Happy Animals

The dog and chickens love the beautiful weather we've been having. 

Happy Daffodils

I love daffodils. They are, by far, my favorite flower. They are always so bright and happy to see spring. We have several varieties throughout the garden...

The other flowers blooming:

Anemone 

Dwarf Forsythia

Weeping Cherry Tree

Pink Bleeding Heart

Happy Spring!

Brewing Porter

Coffee Porter 

6.6 lb Light Malt Extract

1 lb Carastan 30L malt

1 lb Coffee malt

1/2 lb Brown Malt

1.0 oz  Fuggle Hops @ 60 min

1.0 oz Fuggle Hops @ 10 min

Wyeast #1099 Whitbread Ale Yeast

This was a kit from the homebrew store that I received as a Christmas Gift.  The specialty malts were already milled and combined in a bag. 

 Split the specialty malt into 5 muslin bags for steeping

 Into the brewpot with 1.5 gallons water

 Steeped at 150 F for 30 minutes

 Santized the carboy and everything else while I was waiting. 

 Since the malt extract is like molasses, I heated it up for easier pouring. 

 Removed the steeped grain, saved it for the chickens. 

 Added the two cans of malt extract

 Put the hops in muslin bags, for adding at start of boil, and 10 minutes remaining. 

 Boiled for 60 minutes

 Into the sink for an ice bath

 I had 3 gallons of pre-boiled water that I put in the freezer to add to the wort to bring down to about 70 F .

 Readied the 6.5 gallon carboy and funnel. 

 After shaking up to aerate, removed a sample for measuring the original gravity. 

 Original Gravity of 1.050. 

 Pitched the yeast

 Airlock on, time to ferment.

 After a few days fermenting at about 65F, got a nice layer of krausen.

Making Mead

I decided to try to make some small batches of mead as an experiment.  Mead is basically wine made from honey instead of grapes.  There are many variations, based on what other ingredients are used. 

 First I sanitized the glass 1 gallon jugs I was going to use for the 2 batches.

 Batch 1 used:

3.5 pounds Clover Honey

6 Mandarin Oranges

Handful of raisins

1 stick of Cinnamon

1 Clove

dash of Allspice

Regular Bread Yeast

  Batch 2 used:

3.5 pounds Clover Honey

2 Mandarin Oranges
1.25 pounds of frozen Mixed Berries - Strawberry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Raspberry

Handful of raisins

Regular Bread Yeast

 Dissolved the honey with warm water, added the other ingredients, and then filled up, leaving some space for foaming during fermentation

Finally, measured Original Gravity (1.30), added the yeast, and secured the airlocks to each jug.  Off to a dark closet for a few months.

New Cheese Press

I built Sheila a cheese press, here it is in action, with 35 pounds of old dumb bell weights on it, pressing some Queso Fresco that she made: