, I'm
running low again.
Topic: brewing
The other day I had tried drilling a hole in the old HLT to confirm that it was clean,
before going at my new pot. Today finally got round to doing that, with Yvonne helping me steady it. The hole was even untidier, and getting
the burrs off the inside was a real problem. To add insult to injury, it doesn't seal
properly: the flange is flat, and the inside of the pot is curved:
There's got to be a simple solution to that, but I haven't found it yet. Sent a message to
the brewing community, who might have an idea.
Topic: brewing
Yvonne went shopping today and came back with a thick rubber
washer, which seems to have done the trick for the HLT. So now I
can—finally—brew again.
