tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35877572009-07-21T08:51:24.075-07:00Lots of cleverly arranged<br> 1's and 0s.Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-63218075677307281182009-07-21T08:51:00.001-07:002009-07-21T08:51:24.136-07:00

TOTUS' favorite electronic device has finally had enough...

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-66756963557582861202009-06-21T04:10:00.001-07:002009-06-24T00:06:53.390-07:00

So what is it that motivates us clingy gun owners? Why the obsession with guns? This clip from Iran (Be forewarned: This is extremely graphic and disturbing. Do not click the link if you are easily offended.) shows what happens when the government holds a monopoly on violence.Across Iran, the people have been protesting an obviously fraudulent election. Government thugs, the Basij, have felt free

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-38988346754241711532009-04-06T01:32:00.000-07:002009-04-06T01:32:00.153-07:00

My hops plants have sprouted. The Willamette in the front yard is really a happy camper this year. It's already putting out bines and it's begun looking for places to climb. The Chinook in the back yard has just come up. Pics to follow.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-24545515083751588872009-04-06T01:23:00.001-07:002009-04-06T01:24:11.740-07:00

...or my laziness.Remember this batch? I brewed it on New Year's Day. Well... I finally got around to bottling it.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-43151827605123959642009-02-17T08:42:00.001-08:002009-02-17T08:42:35.616-08:00

DOW Loves the Stimulus..Down 258...-260 as I write this.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-14296963565414578082009-02-15T14:04:00.000-08:002009-02-15T14:04:00.837-08:00

...about doing something "just a little", but I'll pass.Kevin Yamamura, Steve Wiegand and Jim Sanders of the Sacramento Bee characterized the Democrats' planned $14,300,000,000 worth of tax hikes in the current budget scheme as "temporary". There is no such thing as a temporary tax increase. Do you remember the Spanish-American War Tax? That was supposed to be temporary too. It's like a frickin'

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-6938033782215410382009-01-21T01:16:00.001-08:002009-01-21T01:16:22.174-08:00

His Obammyness hasn't even been in his new crib for 24 hours and the market's taken a big crap. Off 332.13 on Obammyday.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-66454398559730660622009-01-11T19:59:00.001-08:002009-01-11T22:52:07.372-08:00

Yup... That last batch went down the drain. I was nothing but brownish-red hoppy water.So upward and onward!Or... Bash my head against that wall one more time!I prefer to be optimistic. I started a new all-grain batch on New Year's Day. This is an Irish Red Ale; this one again, but all-grain instead.More later.OK... It's later. (i.e. 24 is over.)This time I was a lot pickier about the OG of the

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-58215944151282540552008-08-09T01:14:00.001-07:002008-08-09T01:14:37.077-07:00

I'm not too happy with this first all-grain batch. I think that I messed up the sparge. The OG was wa-a-a-ay too low. I just racked off to the secondary and measured the SG. Again, way too low. I took a sip and it's pretty watery. It's going to sit in the secondary for several weeks. (It will be that long until I can do anything with it.) We'll see... Maybe it will make a nice light beer.(Of

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-42430336681277171382008-08-03T21:09:00.001-07:002008-08-03T21:09:26.020-07:00

I'm trying an all grain recipe for the first time. This is an ale called "Raucous Red".I've been slowly building up the stuff I need for a mash tun. I've got an Igloo water cooler and I've replaced the valve with a 1/2" ball valve. Inside, I've made a screen from the steel braid off of a 1" water line. The resulting loop looks like it covers the correct amount of the cooler's diameter. Not too

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-18478691029652376302008-08-03T00:15:00.000-07:002008-08-03T21:09:43.979-07:00

I'm doing my part to alleviate the hops shortage... This is a Chinook hops. I also have some Willamette growing, though it's not nearly as prolific as the Chinook.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-18103235094371793692008-07-09T17:36:00.001-07:002008-07-09T17:36:39.648-07:00

Get Drunk And Vote 4 McCain

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-6223526302975550142008-07-09T17:22:00.001-07:002008-07-09T17:22:58.099-07:00

I dunno... There's just something about the look in Jesse's eye in this pic......that ought to have Barak Obama checking his shorts now and then. I mean there's "change" and then there's "change"!

