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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 go scorched earth in the divorce. We both just went our separate ways. The divorce was signed by the judge the day after our 25th anniversary.

I am also grateful that this last year has been a huge healing journey for me. And for my kids.

I’ll eventually brew some more beer. My son keeps bugging me about it and I have a friend who wants to brew with me. It will happen. Right now there are more important things on my plate.

Beer, IT, and life. I can do without the first two if I had to, but life is far too important to miss. And I don’t want to miss it!

Continue reading]]> 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 your alcohol by volume. Final gravity was 1.018. Take your initial gravity (1.056), subtract your final gravity (1.018) to find the total sugars eaten by the yeast (0.038). Multiply that by 105 (which gives you 3.99), then multiply that amount by 1.25 and that gives you 4.99%, which is your alcohol by volume. Real close to 5%. Last time I made was exactly 13 years ago and it was 4.5% alcohol by volume. SHEESH! 2009 on October 30th was when I bottled this one the last time I made it!!! Crazy!

My wife hand wrote the labels, as it’s been years since I’ve had a working inkjet printer. I’m so looking forward to this beer!

Continue reading]]> 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 barley, 3.3 lbs dark malt extract ( I used a 3lb bag of dry malt as they were out of their 3.3lb liquid malt), 2 oz Willamette hops, Irish moss and Irish style ale yeast. They didn’t have my regular Wyeast 1084 irish ale yeast so I ended up going with a different brand.

So, it’s been so long I decided to clean and sterilize all my equipment. A long bleach soak for all my fermenters and lauder tun and a good washing for my brew pots.

Started with my grains. Got my water up to 150 degrees, then put my grains into a grain bag and dropped them in, bringing the temperature down to 133. Well, that’s the goal. It was a bit higher than that so I added a touch of cold water. Kept the temp there for 30 minutes for the protein rest.

Added 6 quarts of boiling water to bring the temp up to 155 degrees. This took some finesse to keep the temp steady at 155, but I was able to do it. Kept it there for 45 minutes to extract all the yummy goodness!

One point I missed was that I added gypsum to the water before the protein rest. I also added some to the sparge water because it helps with the extraction. Plus the harder water gives it a more authentic Irish feel.

After the 45 minutes brought the temp up to 167 (it actually got higher and I melted my grain bag- oops!) Then i sparged the grains with 2 gallons of 170 degree water. Once done there was still stuff in my grains! I want it all! So another gallon of hot water to get the nummy goodness out of those grains!

I used my larger brew pot to do the boil, plus thanks to my gas stove and large brewpot I used two burners to get the wort up to boiling. Once boiling I added my dark malt extract and my hops which were placed in a hops bag.

After an hour boil I transferred it to my fermenter to cool. Oh, yeah! BEER!!! Can’t WAIT!!!!

10/23/2022- The next morning I aerated the beer and pitched the yeast. Initial gravity was 1.056. Close to what it was the last time I brewed this back in 2010. HOLY CRAP, it’s been that long? My blog doesn’t lie, so I guess it was.

I can’t wait for this beer to be done! I do need to go through my beer bottles and clean those out (and dump some old beer that’s probably not good anymore….)

Continue reading]]> 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 tasted yummy!!!

Continue reading]]> 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 long they’ve been just sitting around.

Once I had my beer transferred to my bottling bucket I took the final gravity.

So, calculating alcohol by volume is pretty easy: Measure the initial gravity before you pitch the yeast, then measure the final gravity after the beer is done fermenting (and before you put the corn sugar in), take the difference, multiply by 105, then multiply that by 1.25 to get your Alcohol by Volume.

So, my final gravity was 1.032, initial gravity was 1.092. So, take the difference (.06), multiply by 105 which gives us 6.3, multiply that by 1.25 and it gives us an alcohol by volume of 7.88%. Not as good as the first time I did this (8.7% that time), so this probably didn’t fully ferment sitting in my basement. Perhaps I’ll find a different spot to ferment it next time.

After all was said and done we ended up with 50 bottles. Can’t wait till it’s ready to drink!

Continue reading]]> 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 nutrients, water. Then yeast. Yay!

My Big Fat Oatmeal Stout recipe:

2 lbs quick oats
3 lbs light malt extract
6 lbs liquid dark malt extract
1-1/2 lbs 60L crystal malt
1/2 lb chocolate malt
1/2 lb roasted barley
1/4 lb black patent
4 tsp gypsum
1oz Centennial hops (boiling)
1 oz Cascade hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Cascade hops (10 minutes left)
1/2 oz Cascade hops (2 minutes left)
1/4 tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes left)
Irish Ale Yeast

Started the mead first. The eternal debate on mead is whether to boil or not. Papazian recommends a 15 minute boil to make sure. I decided to do a different route and just pasteurize it- brought the temp up to just below a boil and then transfer to my fermenter. Then I topped it off to over 5 gallons. Eazy cheezy!

Now the Stout. I couldn’t find the clip I normally use to clip my grain bag to my pot, so I just let it float in there.

