Every Fiber of my Being

first mash beer notes

2012-02-05T23:09:00Z

Here’s the airlock, bubbling 12 hours after we cast the yeast.

5 lbs. ground malt
2.5 gallons water
3.3.lb. can extra light malt syrup
.5 lb. smoked malt barley
.35 lb. chocolate malt barley
3/4 tsp. smoked paprika
Hallertauer hops 1 oz. boiling, 1 oz. aroma
Cascade 3/4 of one .5 oz. pellet - finishing

Mash the 5 lbs. of grain in 2.5 gallons water:
This required two pots, as we don’t have one big enough. With grains we must have had a volume of three-plus gallons. Bring to 120º and hold for 30 minutes; raise to 150º and hold for 10 minutes; raise again to 158º and hold an additional 15 minutes. Sparge (strain and rinse) into a container, or actually into a pot to be boiled. This is the “sweet wort.”

From here I adjusted the liquid: instead of having 1.5 gallons to start with I had almost double that. I extracted the chocolate and smoked malts separately in a saucepan and poured the resulting dark liquid into the wort pots. I put all the boiling hops in one pot so I could sparge only that into the fermenter, keeping the other cooking vessel separate to cool and add to the fermenter before casting yeast.

Boiled the first bunch of hops flowers (from Mountain Rose Herbs) for 40 minutes, then added the aroma hops and boiled for 18 minutes; adding finally the finishing hops for 2 minutes at end, then sparging immediately.

We are using the yeast from the previous batch in this one, so we have a quart of beer & yeast reserved to add to the cooled wort.

Original gravity 1.050
70º. We cast a quart of yeast sediment/beer dregs from our previous batch, bottled today.

Beer brewing 201

2012-02-05T22:55:01Z

We have embarked on a new phase of brewing. Today with a fair bit of effort and a HUGE mess in the kitchen, we made a batch of beer that is 1/2 grain mash and 1/2 ingredients that were pre-processed.

By pre-processed I mean that before I’ve made beer with 3.3lb or 4 lb. cans of barley malt syrup, which is reduced from a mash such as the one we made today. The cans are easier because you just open, pour into a big pot with lots of water, add other flavoring adjuncts as desired, boil with hops, cool, add yeast, ferment and bottle. It’s already a bit of a production.

So the difference today, using many of the kitchen’s large vessels, was to slowly heat milled barley to release sugars and dextrins - fermentables and unfermentables - which then being boiled, make the sugars converted to alcohol by the yeast.

We started with 5lbs. of barley, from the brew store, and had to put it in two pots with a total of 2.5 gallons of water.

And we had a batch of beer from 2 weeks ago that needed bottling, and was occupying the bucket destined to hold today’s new batch of beer.

There’s a lot of cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and bottles to avoid random contamination in the beer. We haven’t been brewing for a while, probably a year or two. So everything was dirty!

We bottled 5 gallons of Porter with chocolate, coffee and licorice for flavoring in addition to black patent and crystal malts. It’s a decent brew, not stellar, but may improve with clearing and carbonation.

chicken news

2012-01-31T00:46:01Z

Bluebell has hatched another chick. Born either today or yesterday, a dark colored Araucana. Tweet.

And other news in the coop, the latest previous hatch now a lovely dark Araucana, nearly black with red speckled wings and iridescent green wing bars, is a rooster. It’s all in the posture, tail shape, attitude.

a proper blaze

2012-01-28T19:39:00Z

starting

getting going

ablaze

still very hot

almost gone

Dad update

2012-01-28T19:38:01Z

A letter sent by Mary Anne to Dad’s long-time physician, currently on fellowship at U.W. and working with some patients in the facility where Dad was in rehab.

“Andrea is home and doing a little better each day. As I expected, the first night and full day home were a bit of a challenge, now he’s sleeping more comfortably and balance/strength improving enough that he’s only using the wheel chair if very tired, otherwise he’s strong enough to use walker when up and about the house.

The Providence physical therapist started working with him last Thursday. She’s terrific and the same one we had in ‘07; she really gave Andrea a boost of confidence. Next week Occupational and Speech/Swallowing will start in.

He’s tolerating the tube feedings, and with the help of a nutritionist I’m starting to add some real food into the daily mix. He’s able to take pills with applesauce and, being a creative guy when it comes to food, he’s coming up with some blends that he swallows carefully, so far without any issues beyond minor throat clearing. So far no constipation and incontinence issue has improved enough that he’s back to wearing his regular shorts. We’ll see how it goes.

Finished antibiotic (Levaquin) -no fever or other symptoms of infection.”

Kitchen complete

2012-01-26T04:44:00Z

Well close anyway. In the wee house here, I have made birch shaker style doors for all the lower cabinets with water-based polyurethane finish. Also I built an upper cabinet to accept a venting range hood over the stove. With a new gas range, the kitchen is very changed.

Seattle snowed in with Dad @ Terraces at Skyline rehab

2012-01-21T18:47:00Z

A visit to Seattle hoping to help Dad settle in at home after a collapsed lung episode and recovery in a rehab facility turned into a several day siege in the rehabilitation building with him. Mary Anne and I decided to get snowed in with him rather than snowed out. We stayed 4 nights in his room. Dad is now at home and eating applesauce! He had also a swallowing difficulty which is apparently improving.

Other photos have to be photoshopped to load in correct orientation. :( eventually.......!

Before

Stormy without, peaceful snoozes indoors. This looks beautifully like Liba’s face (Dad’s mother).

Off Leash

2012-01-11T19:54:01Z

We took the llamas and goats for a walk the other day essentially off leash. Only one llama on a halter and lead, we walked to the end of the pond and back. It’s a treat to watch the llamas especially walk outside of the enclosed areas, off lead, just moving freely and being themselves.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies with molasses clove variation

2011-11-29T22:29:01Z

Flourless Peanut Butter cookies

1 cup peanut butter - smooth or crunchy
1/2 cup sugar (or less) - originally 1 cup!
1 egg

Combine ingredients, mixing well. Even if a little moist at first, this will stiffen slightly to make a good dough consistency for rolling into balls if you like. Flatten these with a fork moistened with water.

Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes, cool slightly on cookie sheet before moving to plate or rack to cool.

Molasses Clove Peanut Butter cookies

This variation on the above cookie substitutes a tablespoon or so of molasses for some of the sugar. Add about 3/4 teaspoon of ground cloves. The peanut butter stands up to these two flavors and so you don’t have to be too shy.

Notes
I have been reducing the sugar in this recipe a little more each time. It seems to be just fine.

Once or twice I tried adding a little flour - say a tablespoon or two, which makes the cookies slightly less rich tasting. For some this is a good thing. I’ve used spelt or oat flour probably.

Snow in October

2011-10-31T23:26:00Z

Bird Report

2011-10-29T23:05:01Z

Silkie Bluebell’s two hatchlings are much quicker to learn the crazy ramp into the coop than the white silkie baby who took it seemed a week at a few weeks of age. These younger araucana chicks got the ramp the second day out and were perhaps only 3 weeks old at the time.

Within the last week the duck hawk was sitting on the roof of the silkie pen wire enclosure, hoping to frighten a morsel into running out of the wire into the open. Happily they all stayed put.

Today we watched a young red-tailed hawk sitting in the maples and then the snag pondside in front of the house: very alert almost quizzical.

There is a pileated woodpecker here again, seen and heard. It’s a great profile in a dead tree by the pond. All the big birds seem so dinosaur-like, whether chickens or herons or this great pterodactyl of a woodpecker. And I love the maniacal laugh.

Bluebell and two chicks

2011-10-14T18:46:00Z

Born last year, Bluebell had diligently sat on three clutches of eggs this year, finally hatching two little Araucanas. She is often joined in the nest by other hens which makes her job harder.

now picking

2011-07-23T15:22:00Z

Kale and beans, 2 kinds of each. The purple beans are really yummy raw. Lancinato kale and russian kale are doing well. We recently had brussels sprouts leaves prepared as collards - they were just fine!
Zuccini are being beetle blasted: flowers drop so no fruit yet. wondering other than hand picking bugs how to deal.
Sylvetta arugula is happy, only flowering sparingly.
Raspberries are superb- especially on a hot day.

yum

2011-05-29T00:13:00Z

Shrimp & scallops steamed in a pan lightly with chopped garlic, anchovy paste, water, arugula sabbathday shakers’ poultry mix of spices: marjoram, sage, rosemary, thyme & parsley. Served over rice reheated with chopped cottage-cheese pancake (see 8/26/08, this one made with orange oil) and cheddar cheese. Mmm, yeah with some baby arugula dressed w/olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt.

cardinal nesting

2011-05-28T02:11:01Z

Bird report:
This morning as I gazed out on the pond I saw little ripples indicating somebody dawdling in the front and center. I got binocs and saw three female merganzers (hooded I suspect), one with five babies! Oh so sweet and close to mama, almost on top of her as they all paddled along. I didn’t know they nested here.

The cardinals have a nest in the American Cranberry viburnum beside the front door.

Rebecca and I met this late morning at Sleepy Hollow in Concord and planted geraniums for all the women in our plot. We talked about ways to note other family members. She loves the idea of my finishing Mom’s angel alighting birdbath and putting it there. We also put in a little portulaca. Wouldn’t it be cute if it did well and reseeded around?