Another Dave in Paradise...

I used a bottle of my Biere de Garde to braise the pork loin that I barbecued yesterday, leaving it in the oven for 5 hours at 225° and in another hour with the heat turned off. It came out fork-tender and it tastes delicious! The beer, however, needs another month to condition, I am guessing. Maybe more. No carbonation other than bottle pressure and cloyingly sweet, despite finish gravity reading of 1.013. I'll enter it as a Saison in the club competition anyway, tomorrow. At least I'll get some feedback.

I could have brewed yesterday but it just wasn't in me after I got rolling in the morning. Besides, the yeast that I have on hand (Munton's Ale yeast) was three years past use by date. Couldn't have been any good. Maybe I'll add it to the AAA when I bottle just in case there is a spark of life left in it. Instead of brewing, I went to Bryan's and kept him company while he brewed, then went to the hardware store for some drain cleaner and then home to to things around the house. Blah. Another wasted day, for all practical purposes.

Strange day...

And another strange day at The Gov'nor's Palace...

But that is another story. For another day. I watched 'Rescue Me' on F/X network tonite and drank Scotch (lacking Irish) along with Tommy. Smoked cigarettes during the commercials. Tommy has the life I want to have -interesting encounters with others, drinking Irish Whisky, working. The working part is the important part - I want to have a job where I enjoy the work; I enjoy parts of the likker peddling trade, but others suck. Like the pay, the part time status, no bennies, the ever increasing petty rules that are handed down by the petty overlords.... it sucks in that respect. I DO enjoy the parts where I communicate with the Pilgrims, though. That is what keeps me sane. Even when I feel like shite, when I parlay with the Pilgrims I get to feeling better. And eventually I AM better. However, I expect to be summoned to the castle at any time...

A customer came in today and said that the White House had taken over NBC. Now as we all know, NBC has been in the tank for Obama since Day One.... but this is a bit frightening: when dictators take over countries, the first thing that they do is to take over the media. Wonder what is in store next? Hmmm....

Got a large, hoppy beer from Wine Gourmet...

Hop Stoopid Ale, 102 IBUs, 8% ABV. Lagunitas brewery. Tastes very good. Hoppy taste, but not aroma. Didn't bring my reading glasses so I dunno where that is. Oh yeah, I could Clusty it... but d'wanna.

Geletin is a-floating

...on the top of the AAA. Soon, it will be descending into the deep, taking many particulates with it to rest amongst the yeasties. Then I can bottle and wait for carbonation to finish. Mmmm.... American Amber Ale.....

I checked my lottery ticket on the web this AM and as usual, I didn't win anything. No lucky break for Cyberdave in that sector of life. Maybe I'll get lucky elsewhere.

AAA still going well

I added the gelatin the other day and slightly swirled the carboy each morning since to help the hop pellets lose their buoyancy and begin their casual journey to the bottom. Just a few pellet pieces left this AM, and I can't tell about the gelatin. It is still slightly cloudy, but another week or so in the secondary and it should clear up nicely.

I was given a 4 gallon bucket with a gasket, all food grade materials, from a guy that works at a McDonald's. It was a pickle bucket in it's original designation on this plane of reality. I cleaned it well and will store some of the 50 lbs. of grain that I got from a local brewery which was already crushed... in hopes that it will last longer. We forgot to tell the guy making the order that we wanted un-crushed grain and they send it pre-crushed - at an extra .10¢ at lb. Still got a pretty good deal on the purchase, though. Maybe I need to make another batch of something soon to use up more of the crushed grain that won't fit into the pickle bucket. Wonder what kind it will be this time? Still haven't gotten a lagering temperature controlled atmosphere at hand since the freezer went out...

...I shoulda used the beer in the broken bottle!

And after the last dram of the brown goodness went to Davy Jones' Locker... it then struck me: I could have put 16 oz. into a plastic bottle and used it to squeeze test for carbonation! As the philosopher Homer said:

"D'oh!"

Got my Biere de Garde bottled with a few glitches

I rounded up a few Champagne and Saison bottles to put some of my Biere de Garde into and broke out the capper that I got somewhere... for capping tall bottles. Mental note: Adjust the capper before filling the bottles with beer. See images.

I did get one bomber bottle and 48 12-oz. bottles of beer. The FG was 1.013 and the ABV is 7.58%. I'll shelf it all for a week to let the carbonation start and then put it all into the fridge and wait for it to finish. Will take at least three weeks.... maybe more.