Fiddling with the digital tablet..

Here are some abstracts I did this weekend.. I’m messing around with my digital tablet and Corel Painter.

Brew #30: Wendies Porter

Had a great brew today! Setup went smoothly and I hit the mark on mash temperature, boil volume, and final volume! I filled my pot from the mash tun and collected almost 2qts additional for later. About 15 minutes from the finish of the boil, I added the final 2qts of wort that I had set aside.. this helped make up for the beer that evaporated during the boil as well as the amount that was absorbed by the hops.

Draining from the kettle went a lot better than in the past as well. My buddy Kurt gifted me a length of stainless steel braided wire wrap which I fashioned into my drain filter.. it worked much better than my old one, leaving only about 2 cups of beer left in the kettle at the end of the drain. Typically with my old setup I would leave behind about a half gallon of beer.. Anyhow, here’s the recipe and I’ll attach a few pictures below:

Wendies Porter
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Brewer: Josh Gum
Style: Robust Porter
Batch: 5.50 gal, Mashed

Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.077 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 32 IBU
Recipe Color: 31° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.019
Alcohol by Volume: 7.8%
Alcohol by Weight: 6.0%

Ingredients
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American two-row 11.50 lb, mashed
Belgian Munich 1.50 lb, mashed
Crystal 40L 1.50 lb, mashed
American chocolate malt 0.75 lb, mashed
American black patent 0.50 lb, mashed

Kent Golding 1.50 oz, whole, 60 minutes
Kent Golding 0.50 oz, whole, 30 minutes
Kent Golding 0.25 oz, whole, 20 minutes
Kent Golding 0.25 oz, whole, 10 minutes

California Ale yeast 1.00 unit, starter (1200mL)

Notes
—–
Recipe Notes:
Used the same malt and hop bill as my first robust porter (http://www.revgum.com/?p=186) but upped the mash temperature to 154F and spaced out the hop additions to hopefully add a more well rounded bitterness.

Batch Notes:
Brew went perfect! My buddy Kurt gave me some stainless steel braided wire wrap which I fashioned into my drain spigot.. this works so much better than my older huge braid. The way I see it, the hops for a nice filter when draining the boil kettle, so there isn’t much need for a huge filter with more surface area. OG = 1.060, gathered 5.75 gallons!

11/11: Kegged, FG 1.012.. tasting damned good. Chocolatey, a little bit of roasty flavors, going to be a good one!

Double-Digit Kyu Workshop by Guo Juan

I found this great, and short, video of a Go professional Guo Juan giving a workshop for Go beginners at the Seattle Go Center. Though she doesn’t explain the basic rules, this is a great introduction for newer players and a good reminder of fundamentals (of which I’ve been having problems with lately).

Oh my goodness..my geek-o-meter is pegged.

My buddy Paul just turned me on to the Nokia N810, and I must say that I’m highly impressed. I like that its not a phone, considering how abusive I seem to be with my phones (why these things don’t seem to last more than a year and a half pisses me off.. but more on that another time!). Here are a few things about the N810 that get me all hot-n-bothered:

1. Linux (hack-a-licious)
2. Java (I code, and I have a geek-toy problem..so sue me.)
3. Wifi
4. Small, but with a keyboard! And a nice big LCD!!
5. It’s got GPS even! Nice!
6. It’s (relatively) cheap! Nokia is targetting the $500 mark.. oh my oh my!

This thing is getting my stamp of approval, it is “the shit”. I must start saving my nickels. My fingers are crossed in hopes that I could tether my phone (its got broadband) to the Nokia for the bifecta of geekness.

Edit: I found an article which describes the N810 using Bluetooth to connect to an Internet connected phone.. nice, no wires to fiddle with!