Beer Label

One of my favorite parts of the homebrewing process has always been the design of the label. I've been using the program GIMP a bit at work lately so I figured that I'd get some more practise using(at work) by designing the label for the Belgian Dubbel. As you can see from the picture I have decided to name the beer "Dubbel Track Ale". If you couldn't figure it out from the picture, double track is a term commonly used to describe a dirt road or path in which there are two distinct parallel paths; typically worn by a atv's, trucks or tractors. These are the type of trails that we rode in Colorado in September, so this is a salute to my boys, who accompanied me on the trip.

Yay! Fermentation!

Quick followup on my last post; the beer it is fermenting. I checked last night when I got home from work and there was a slow bubbling in the airlock. That's just a bit more than 24 hours later which is not bad at all. I'm really looking forward to trying this one. I think that it is going to be super tasty.

MMMmmm beeeeer...

I haven't posted anything in quite some time, but it has been even longer since I have brewed a batch of beer. With my diet and my amazing propensity for procrastination, coupled with the beer of the month club that my in-laws got me for Christmas last year, I haven't brewed in about three years or so. I decided that I wanted to make a batch for the snowshoe/skiing trip that I am going on in March and that I wanted to make a Belgian Dubble. I'm assuming that a Belgian Dubbel is similar to a German Dopplebock. I really like Dopplebocks but Northern Brewer only had Belgian ingredient kits available, so I got the Dubble. I'm not sure what I'm going to name it yet. The obvious ones are taken; e.i. Dubbel Trouble, Dubbel Barrel, etc. I may just use one of those anyway.
Having not brewed in a while I stumbled a bit, but I think that everything went pretty well overall. I do wish that I had read the instructions on the liquid yeast earlier. I’m used to the White Labs liquid yeast that comes in a test tube and you just get it up to room temperature about 3 hours before adding it to the wort(unfermented beer). The yeast that I used this time was Wyeast Labs “Smackpack” liquid yeast. In this case it was the Wyeast #1214 Belgian Ale Yeast. The “Smackpack” is an interesting thing in and of itself. Essentially, the yeast is contained in a foil-lined plastic bag, and floating in with the yeast is a small bag of yeast nutrient. As long as the yeast is refrigerated they stay dormant. When you want to use the yeast you break the inner bag by smacking the package between your hands. This pops the inner bag and releases the nutrients. You then allow the package to get up to 68-78 degrees so that the yeast wakes up, eats and multiplies. The bag is pleated on the sides to allow for expansion as the yeast multiply and give off CO₂. What I failed to read was that they recommend that you do this 3-24 hours prior to pitching the yeast, with a recommendation to stay on the longer end of the spectrum. Had I known I would have activated the yeast the night before, thus ensuring a larger amount of viable yeast.

It is very important to have yeast that is healthy and plentiful. The strain of yeast plays a large role in the flavor of the end product, and the faster the yeast starts to flourish in the wort, the less chance there is for the beer to spoil or be overtaken by wild yeasts present in the air. Wild yeasts are not necessarily a bad thing, but they make it difficult to predict the flavor of the beer. I’m kind of tempted to make a small batch of beer using a wild strain from the region. I’ve heard that yeast is commonly present on apples, hence the proliferation of hard cider in the northeast during the founding of our nation. I suppose that it wouldn’t be too difficult to make a batch of cider and take some yeast from that. It would be an neat exercise to split a batch of something like a pale ale and make half with lab yeast and half with the local yeast to compare the two. I’ll save that for another time though.

I should find out by tonight whether or not the yeast took. The airlock that prevents air from going into the fermenter, while letting CO₂ out should be bubbling by then. If not, I guess I start over. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Ubuntu On Lappy

I downloaded the Windows Ubuntu installer, Wubi and installed Ubuntu 8.04.1. My Linksys wireless card wouldn't work but my Netgear card worked immediately. The startup is horribly slow so I want to format the harddrive and do a full install of Ubuntu on Lappy. I'm just waiting for the next realease to drop in less than two weeks. I've inserted a count-down thingy to show when it is ready.

Cyclelogue

Check out my new blog where me, Sean, J, and Tom will give the details on our mountain bike trip from Telluride to Moab at http://cycleogue.blogspot.com/.

Bike Projects

In the past few weeks I've been given two antique bicycles by friends. The first is a 1971 Schwinn Le Tour. The second is a 1983 Peugeot P6. According to the Lemonde frame size calculator, the Schwinn is pretty much the perfect size for me, being 54.5cm from the center of the bottom bracket to the top of the seat tube. The Peugeot is a bit big at 60cm. I can still mount the bike with enough clearance for the wedding tackle. Of course, the tires are completely flat so the stand-over height may be a bit big for me.

I'm thinking that the Schwinn will make a good candidate for an upgrade, while the Peugeot will make a good fixie. Aside from the fact that the frame is a bit big on the Peugeot, it also has many hard too find parts. Since the point of a fixie is to have as few parts as possible, there will be fewer parts to track down. Hopefully the bottom bracket and headset are in good shape such that I don't have to go from bike shop to bike shop looking for a stupid french replacement. The Schwinn has a non-standard fork and headset, but the headset feels pretty decent. I'll have to sit down and outline the details on the two projects. That will come at a later date. Stay tuned.

