Highs/Lows for the week...

[Brendon]

Ok - so this might seem a little weird and PC by my usual standards but in team meetings at work I encourage people to give a quick "barometer" check of their week to see how they are going. It helps people crystallize their thoughts into the essential things that are going on. So I thought I would try it here on the forum.
There are only 3 rules:
1. You must provide an answer when asked as you would in a team meeting at work - if you are lucky enough ;-) (volunteer out of turn - it's fine on a forum);
2. You may have as many highs for the week as you can reasonably think of but at least one is compulsory; and
3. You may have a maximum of only 1 low for the week.

So what are my items this week? Glad you asked....

Highs:
1. California Lager yeast (Wyeast 2112) - wow, just loving it and the fact that beers take so little time to condition up!
2. Quick disconnects for my gas on my corny kegging system - how did I live before hand. If people want to get you a cheap but valuable present for birthday/father's day/any other reason then get them to buy you a QD's for less than $35.
http://craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=964

Low:
1. Promising 15L of beer to a friend on Friday 30th May and knowing that you don't have a hope in hell as it's that good it won't last that long! ;-)

B

[Edward Siddle]

highs: (1) getting the new Lallemand Munich wheat beer yeast in the mail at work this morning. Wb-06 just ain't cutting it, and all the reports on the other one are good. I had good success with wyeast 3068 in the past, but managing it when only making one weizen every 2 months was tricky.
(2) the fact the bitter i made on friday night is already finished fermenting. bottle it friday. good old saf04.

lows: ummmm none so far unless one counts the fact that i am not having a beer tonight, and i've still got to do the dishes, and start tomorrow night's chilli, and pulp and freeze a large bag of feijoas....

[Dan]

Highs: Just been to the Dunedin malthouse, got some import hops, carafa, caramunich, raulshmalt, aromatic and more, also went to emmersons and am chugging some seasonal stout!

Low: Theres a mouse in my grainstore/equipment room, its licks all three traps clean without setting them off! It replaces lost grains on the floor to what looks a bit like black malt!

[denimglen]

I have the same problem, a mousey that has been munching at the grain. I buy a rubbish bin to store my base malt in and then buy a 50kg sack of BB pale that doesn't completely fit so I leave the lid off and somehow the little bugger managed to climb up the side or jump off something to have a little midnight sack on my brand new bag of malt. It's not a big deal so far so I won't call that my low.

Highs:

What so far seems to be good luck (touch wood) growing starters and freezing off small amounts of yeast. Still haven't grown one back up to pitchable amounts yet.

Boss wants us to cut down on overtime so that's more time for weekend brewing, hopefully it continues a little longer.

Homegrown hops coming out better than expected.

Feeling like I'm getting somewhere putting my single tier sculputre together. Only need to buy the SS for the frame and some polycarb tube and elbow fittings for some sight glasses. After I acquire these it'll be all assembling/cutting/welding all going to plan.

The only big low I have at the moment is the apprenticeship work I'm doing leaves little time for brewing related stuff. Guess I'll need to cut down on laziness and increase time management.

[Horace]

Any pics of the new improved brewery

[denimglen]

As in the single tier? Not yet, unless you want a picture of all the components lying on the garage floor ;-)

[Stu McKinlay]

highs:
Brendon coming through with 200g of US Cascade for my American Porter
Kids in bed 6pm and the run-off underway half an hour later (brewing only three weeks after i last brewed!)
Hugging Rob (a pleasnat surprise, only minutes after one of my lows - see below).
Getting around to Kieran's for the first time since forever... oh, yeh, and his lovely pickled eggs!

lows:
Having to hug Rob.
Watching someone knock over a full pint of renaissance porter (slow motion, like watchin a car crash)

[Greig McGill]

What is it with you and manhugs, Stu?
Meh, I'm just jealous I've not had one yet.

[Edward Siddle]

oh man, i only like seeing pints knocked over when they are tui or some such. but renaissance porter. that's tragic.

and those eggs were magic, specially the ones with chilli in the pickling vinegar.

[jt]

Only one bad thing ?
Rules are meant to be broken
1 the keg of cascade amber ran out early - well going by the tally of pints poured on the fridge anyway
2 no full keg there to replace it
3 the gas bottle ran out

On the upside - and I have more ups than downs
1 no pints knocked over (as in spilled)
2 plenty of pints knocked off, yum !
3 great weather for the vege garden, lots of fresh tasty stuff every night
4 great weather for brewing, lots of healthy ferments at the lower end of the ale scale

[Edward Siddle]

you're right about the weather JT, though for my last month of ales i am going to have to start getting the sleeping bags out to insulate the fermentors once the activity slows down. i am mildly worried my brown ale has already fallen foul of our spare room being too cold, since it has stopped at Fg 1020. then again, i did mash high, and it did have lots of both amber and dark crystal and chocolate (about a quarter of total grain bill). tastes ok, at least.

[jt]

I've been using Thames Valley Ed, fermenting very well at 16-17C in an ambient average 12C in the garage.
This is the lowest I've fermented an ale - any comments from others about either Thames Valley at the low end or ales fermenting there in general ?
The hydrometer sample before I racked the first brew was ok but I'm yet to keg / bottle and drink - the real test

[Edward Siddle]

no idea about thames valley at low temps! i used it from about november to march one summer and often on highish grav beers (1060s) so it generated plenty of heat. made some nice beers when rollicking - as al puts it - along at 22C!