Homebrew in the glass.

Forgot about the 8% on this....

I am making an Irish Red this coming week St Pats day coming up, distant ancestors will be pleased.

Pale Ale made with fresh Pride of Ringwood hops given to me by a generous guy up the road. First time I have used anything other than pellets.

Not a bad drop after mowing the lawn, washing the dog and brewing a Kolsch. No sweetness (or Crystal) in this one.

Altbier, such an underrated style!

Bo Pils. Enjoying it during the warm last week we've had in Adelaide.

Dang, keen on this recipe as well!

Some interesting/newish-to-me things about this beer are a large % of Munich in the malt bill, S-04 yeast (not so new but experimenting with it still) pressure fermented and the pH of the mash at mash-out was 4.7 which was a bit low as I used quite a bit of acidulated malt and an overnight soak. I decided to match that pH with the sparge and yeah it's noice and goes alright in a fruity session IPA style, no problemo.

I think Pils and Munich are my fav malts.

I am still on extract so this one was:

20L
1.7kg Coopers Australian pale Ale can
1.0kg Dry Light Malt Extract
1.0kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2
0.25kg Pale Crystal Malt Steeped
0.15kg Grapefruit peel (soaked in vodka for a few days) Was about 5 large grapefruit. Make sure not to get any white pith in it as it is really bitter.

20g Amarillo @ 60 mins
50g of grapefruit peel (previously soaked in vodka for a few days) @ 60 mins
30g Citra @ 0 mins
30g Centennial@ 0 mins
10g Amarillo @ 0 mins

Dry hop
20g Citra for 72 hours
20g Centennial for 72 hours
10 g amarillo for 72 hours
100g grapefruit peel (loose with vodka)

I just dumped the glass of vodka and peel into the fermenter. The hops I had in a large tea ball and pulled out before cold crashing.


Next time I would cut out the Crystal as it left a bit of a sweet undertone.

Ah, well the two important bits were covered for me, the colour and the grapefruit flavour. The pale crystal gives it a beautiful hue.

So you're still on extract brews (which implies you intend to move to AG at some point) but you've already got a kegerator? Interesting sequence of advancement. I'm the opposite, I'm only just moving to AG now but am still bottling. Kegging is the final step for me.

*thanks for posting, BTW

Friday afternoon, I'd just finished setting up the caravan on the Noosa River.

Flipped the top off an unlabelled swing top, snapped a photo of the delectable sight before me as I admired the fluffy,  white head atop the beer. Took a sip and tried to remember which beer it was, then settled back into my chair totally relaxed. Took the opportunity to discreetly perve on some cute Euro backpackers hot arse as she sauntered by, while thinking to myself "how good is this"?





*snap*



Next thing my wife comes running back from the river in a panic. There's a seabird tangled in fishing line out in the river.



Fuck!



We're both passionate about wildlife, but my wife is kinda, just a bit more passionate obsessed.



So I've scrambled. Ripped off my shorts and t-shirt and chucked on a pair of boardies. All the while cursing under my breath about how the serenity had been broken and my beer was going to have to be left all alone without me for company.

My thoughts were seesawing from wishing my wife hated birds, to thinking how admirable it was that she cared so much.
 

Got to the river and saw this poor bird struggling frantically in the river, about 25 metres from shore. Then a tinnie raced past and almost collided with the bird.

My wife said "Are you going to swim out and save it?"

I said "No, I'm not too keen on dying while trying to save a bird".

Just then another boat came past much slower and I was able to wave them down. They soon realised what was going on and with some rough hand signals and an even rougher plan, we went to help this poor bird. 

I swam out, while they brought their boat in. 

The bird had fishing line wrapped around its neck, its legs, under its wings, over its wings, it was almost completely bound up with the stuff. When I got to it I thought I'd be able to bring it back to shore and untangle it.

Not so.

The fishing line was snagged on the bottom of the river and when I tried to lift the bird, the line tightened.

I was holding onto the boat and the bird, but the boat was drifting away, so I had to let go of the bird. Now the birds head was under the water and the likelihood of it drowning was the most likely outcome.

The people on the boat passed me a fishing knife to cut the line and once that was cut we managed to get the bird into the boat. The bird was unresponsive for a few seconds, but then kicked back in to life.

The lady who had been driving the boat spent the next 10 -15 minutes carefully cutting the tightly bound fishing line off the bird and we eventually released it and it flew away, seemingly without it suffering any apparent injuries.




In years gone by, I liked nothing more than going fishing. If i ever got snagged, I'd snap the line and think nothing more of it, but for several years now I've realised the damage it does to wildlife and I have little time for it now.

If you go fishing, please spare a thought for the harm the waste does. Whether it's fishing line, plastic bags etc.
Wildlife doing what comes instinctively to them don't deserve to suffer because of our pastimes or hobbies.   




  

I know this is going to be horribly unpopular on this kind of website, but fuck it.

Wildlife doing what comes instinctively to them don't deserve to suffer because of our pastimes or hobbies.


 So, stop going fishing altogether then. Do you think the fish like having a huge steel hook ripped through their face and then dragged around by it? Would you smash a steel hook into the guts of a cow or through a sheep's jaw and then drag it across the field into a dam to drown it so you you could eat it? No, so why do it to a fish?

I used to love fishing until I thought of how much that shit would hurt. I couldn't bring myself to do it again. And before anyone tries, yes, fish do feel pain.

*puts on flame suit and awaits the onslaught.

I fish about ten minutes every six years but would welcome any tips for how to deal with caught line beyond just snapping and rehooking.

Other than that, both you and your wife (and the passing boaters) showed a great deal of concern for another creature which is really quite lovely (and sacrificing beer and a perve in the sun is no small feat).

Cheers. Sounds similar to my natural action in case of a snag. Always pulling in the hope I've actually got a big fish rather than a rock (optimism of inexperience)

Ha, thanks but I'm not actually a vegan. I just don't dig on torturing things before I kill them.