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I ran into a guy today who started an apiary last year and has expanded it this year. He's in the Interlake area and he's selling honey from his bees that feed on his clover fields. I haven't bought any honey from him so I can't comment on quality, etc. but if anyone is interested I can pass on...

I was making a ten gallon batch of Irish Red yesterday. First, my liquid yeast wasn't stepped up enough for pitching and then when I drained my mash into the boil kettle, there wasn't a trace of red! So, I'm looking at this very pale wort and suddenly it dawned on me. I'd forgotten to add the...

I started my Wyeast British Ale II two days before my brew day. On brew day there wasn't enough activity to pitch so I just used dry yeast. The starter is moving along now so I'm wondering if I should continue stepping it up and use for my brew day in two weeks or dump it. I guess the real...

So I bought a complete electric brewing system and now I'm building my basement room to suit. It's a commercial all stainless system with a 15 gallon conical. I'm quite handy so I"m starting with a 10' x 14' bare concrete room and I'll insulate and plumb it to fit. So I have some ideas, from...

So I broke my brewing fast this weekend by doing two ten gallon batches. I did 10 gallons of ale on Friday and ten gallons of lager today. For the ale batch my efficiency ran 62% and the lager ran 81%. My techniques were identical except for a longer boil on the lager. Volumes were about the...

I tapped a keg on the weekend and had one glass. Today I poured another and when I was half way through I went to top it up. The finger tap had wedged against a keg and bent the handle in the opposite direction. For those of you who own finger taps you know that if you pull the lever up it will...

I'm starting to get discouraged with my electric brew build. I can't find any 50 or 60 amp GFCI Stab Lok breakers (Federal Pioneer), and in fact I can't even find a reference to them. It seems that they don't exist. So I'm looking at the prospect of buying a regular 2 pole breaker and feeding a...

I picked up one of these today: I'm building a single tier electric rig in the basement and I want some conicals for fermentation. The conicals will be elevated high enough to slip a corny underneath to fill. The problem is in filling the conical. I haven't come up with any easy or clever...

I need some SSRs for my electric brewery and I can't help but look at the ones from China. Past experience says to stay away from electronics coming from there, but these devices are molded single piece solid state devices. So how do they sell them so cheap? Are they manufactured over there? Are...

So I had planned on brewing a nice brown ale today but when I was at my HBS their prices for some of the hops I needed were outrageous. He wanted nearly $4 an ounce for some varieties. I figured I'd just buy some bittering hops and add a bunch of this year's Cascade for the additions. So I'm...

Several people are asked to prove that all odd integers greater than 2 are prime. Tenured mathematician: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is not prime. Ha! A counterexample. Untenured mathematician: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime… so by induction, all subsequent odd integers are...

It was the first in the company's history. It appears they wanted to capitalize on the economic downturn by giving us an unprecedented four year contract with next to nothing in it. Since the company wasn't affected by the downturn and in fact has been quite profitable, the manoeuvre didn't fly...

Hell of a concert last night. The family tradition is for Dad to take the kids to their first concert. Last night 17 year old Stephanie (see my gallery) got to go to see AC DC in the stadium. Blew her mind. The price of bad BMC ($5.75 a glass) blew mine but didn't damage my wallet at all. I have...

I need a stereo for my little commuter car. I don't give a damn about any screen savers, GPS capabilities, DVD playback, or anything other than quality sound. I'll be running my satellite radio through an external input most of the time. I'm a little overwhelmed with the pure crap that's out...

So today is brew day and I've got an Irish Red on the go. Loves me a good Irish Red. So I say to SWMBO, "I'm going to mash this one a little higher than normal. I usually mash too low." Blank stare. "Mashing higher gives it more body." Pause. She says, "I guess I was mashed high." :D

So I'm sitting here watching a hockey game (Anaheim and Detroit) and waiting for my Irish Ale smack pack to swell. I can't help but wonder what's going on in the package. As I understand it, there is a small sample of yeast in the pack, 100 billion cells in this case, and a small package of...

Last week SWMBO and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. I bought her something appropriate for the occasion and she 'authorized' $500 for me to spend on any purchase of my choice. Being as obsessed as the rest of you freaks, I immediately went to Austin Homebrew Supply's website. Forrest...

Well, it was a long cold winter but I'm finally back to AG. I'd done a few extract batches just to keep me in product until I could fire up the ten gallon pots again. The snow is finally all gone from my brew area and the temps are livable again. I still have 20 gallons to tide me until the AG...

So I'm stuck in the city in a hotel again. The upside is that there is a liquor store that has some very nice beer on hand. Well, nice for a Canadian store that is. Anyway, I stopped by the dollar store in the mall and bought a beer glass because there is no way I'm drinking fine beer out of a...

Well, not until the end of April, but it's a sure thing now. I've been formally offered the new position. We have to work out the logistics because I can't just pack up and leave my current position. I'll be in charge of local engineering support for the electrical department, primarily for...