| Book four in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, this one sees Jack a little more comfortable at home, no longer on the run from his creditors, but still beached on half pay until Stephen shows up with secret orders for a mission that will take him to the Indian Ocean to lead the expedition to retake Mauritius and La Reunion from the French.
All in all it was a good book, and I’m eager to start in on the next one in a vain attempt to decrease the height of the to-be-read stack of books I’ve got. |
Author Archives: Pat
Gaelic Storm
I’d picked up these tickets a while back because they sounded like an interesting band to go see. Well, tonight was the night and The House of Blues was the venue.
I can’t begin to write down a set list, as I am a complete newbie when it comes to their music, but it was a great show. They were really in to the audience and the venue was small enough that you were within shouting distance of the stage no matter where you were in the room.
They played two full sets of music interspersed with witty repartee between themselves and the audience. The music was fantastic, traditional Irish with a modern flair, and not at all melancholy. Though there were a few slower songs, for the most part it was just fun, occasionally bawdy, music.
After an extended encore they called it a night and hung around to talk with fans.
Saturday Brew And Learn
A few friends of mine had expressed interest in learning how to brew so I had them over to help out with brewing another batch of what I’ve decided to call my 50 wt. Wheat. The recipe’s pretty well standard now, and I’ve started using Beer Alchemy to keep track of the batches. We did a partial mash, and it looks like I nailed the conversion because my pre-boil gravity matched what the software predicted it should perfectly.
It’s in the carboy and hopefully the yeast will get going soon. About a month and there’ll be more wheat beer on tap.
Replacing The Tappets
I picked up the new tappets, made by Crane Cams, from Strokers this morning and started working on getting the two for the front cylinder replaced, since I already had that half disassembled. After that I moved on to taking apart the rocker box on the rear cylinder and it’s tappets. They’re replaced as well and everything’s buttoned back up.
The moment of truth when I hit the starter but it fired right up and other than some clatter from the lifters bleeding up I didn’t hear the valve/piston contact that had been there before.
I’m going to take it for a test ride later and make sure that I haven’t missed anything like seals, etc. and that it’s really, truly, functioning correctly, but for now it looks like it is.
Leopard Arrived
Well, my Amazon ordered copy of Leopard arrived today, but there’s two big things that are keeping me from upgrading.
First, there’s the whole problem with Time Machine and Aperture. Since I’m not going to be jumping through the hoops Apple’s currently recommending, namely disabling it while you’re using Aperture, that’s definitely a show stopper.
Second, SuperDuper! doesn’t quite work with it yet. Since that’s my backup solution, I’m not going to be running without it. They’re working on a fix and I’m definitely not giving them a hard time about a delay. It’ll be ready when it’s ready.
Between the two, I’ll be waiting for fixes before upgrading. Though it is burning a hole in my pocket, so to speak.
Tearing Down The Sportster
In an effort to try to fix the valve that’s been hitting since Tennessee I pulled the rocker box covers and got the tappets and push-rods out. I’ve got new tappets on order and they should be in in time for me to button the bike up next weekend. I’m going to have to go out and pick up a universal extension for my socket though because there are two bolts for the rear rocker box cover which can’t be reached due to the frame being in the way.
The City Of Lewisville’s Water Analysis
Well, I just got off the phone with a really helpful person at the city’s water department who has given me the data on the tap water that I needed to configure BeerAlchemy. It really explains why my dark beers turn out so well and I’m having trouble with my light ones. Here’s the breakdown, in case any other local brewers need the info:
| Component | Concentration (mg/l) |
| total hardness | 120 |
| magnesium | 25 |
| calcium | 105 |
| bicarbonate | 105 |
| sodium | 75 |
| chloride | 25 |
| sulfate | 50 |
| alkalinity | 105 |
BeerAlchemy
I’ve been looking for some Mac based brewing software for a while now and have finally found a good one. My needs are pretty simple, I just want something that will let me keep track of my recipes and batches and will help me design new recipes.
BeerAlchemy fits the bill and then some. It does all of that and also will keep track of supplies such as hops, grains, adjuncts, etc. Plus you can enter all of the data on the fermentation of an individual batch, including which mash you used, and more.
One of the more interested part of the program is the water calculations. It allows you to enter in the data about your local water and then helps you figure out the right mix of additives to get it to be like one of the waters used by famous breweries. I’ve got to call the city’s water lab to get the info on Lewisville’s water and then I can start making better beer.
Racked The Stout To The Secondary
I moved the stout to the secondary today, after about eight days of primary fermentation. The specific gravity is at 1.019, meaning that it’s got a little more cooking to do. I’m keeping the temperature where it is and letting it go a little longer. The yeast ought to be finishing off the last little bit of sugars over the next week or so. I’ll check it then and if it’s down where it should be it’ll go into the keg, if not I’ll let it go a little longer…
Dirtybyrds’ Dirty Stout
I just finished pitching the yeast on a version of Dirtybyrds’ Dirty Stout. I changed around the yeast because I’m never touching that White Labs junk ever again, so it’s running with Wyeast’s 1028 London Ale.
The full data on it is over at the What’s Brewing page.