My temp got away from me there- had to take it off the stove for the last 15 minutes. Then I ran hot water through the grains to try to get all the yumminess out of the grains. Then I added the light malt extract and bittering hops and started the boil

With 10 minutes left I added the Irish Moss and the flavor hops. Then with 2 minutes left I added the aroma hops, then killed the temperature and began to strain the hops out. Again I used hot water to rinse the hops as I removed them to get all the yummy goodness out of them. Got it transferred to my fermenter and let it rest.

This morning I took the initial gravity and pitched the yeast. Initial gravity was 1.102 on the mead, the stout was 1.092. Both are going to be some high alcohol beers!

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Bottles of Unspoken Passion beer

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 also had a few helpers.

Greggory capping

Josiah bottling

Two weeks from now and we will taste the final product!  Can’t wait!

Continue reading]]> 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 awesome doesn’t it? It is!  Trust me! You’ll want to brew this on your own!

I started the evening before the brew by bleaching out all my equipment since it’s been years since I used it. I let my fermenters soak overnight.  My tubing for transferring my wort will probably need replaced- there’s something still in it after a night long soak.

We started with our grain mix in a grain bag. Putting that in 3 gallons of water in my 15.5 gallon brew pot was… interesting. The grains weren’t covered by the water. We added an extra gallon of water and split the grains between two grain bags. I didn’t have any gypsum so we skipped that.

Unspoken Passion Recipe

Once the grains steeped for over 30 minutes we began to add the malt extract and the bittering hops. We used Centennials as that’s what I used last time.  And of course we drank beer while brewing beer. That’s a requirement.

Once the boil was done we added the Cascade hops and the raspberries.  Lots of raspberries.  Over 11 lbs of raspberries. Oh, my! It smelled amazing.

Since I don’t have a fermenter capable of handling over 8 gallons of liquid I had to split the wort into two fermenters. That went fairly well, except for the mess in the kitchen that my wife yelled at me about. But once it was done I let it cool so I could pitch the yeast.

This morning I took the initial gravity and pitched the yeast. The initial gravity was 1.090. This is going to be a big beer! The taste was wonderful, rich dark tones with lots of raspberry flavor and beautiful hop essence and aroma. Even my son Greggory liked the wort.  Next week I get to transfer it all into a secondary fermenter and let it finish fermenting, and then on to bottling!

Continue reading]]> 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 of the reason I haven’t pushed for more certs is the time excuse. “I don’t have time” is the well beleaguered excuse that all procrastinators make. Well, I have my lunch breaks and I can usually squeeze an hour in the evenings, so I really don’t have that excuse.

Finances is another excuse. Each exam costs a lot of money, and if I fail then I’m out that cash. This is a silly excuse, as I could save for the dang test. So, from now on, I’m putting some money away for my certification exams.

Perhaps the biggest reason I don’t pursue certifications is that lie that I’m not good enough and that I shouldn’t bother trying, I should just accept the state I’m currently in.  Why try, the lie says. The lie says that I should just accept my current state and not try to better myself. I know I’m better and should be striving to be better, but the lie feeds my self doubts and makes me not want to try.

Screw the lie.

I’m working on my ITIL Certification right now, which is kinda boring stuff, but it’s one of those soft skills that looks really good on a resume.  After that I’m going to pursue some security certs, starting with my CompTIA Security+ exam, and possibly my CCISP or Certified Ethical Hacker.  If I get a job that requires a different set of skills like virtualization then I’ll pursue those certs as well.

This is one area that’s a no-brainer. Getting certs makes me more desirable and helps me command a higher salary. And I’m no longer believing the lie.  I’m doing it!

Continue reading]]> 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 say no when I need to. But, she is also my biggest support. I don’t know what I would do without her.

I tend to focus on the negative, and think that I’m not good enough.  That’s going to change.  I will no longer listen to the people who push negative thoughts on me (i.e. my boss,) and I will no longer allow myself to think negative thoughts about myself.  I am tired of allowing myself to be a victim also.

So, to purge the negativity from my life I’m going to find another job. Have some opportunities out there and I’m pursuing them. Now, the question is, do I confront my boss about his behavior?  I don’t want to. I just want to turn my back and never talk to him again. What will it accomplish by confronting him?  Well, getting me fired is one of them. Will he change?  I doubt it. I’ve confronted him in the past about things and it hasn’t changed who he is. He is a fearful person who only cares about his image and protecting himself. He doesn’t want people to know that he’s a phony.  I don’t know if I will talk to him before I leave the company.

My focus now is to cut out my podcast that talk politics and history and replace them with more self improvement ones.  My focus is also going to be on bettering my job skills to be more employable.  My focus will be on better managing my temper also.

I have triggers for my temper.  When I’m tired is the big one.  When things are off mentally for me is another. When my boss berates me and tries to make me feel stupid and insignificant is another. I will strive to recognize my triggers and change my thinking before I lose my temper.

My focus will also be on helping my family be better people.  That is one of the best gifts I could give to this world.