Aug 03
So, Microsoft released Nano server with their launch of Windows Server 2016, and it promised to be a great thing!
Nano Server Comparison
“Microsoft has announced that they are removing all the infrastructure features, such as scale-out file server (SOFS) and Hyper-V from Nano Server. What the heck is going on? What do you do if you deployed Nano Server for infrastructure roles? What is the future now?”
What is the future now?
Click here to read more about what’s going on over at Perit.com
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=1012
Feb 11
Moving WordPress?
Are you looking to move your WordPress site to another server? Want to duplicate it so you have a test environment? Does this seem too daunting to you? Well, having done this dozens of times, I shall reveal my method of moving WordPress to another website.
NOTE: In order for this to work, you need access to the MySQL back end for your destination site.
Step 1: Write down the site URL for your current site (ex: www.brettgorley.com\blog)
Step 2: Install the Updraft Plus backup and restore plugin
Step 3: Do a full backup of your site. (This may take a while depending on your site)
Step 4: Download the backup files when it is complete
Step 5: Install WordPress on your destination site (ex: 192.168.0.100 shall be my destination test server)
Step 6: Install the Updraft Plus backup and restore plugin
Step 7: Restore the backup from your old web site to your new one
We will be overwriting the database which will make our site become unreachable. DON’T PANIC!
Step 8: Open up your WordPress database in phpMyAdmin (or command like if you prefer- don’t ask me for help with this though)
Step 9: In the wp_options table, change the following fields:
Step 10: Browse to the new WordPress site’s admin console (in my example, http://192.168.0.100/wp-admin)
Step 11: Install and activate a plugin called Velvet Blues Update URLs
Step 12: Go to Tools/Update URLS. It will list the Old URL and the New URL.
Step 13: You should get a results page showing number of items updated.
At this point your new website should be fully working and functional. But, due your due diligence and test everything just to make sure.
I’ve done this type of transition a dozen times and I have never failed to duplicate a WordPress site using this method.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=997
Sep 02
It’s been so long since I brewed I’ve almost forgot how to do it. So, I was reminiscing and found an excel spreadsheet I created- my beer database. Everything I’ve ever brewed and how I thought about it. All my successes and failures since 2007.
First, how I rate my own beers:
| Rating Scale | ||||||
| 10 | Freaking awesomest beer in the world!!!!! Period!!! | |||||
| 9 | Oooohhhh….So good, I love it. I want to have it’s baby. | |||||
| 8 | Darned good! Eat your heart out, micro-breweries! | |||||
| 7 | Really good. Gonna go back for another. | |||||
| 6 | Good. Yummy. A pretty good beer. | |||||
| 5 | Drinkable. Not terrible, but drinkable. | |||||
| 4 | Hmmm…. This reminds me of something cheap and fizzy. | |||||
| 3 | Ok, one sip was enough. | |||||
| 2 | …bleck! | |||||
| 1 | You trying to make me sick? | |||||
Now, my Beer Database:
| Beer Name | Batch # | Brewed | Rating 1-10 | Notes |
| Flemmish Brown | 1 | 12/31/2007 | 8 | Better with age |
| Oatmeal Stout | 2 | 1/9/2008 | 1 | Burnt oatmeal |
| Frambooz | 3 | 1/17/2008 | 7 | Kit beer but turned out good |
| Handsome Hefe | 4 | 2/1/2008 | 7 | Contaminated- super foamy |
| Bastard Brew | 5 | 2/1/2008 | 2 | Sludge |
| Can-o-bitter | 6 | 2/7/2008 | 4 | meh… |
| Can-o-IPA | 7 | 2/7/2008 | 4 | meh… |
| American Hefe | 8 | 2/28/2008 | 2 | Contaminated yeast- band-aid flavor |
| Papazian Oatmeal Stout | 9 | 3/22/2008 | 10 | The Perfect Beer |
| Flemmish Brown | 10 | 4/12/2008 | 9 | Aged beautifully! |
| Humpty Dumpty | 11 | 4/26/2008 | 7 | light drinkable beer |
| The Good Life | 12 | 9/27/2008 | 6 | Ok, drinkable |
| Wild Thing | 13 | 10/2/2008 | 5 | Something contaminated this- most likely the hops |
| Righteous American | 14 | 10/11/2008 | 6 | Decent beer |
| Buckingham Bitter | 15 | 10/26/2008 | 8 | Good solid English bitter |
| Bombay IPA | 16 | 11/12/2008 | 7 | What your British trooper would have drank |
| Buckingham Bitter | 17 | 11/26/2008 | 8 | Good English bitter |
