Most commented posts

  1. What to Name My Beer Brand — 6 comments
  2. Batch 4 and 5 bottled — 6 comments
  3. Beer Labels — 4 comments
  4. Beamish Stout Clone- Batch 19 — 4 comments
  5. First Batch Fermenting — 3 comments

Author's posts

The New Normal

Normally I only blog about beer. Or IT stuff. Rarely personal stuff. This is a personal one. Don’t want to put many details out there, as everyone close to me knows the details. I’m divorced now. The wife decided to cheat on me so I kicked her out. I am grateful she didn’t try to …

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Bottled the Oatmeal Stout- Batch 63

What a great day! Started out with biscuits and gravy, watching some football, and bottling my oatmeal stout! So, bottling beer is a lot of sanitizing and making sure everything is clean before you bottle. So, gallons of sanitizing solution later I have things clean and ready to bottle. One important thing is to calculate …

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Batch 63- Oatmeal Stout

I’ve brewed this bad boy many times, and I love it! It’s been 3 years since I’ve last brewed (11/3/2019), so I’m long overdue! This classic Charlie Papazian recipe calls for 1lb of quick oats, 4 lbs of 6 row, 1/2 lb crystal malt (I used 60l crystal), 1/2 lb chocolate malt, 1/4 lb roasted …

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Batch 61 Bottled- VIKING MEAD!!!

Katelyn bottling mead

What can I say? Freaking MEAD!!! The boys helped me bottle, plus I had a few others join in. Took the final gravity- 1.020. Initial gravity was 1.102. Take the difference, multiply that by 105, then multiply that by 1.25 to get the alcohol by volume. 10.76% alcohol. YES! 10.76% alcohol by volume. And it …

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Batch 62 Bottled- Big Fat Oatmeal Stout

Bottled stout

Saturday night I finally got around to bottling my beer. I had help from some of my kids. So, before I could begin I had to clean the kitchen- can’t have an unclean environment when bottling beer! Bottles got bleached, then sanitized as I didn’t know what could have been in my bottles given how …

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Batch 61 and 62- Viking Mead and a Big Fat Oatmeal Stout

Oatmeal Stout and Mead in fermenter

I’m sick of not being able to brew beer. So, despite some horrible personal news that should have derailed all my plans, I pushed on and brewed two batches of beer. Well, one batch of beer and a mead that I’ve been meaning to make for over a year. The mead recipe: 15lbs honey, yeast …

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Batch 60 Bottled- The Unspoken Passion

Josiah bottling

  I bottled my beer tonight!  And what a good tasting beer it is!  It turned out different from the last time I made this beer- it’s more tart than before, but once again a mouthful tastes amazing! Final gravity turned out to be 1.020, giving this an alcohol percentage of 9.19%.  Oh, boy!  I …

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Batch 60- UNSPOKEN PASSION!!!

It’s been 4 years since I brewed last. Well, technically 3 years. I brewed a cider with my friend Rob, but I don’t count that since it was technically his brew. But last night that all changed!  We got together and brewed a masterpiece: Unspoken Passion Imperial Stout! Liquid sex in a bottle.  Sounds freaking …

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Professional Growth and IT Certifications

One area where I’ve never pushed forward on is the area of IT Certifications. Those things look really good on a resume.  I’ve gotten two certifications in my lifetime: My Microsoft Certified Professional in Windows 2000 cert, and my CompTIA Network+ cert. The Network+ one is for life, the Microsoft one is long expired. Part …

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What’s Holding You Back?

So, my last blog was a rant. I was dumping, venting, letting out steam.  Time to move on from that. First note: My wife is my biggest support. She is amazing.  She pushes me on the workouts, but that’s because she is pushing herself. Not a bad thing, what is bad is that I don’t …

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