Sep 02

A Trip down Beer Memory Lane

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: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=991

Mar 25

Can’t Migrate Public Folders to your Exchange 2013 Server?

I have this great to do for migrating public folders from Exchange 2007/2010 to my new Exchange 2013 server (found here: https://supertekboy.com/2014/10/13/2013-public-folder-migration-made-easy/).

Problem is, it doesn’t work.

What doesn’t work?  Why, all the PowerShell commandlets and parameters relating to public folders seem to be absent.  Exchange Management Shell is missing them.

Solution: Use the regular PowerShell shell, and run the following command:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010

Now you can use your Public Folder related commands and parameters in the regular PowerShell window and they will work. Wish I had known that sooner.

Happy migrating!

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=981

Nov 01

East India IPA – Batch 59

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

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

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: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=969

Apr 08

How to Defeat CryptoLocker

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:

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/70476-how-to-beat-cryptolocker?utm_source=swemail&utm_medium=newsletterresource&utm_campaign=0408

Hope that saves some headaches!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=963

Oct 12

Fresh Hop IPA Bottled- Batch 58

Fresh Hop Ale

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: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=956

Aug 30

Fresh Hop IPA brewed (batch 58), Peach Beer bottled (batch 57)

Fresh Hops

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

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.

First Hop Addition

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

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?

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: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=944

Aug 19

Hefeweizen – Batch 56 Bottled

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: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=941

Aug 03

Hefeweizen and Peach Hefeweizen – Batch 56 and 57

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 wort

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

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

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: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=930

Mar 22

VDI Comparisons

VDI-in-a-box graphic

VDI-in-a-box graphic

Been looking at replacing our current Terminal Server environment and rethinking our workflow for our end users.  Of course, VDI has come up and I’ve begun to ask whether we should move to some VDI solution or stay with Terminal Services (or Remote Desktop services as Microsoft now calls it).

So, I’ve begun researching.  And researching.  And asking lots of people lots of questions.

The best resources I’ve found so far?  Easy.  Here’s the first:

VDI Smackdown.  This link contains a whitepaper laying out the different VDI solutions, including VDI-in-a-box and Microsoft Server 2012’s solution.  Incredible resource.  Download it now.

Spiceworks.  Their communities are a great source of info.  Lots of IT people with lots of IT wisdom.  If you aren’t a part of the Spiceworks community yet, sign up here.

From what I’ve found, traditional VDI is way too expensive for an organization our size. The rule of thumb is >200 users for traditional VDI to pay off.  So, right now I’m exploring both Server 2012’s enhanced Remote Desktop services, which has a feature for deploying virtual desktops based off a golden image.  The other option I’m looking at is VDI-in-a-box by Citrix.  Dell has a  VDI-in-a-box solution they market called the DVS Simplified appliance, which is basically a R720 server running Windows Server and the Citrix VDI-in-a-box software, but they fully support it.  Given that they own Wyse as well this could be an attractive bundle.

What should I choose?  What should you choose?  Well, that depends on what your goals are.  My goals are the following:

  1. Simplified Management for end users
  2. A rich end user experience (fast UI reaction, video, desktop sharing, conferencing, viewing CAD drawings)
  3. Better management of difficult apps (such as DWG Trueview, Saleslogix desktop manager, GotoMeeting) without jumping through a ton of hoops.
  4. Quicker disaster recovery response for our end users.

We haven’t finalized our decision, but I will keep notes on our process and hopefully update this blog with the results.  Stay tuned.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=923

Oct 20

Big Fat Oatmeal Stout- Batch 55 bottled

I bottled the beer tonight, with the help of my friend Rob.  I also helped him bottle two beers he’s been sitting on since March.  At least they’re beers that mature well with age!

Final gravity came out to be 1.024, which would give me an 8.7% alcohol by volume.  Nice!

Of course, we tasted it tonight.  One sip and it’s ok.  One mouthful and it’s better.  You get more of the oatmeal texture and creaminess with larger tastes.  Ohh, it’s good!  Can’t wait to show it off to everyone at my friends beer tasting party!

Big Fat Oatmeal Stout

Big Fat Oatmeal Stout

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=919