| Holiday Cheer | 18 | 12/8/2008 | 8 | Really good, but lost interest in it after the holidays |
| Lucky Stout | 19 | 12/10/2008 | 9 | Beamish clone. Yum! |
| Bombay IPA | 20 | 1/3/2009 | 7 | Good IPA |
| Righteous American | 21 | 1/10/2009 | 6 | |
| Cherry Stout | 22 | 2/5/2009 | 7 | Fun beer. Different fruit would work as well |
| Cherries in the Snow | 23 | 2/19/2009 | 8 | Interesting. Tart, slightly sweet, did interesting things in my mouth |
| Tracy’s Framboise | 24 | 2/28/2009 | 7 | Only good with sweets, or mixed 1/2 – 1/2 with pilsener |
| Lucky Stout | 25 | 3/12/2009 | 9 | Beamish clone. Yum! |
| Witty Weisenbeir | 26 | 5/15/2009 | 7 | Great hot weather beer- and cheap! |
| East India IPA | 27 | 6/20/2009 | 9 | The Perfect IPA |
| Witty Weisenbeir | 28 | 7/14/2009 | 7 | Yum! |
| Liberty Pale Ale | 29 | 8/12/2009 | 8 | Best pale ale I’ve made |
| Liberty Hefeweizen | 30 | 8/12/2009 | 5 | Overcarbonated, didn’t finish fermenting, liberty hops didn’t go well with wheat |
| Top Drop Pilsener | 31 | 8/29/2009 | 7 | Not my favorite style, but as good if not better than anything store bought |
| Papazian Oatmeal Stout 2 | 32 | 10/21/2009 | 7 | Too much maltodextrine in it. Ruined the goodness |
| Holiday Cheer | 33 | 11/30/2009 | 8 | A bit thicker than last years. Probably hop pellets |
| Unspoken Passion Imperial Stout | 34 | 12/2/2009 | 10 | Chocolate Raspberry Dessert |
| Viking Mead | 35 | 12/23/2009 | 9 | Sweet. Like a white dessert wine mixed with whisky |
| Lucky Stout | 36 | 2/3/2010 | 7 | Forgot the table sugar till it was fermenting. Produced off flavors |
| Liberty Pale Ale | 37 | 9/24/2010 | 7 | Good. Not as good as last time |
| Rob’s Belgian Dubbel | 38 | 10/23/2010 | 9 | Complex. Roasted barley with licorice and hops finish |
| Ruby Hooker Mead | 39 | 11/14/2010 | 6 | Tart and slightly dry. Not sweet at all. |
| Holiday Cheer | 40 | 12/1/2010 | 8 | Same as last years |
| Oatmeal Stout | 41 | 12/28/2010 | 9 | Still Papazian, not the perfection I remembered |
| East India IPA | 42 | 1/23/2011 | 8 | Classic IPA |
| Tracy’s Framboise | 43 | 3/21/2011 | 2 | Tasted like cough syrup. No syrup next time |
| Liberty Pale Ale | 44 | 5/22/2011 | 7 | Hops are getting old. Not as spicy as before |
| BJ’s Belgian Ale | 45 | 6/20/2011 | 2 | Only slightly better than Coors. Too many conflicting flavors, too thick, too much confusion in my mouth |
| Witty Weisenbeir | 46 | 9/26/2011 | 7 | Yum! |
| Chocolate Stout | 47 | 11/2/2011 | 10 | Oh my word, this was amazing! |
| Pumpkin Ale | 48 | 11/2/2011 | 7 | Not pumpkin enough for me. Good though |
| Tragor’s Brown Ale | 49 | 12/27/2011 | 7 | Decent brown ale. Will try a different recipe next time |
| God is Good IPA | 50 | 3/17/2012 | 9 | Great IPA |
| Rob’s Belgian Dubbel | 51 | 3/17/2012 | 8 | Not as good as I remembered, but still good. Too much head |
| Witty Weisenbeir | 52 | 8/3/2012 | 7 | This was a hit at the beer party |
| God is Good IPA | 53 | 9/3/2012 | 9 | Still great |
| Pumpkin Ale | 54 | 9/3/2012 | 7 | Used canned pumpkins- still not pumpkin enough for me |
| Big Fat Oatmeal Stout | 55 | 10/12/2012 | 10 | Dang! This was good! |
| Witty Weisenbeir | 56 | 8/3/2013 | 5 | infected. Super foamy. |
| Peach Weizen | 57 | 8/3/2013 | 5 | Decent, but infected. |
| Fresh Hop IPA | 58 | 8/30/2013 | 6 | It was ok. Think it got infected also |
| East India IPA | 59 | 11/1/2014 | 6 | Oak flavor took over. Beer still drinkable. Infection problem on earlier beers was bottling bucket faucet thingey |
If you’ve had one of my beers, chime in and tell me what you thought of it!
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=991
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=981
Nov 01
It’s been over a year since I last brewed. Working too much and being too broke will do that. But, my good friend Rob wanted to brew, so we brewed. He wanted to do my IPA recipe, so that’s what we brewed.
East India IPA ingredients
10 gallons of IPA sounds pretty good to me! So, we followed the directions I posted way back in my batch 27 post. Only ingredient difference is the yeast- Rob didn’t know what yeast to get so he got some Wyeast 1217 West Coast IPA.
Did the protein rest, 130 degrees for 1/2 hour, 150 degrees for 1/2 hour, and 158 for 1/2 hour. During the boil I went to get some Chinese food, and we had a boil over. Guess I used too much water getting the temperature correct.