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-69901100191893675542008-06-28T19:57:00.001-07:002008-06-28T19:57:19.833-07:00

It only took a about 5 days, but the host finally got back to me. They still won't 'fess up to a security breach. Their advice was a "stronger" password. Given that the old password was about 12 characters long and made up of several words run together, I don't think that password strength was an issue. I still think they got rooted.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-12375377721231928012008-06-28T19:54:00.001-07:002008-06-28T19:54:11.207-07:00

I just put a sample bottle of the Irish Red Ale in the 'fridge to chill. I'll sample it tomorrow.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-74878946767563316252008-06-25T21:50:00.001-07:002008-06-25T21:53:51.676-07:00

No, not the host for this page. Blogspot does a just plain ducky job of hosting blogs. I'm talking about a service I pay real, cashy money for to host a few sites.The service, which will remain nameless for the time being, seems to have some "issues" with security patches. Google, the fine folks who run the fine site hosting this blog, flagged two of my sites last week as hosting malware. The "

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-57740792238025044292008-06-18T23:40:00.001-07:002008-06-19T08:45:11.046-07:00

The somewhat Irish Reddish Ale is ready to bottle. I yielded 44 bottles, including one pint flip-top bottle.And heeeeeere they are...(Cue the music!)

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-85926487706031236572008-06-11T11:52:00.001-07:002008-06-11T11:56:36.448-07:00

Hmmm... Something doesn't add up. Pakistan is complaining after a US strike killed 11 Pakistani soldiers:Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned an air strike by Afghanistan-based US forces that Islamabad says killed 11 of its troops.The incident took place inside Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.The US military confirmed it had used artillery and air strikes after

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-62671608096536112522008-06-06T09:21:00.001-07:002008-06-06T09:21:45.627-07:00

Jonah Goldberg asks: Is Barack Obama the Messiah? A new religion, Obamanity, seems to be rising in our midst.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-5847081351958713182008-05-30T23:09:00.001-07:002008-05-30T23:09:28.315-07:00

The airlock's quiet so into the carboy it goes. The color looks good, despite my screw-up on the grain. It smells great. It's been ~24 hours since I racked it off and it's settling out nicely already. Maybe I can bottle in a week or two?

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-67589668149705567172008-05-26T22:57:00.001-07:002008-05-26T22:57:54.379-07:00

Yesterday was another brew-day!I started a batch of what I hope will be a nice Irish red ale. At the moment, I don't know enough to design my own recipes, so I'm using a kit recipe from the local HBS. (They give you a break on the price if you do the leg-work and gather up the fixin's.) The recipe, however, called for two varieties of hops that they don't have in stock. So I had to make some

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-7609601014073578372008-05-21T13:38:00.001-07:002008-05-21T13:38:08.420-07:00

If you get cancer from eating carbon nanotubes, then you're doing something wrong! As far as I can remember, I've never seen anyone write about recipes that require nanotubes.Carbon Nanotubes Could Be Toxic, More Study Recommended

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-39944661576948561752008-05-16T04:12:00.001-07:002008-05-16T04:12:53.762-07:00

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-56216175307848181142008-05-10T18:29:00.001-07:002008-05-10T18:29:29.736-07:00

Oh yeah... It was worth the wait. Nice and hoppy, but not too bitter. I've had two so far this afternoon.

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3587757.post-60154680970547016082008-05-09T22:41:00.001-07:002008-05-09T22:41:27.844-07:00

OK... So I shoulda posted this earlier.Bottling day was on April 26th. I yielded 38 bottles. It should have been more, but I didn't top off the fermentor to a full 5 gallons. (I don't know why, but it didn't occur to me until later that I should have done that. Oh well...)It's been two weeks now. I tried a bottle after a week and the carbonation wasn't as much as it could have. We'll see what

Redcloakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01484642923877640733noreply@blogger.com