Matthew Kocsis

Well, it’s the first brew of the season for me… or rather the first brew of the year. Come to think of it, I haven’t brewed beer since 2005. Anyways, It’s time to start again. Today’s goal: a full flavor ESB.

I searched the BrewBoard online and came up with a reasonable recipe – a good malt/grain/hops combination. I decided to go with an extract recipe this time so I can get back into brewing without too many new things.

The Recipe I picked:
10lb Maris Otter malted barley
1/2 lb malted wheat
1/2 lb Crystal
1 oz Goldings @60m
1/2 oz EKG @60m
1/2 oz EKG @30m
1 oz fuggles @2m

I found a place down in Iowa City on 2nd street that sells beer making supplies, however unfortunately it’s only a small selection of ingredients and supplies that another shop brings by weekly. Since they had nothing on my list, and wanting to start the next day, I decided to make the recipe up as I went. Here it is :)

3:00 PM Sunday 4-22-07
Cleaned carboy, started water on the stove.
 

5:16 PM
Mashed grain at 161F for 30 minutes (out at 5:46PM)
1/2 lb Briess 60L Crystal Malt, 6 Row
1/4 lb Briess Black Patent Malt, 6 Row Lovibond 480
I didn’t have a mill, so I used my blender. This was a mistake, it made it far too fine. Next time I will use a rolling pin or something similar to crush the grain instead of making it into a puree.
  

8:03 PM
Added malt extract.
3.3 lb Muton’s Light LME
3.3 lb Muton’s Amber LME
1/2 lb Munton’s Wheat DME
 

8:46 PM – Hop Schedule:
60m: 1 oz Kent Goldings pellet (alpha 6.9 %) – 8:46pm
60m: 1/2 oz Saaz pellet (alpha 3.6%) – 8:46pm
30m: 1/2 oz Perle pellet (alpha 7.6%) – 9:21pm
02m: 1 oz Cascade Leaf (alpha 6.0%) – 9:45pm
 

I cooled the wort by putting it in a cold water bath (which I refreshed periodically) and using a fan to blow cold air over the pot. Yes, there was a lid.

2:00 AM Monday 4-23-07
I transfered the wort into my carboy and pitched Wyeast 1056 American.
 

There was something wierd about the iodine I used for the airlock, but then again, it’s iodine. I think it was cloudy doe to temperature or a small amount of starch that somehow got in it.

The wort did not begin to show signs of fermentation until thursday 4-26-07.

More Pictures

Updates will follow…

I finally went shopping and installed the basics for a workbench to continue developing the DRINK system. I have my development PC, 2 lights, networking, and some work area rigged up. My plan is to hook a bucket-fed water system to simulate beer for the rest of the development process.

A picture will be linked to shortly.

Another fun storm rolled through tonight – but this time I had the random idea to grab my camera, a tripod, and brave the weather and shoot aimlessly into the sky until something came out. Actually, I tried to time it a bit more, but I still ended up with over half of my pictures black. Oh well.

The only issue I had was keeping steady – while shooting out my back door (it was raining, so I needed to be inside) the tripod didn’t fit, so I held the camera. Since I was shooting at 1/10 sec, some blurred. Sorry, I still think they look cool.

Well, let’s see if I can get this published before the power blinks. Gotta love midwest weather, eh?

(click for larger)

Very loud thunder, green skies, tornado watch until 9pm tonight. I just took some video on my camera, but I had to take it from the back of my place due to the front being pounded with water. I am the located at the big mark on the map just north-east of Cedar Rapids.

I’d also like to add a great image from last fall in West Lafayette.

Well, It’s becoming impossible to use my desktop – mainly because of a 2+ year old Windows XP install, however still partly due to slower overall hardware. I decided last month that I ws going to purchase a new computer, and today that time came (as long as Visa lets to charge go through). Here’s a little comparison.

What I had (15,000 ft view):

• Antec Case
• AMD XP 2100+
• 1.0 GB PC2100
• Matrox 32MB dual head (VGA + DVI) graphics
  -note: I already purchased a new video card for this computer, It will be installed when I install Linux
• SB Audigy (yes, the original)
• MSI Mainboard with onboard RAID 0/1
• 2 40GB HDD (mirrored)
• 2 160GB HDD

Overall it’s a great computer, it just can’t handle XP and Virus Scan anymore. It will be a very good Linux workstation

What I bought:

• Antec P180B case
• Intel BLKD975XBX2KR Mainboard (RAID 0/1/0+1/5)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4GHz
• 4GB DDR2 800 (PC 6400)
• EVGA 640 8800GTS Graphics (DirectX 10 compatable)
• Seasonic 650W quad rail power supply
• 7 Segate SATA II 320GB Hard Drives
• External Sony DVD Burner
• Belkin 1500VA UPS

And for other PCs in the Apt:

• 2 Intel PCI Pro 1000 NIC
• Netgear GS108 10/100/1000 8 port switch
• Belkin 900VA UPS

I will be keeping my 2 VGA 17″ Samsung SyncMaster 710N LCDs until I’m ready to buy a pair of 24″ widescreen LCDs

wow, lots of money. The good thing is that this PC will last me quite some time just as the old one did.

I finally got my Pictures site working – Almost all of the Japan trip pictures are uploaded. It’s taking me a long time to write in descriptions, so bear with me on that. If you’d like to know more about a picture, please comment on it!

I finally installed WordPress to make my website dynamic. It should help with adding content on the go, etc.

Well, After long flights, confusing train bookings and an overall sense of confusion, I am back in the states. With me I brought home some knives from the Tsukiji fish market, Fans and Chopsticks from shops in Asakusa, and some food from a grocery store in Tsukuba. I also took almost 4Gb of pictures and movies on my new Casio EX-z850. I am currently uploading pictures (which will go long into the night), but when they are finally all posted, they will be available on my Pictures page. I will then begin the long task of adding descriptions to each picture – so stay tuned.

Today I also installed Word Press which should help make my life easier when I want to update my webpage. I have still not decided how to add it – whether to make it my main page or to just be a link, but I think I will learn the features first and then decide.

Well, the camera is in! I found a really good deal on SD memory cards at Newegg.com (2GB with an included USB reader). I still haven’t had time to really learn the functions of the camera, but that will come soon. My mother is visiting this weekend, so I plan on testing out the zoon on some planes at the airport (if there are any).

In all, this means that pictures will be posted soon! I have plenty of bandwidth that I am not using (I think I have about 2,100 GB a month that I’m not using).