Anyways, got all the hops added and Irish moss, then strained the hops out. Had to re-combine both fermenters to make sure both were equally mixed. Now we have two batches of beer waiting for yeast to be pitched.
IPA’s in fermenters
11/2- Pitched yeast this morning. Initial gravity was 1.068, so on track for a decent alcohol percent. Next week we’ll be adding some oak chips.
11/9- boiled oak chips and divided them between the fermenters.
Fermentation has mostly stopped.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=969
Apr 08
Many people have been hit with the Cryptolocker virus, effectively hijacking their files unless they have a backup. Well, now you can get your files back, assuming you have System Restore turned on.
Here is an article on how to get your files back after a Cryptolocker infection:
Hope that saves some headaches!
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=963
Oct 12
Fresh Hop Ale
Well, finally got around to bottling the fresh hop IPA. I was originally going to rack it to a secondary about a week after brewing, but that didn’t happen. I still had the hops, so I made a hop tea out of them and added that to my bottling bucket before I transferred the beer.
The beer? Well, it had a different odor to it. Not like bad- just like…. green. Like grass. Or something.
Final gravity came out to 1.014, for about 7.8% alcohol by volume. I tasted it too, not sure how I’m going to like this. I’ll be sad if this doesn’t turn out.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=956
Aug 30
Fresh Hops
So, my friend Rob Morrison got a ton of fresh hops from a friend. Naturally, we had to brew. So, we did a fresh hop IPA based on my God is Good beer recipe.
Here is the modified recipe:
3 gallons water
1 pound 60L Crystal malt
2 pounds 2 row malt
7 pounds pale liquid malt extract
1 oz Cascade hops (pre-boil)
2.5 oz Cascade hops (bittering) (60 min)
1 oz Cascade hops (30 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (20 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (10 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (aroma) (2 min)
Yeast: White Labs WLP051 California Ale V Yeast
Pre-Boil Tea
So, we steeped the grains in 145 degree water for 40 minutes along with an ounce of hops. After straining the hops and grains added more water and brought the whole thing to a boil. We added the malt extract when we had a good boil, then pitched in the 2.5oz of hops.
At 30 minutes added another ounce of hops. Then again at 20 minutes. Then again at 10. Then at 2 minutes left. Think we used enough hops?
Hops to add
We strained the hops out and threw it into our fermenter and topped it off to 5 gallons. The hop aroma coming from this was beautiful. I think I may have to be stingy with this one.
We also bottled the peach wheat beer tonight. Guess what I’m naming it?
Isn’t That A Peach?
Final gravity was 1.006. So, with a start of 1.050, then to 1.012, then to 1.014 after the peaches, the total change of 0.046, times 105 is 4.83, times 1.25 is 6.04 percent alcohol by volume. My other wheat is 5.5%. Not bad.
Edit: 8/31 I aerated my IPA and pitched the yeast. Initial gravity was 1.064. Same as the last time I brewed this.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=944
Aug 19
So, on Saturday 8/10 I bottled my Hefeweizen, which I also call my Witty Weizenbeir. Final gravity came out to be 1.014, giving me an alcohol percentage of 5.5%. Not too shabby.
The Hallertauer aroma is wonderful, the beer has a good malt body with a nice show of hop flavor. Definitely did a good job on it this time.
My Peach Hefeweizen got transferred to secondary with 6 lbs of peach puree. Fermentation kicked off again on it as well. I noticed the flavor on this wasn’t as full bodied as the other batch, which accounts for the difference in gravities as well. My gravity before adding the puree was 1.012. After the puree was 1.014. I wondered at first if it should be higher than that, but it is what it is. Will be a bit before I can get to bottling this one.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=941
Aug 03
It’s been since October since I’ve brewed. So, decided to do a hefeweizen. But I also wanted to do a peach hefeweizen. Well, why not do both? So I did.
After much contemplation I decided on doing one big 10 gallon batch, and I will put half with peaches in a secondary. That way I’ll have 1/2 regular hefeweizen (for those people who think fruit in their beer is effeminate), and 1/2 will be a peach hefeweizen. Good plan!
Recipe:
14 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat Malt Extract
3 oz Hallertauer hops (1.5oz bittering, 1oz with 15 minutes left for flavor, 1/2oz for aroma)2 packets Safbrew WB-06- Wheat Beer Yeast
6 lbs Peach Puree (for secondary)
Brought 5 gallons of water to a boil and added the liquid malt extract. Once it reboiled added the 1.5oz of hops.
Hallertauer Hops in wheat malt wort
Waited 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then added 1oz more of hops. Waited 10 minutes, then added the rest of my hops.
Strained out the hops and transferred it to my two fermenters, then topped both of them off to 5 gallons.
Hefeweizen in Fermenters
Tomorrow I pitch the yeast. In a week I’ll transfer one to a secondary with my peaches, which I cheated with and bought peach puree.
6 Lbs Peach Puree
Edit: took gravity today, my smaller bucket had an initial gravity of 1.056, the bigger bucket was 1.050. I’m wondering if I added more water in the larger bucket.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.brettgorley.com/blog/?p=930
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