Real Men Use Reel Mowers

 
Why go through the hassle of using a loud and smelly gasoline powered mower that blows up dust and pollutes, when you can push a clean, quiet reel mower? I have a half acre lot (approximately) and I asked myself that question a little more than a year ago. I was toying with the idea of buying a reel mower and mentioned it to my friend Lee. It just so happened that Lee had a reel mower or two, or three, hidden away in the corner of his garage. He gave me two of them and I have been using them to mow my lawn for more than a year now. I've worn a heart rate monitor to calculate the calories burned while mowing and it requires about 1400 calories to mow my lot. Not too shabby. Of course, now my gas mower won't even start so I'm stuck with the reels whether I like it or not.

Project Idea 3167: Means of driving a generator with a bicycle.

I just remembered that I had this idea at work the other day and I figured that I'd get it down here for future reference. Also, if anyone actually reads my page and likes the idea and does it, I would like for them to send me pictures for my blog so that I can live vicariously through them, as if I too was capable of completing a project. Anyway, my idea involved running a generator(or another mechanism of some sort) off of a bicycle while it was held stationary, such as on a trainer. I've seen some people dismantle trainers and repurpose them, but what if you don't want to destroy a perfectly good trainer? That's where my idea comes in. Assuming that the trainer is like mine and allows you to adjust the wheel that adds resistance such that it no longer touches the rear wheel of the bike it is a pretty simple idea. Otherwise you would have to remove the tire from the rear wheel so that it can spin freely, with no resistance from the trainer. You can then put the rear derailleur into the lowest gear(largest sprocket) and run a chain from your device(ie. generator, blender, grain mill, etc.) to the highest gear(smallest sprocket) so long as the chain is aligned properly and you don't shift the rear derailleur it seems plausible that this would provide a means to power such a mechanism without drastically modifying the trainer, or the bike. Furthermore, this could also be used to drive things mounted to the bike when it is not mounted in a trainer, provided that it is mounted in such a way that the chain does not interfere with anything such as the rear tire or chainstay.

I suck at finishing projects!

Seriously, I suck at finishing projects. I have so many ideas for projects and gadgets but I never get around to them. I wish that that was not the case but it is. I have started soooo many projects and they all remain in various states of progress. I'm not sure what my problem is exactly. Maybe I'm a perfectionist and won't finish a project unless it is absolutely perfect... I think that it is more likely that I'm just a lazy sack of crap. Regardless, things have to change. I think that I need to prioritize my projects better such that I can work in an orderly fashion. Yeah, that's what I'll do; I'll make a list of projects and order them by priority level. I'll do that first thing tomorrow. Yeah, first thing tomorrow.

Current projects

I saw my friend Michelle's blog and it reminded my how badly I've neglected mine. I figure that I may as well post an update of what I've been working on lately even though I never remember to take photos while I do these projects, and posts never seem that interesting without a pretty little picture.
Lisa and I have been doing a bit of work in the basement since it flooded again in February when the rains came whilst the snow and ice was still present in the back yard. Our back yard isn't well graded to begin with, so when the low spots are filled with snow and ice there is not a clear path for water to flow away from the house. It thus flows into the house, through the back door. This is not a good thing. Our basement did have a family room with wall to wall carpeting, and wainscoting on the walls, prior to the flood. After the flood we tore the carpet and some wainscoting out, along with some Sheetrock that got moldy. We have managed to do some Sheetrocking (by we I mean my dad did the Sheetrocking while I watched in amazement at the fact that what would take me weeks to accomplish too him mere hours) and painting. I've begun to lay flooring down. We decided to go with Marmoleum Click because it is relatively easy to install, and made from natural materials. Unlike the carpet that it replaced it won't do the following: off-gas formaldehyde, collect dust/dust-mites, smell like a wet dog. Before winter comes I will have to take steps to remedy the whole flooding thing so that we don't have to replace this floor since it is NOT CHEAP. So far it looks pretty excellent though, so I hope that we will be happy with it.
I've been trying to get my mountain bike ready for my bike trip in September with the boys on the San Juan Hut System Mountain Bike Adventure. My fork hasn't been rebuilt since I bought the bike in '02 so I figured that I had better do that before it died on the trip. Unfortunately for me Manitou only sells rebuild parts for forks for four years after they are sold. You do the math. So I had to spend $300 on a new fork. I may do a writeup on the installation, but it is pretty much covered elsewhere. Aside from that I have replaced the worn brake pads as well as the brake levers that have been thrashed via a few crashes. I still have to get around to replacing some cables and cable housings that are getting pretty ratty looking. I also bought a new wheelset when I got the fork but I think that I'll trash my old wheels until the trip so that I'm riding on fresh new, true wheels. I'll have to be sure to true my old ones a few times between then and now so that I have soe experience in case someone's wheels get tweaked on the trail.
I've also been doing a lot of work on myself physically. I've been really tracking my calories (kilocalories) and trying to stay below 2000 per day. I've managed to lose about forty pounds so far, so I may not die on the bike trip. I may, however, die during the triathlon that my wife has signed us up for. Still a bit worried about the half-mile swim. I bike about fifty miles a week and we've been to the the pool a few times. I even swam about three-quarters of a mile last week. I still haven't done it without grasping the side of the pool a few times to take a bit of a breather though, and the triathlon will be in the Long Island Sound, not the community pool. I think that we may have a chance. I suppose it will be a whole different story when I am faced with the fact the I can swim, drown, or face the humiliation of screaming for help.

Rear Derailleur Adjustment

To the best of my ability I'm going to attempt to describe to you how to adjust the rear dérailleur of an index shift bicycle. I've recently been taking a bike repair workshop at The Devil's Gear in New Haven, CT so this is an attempt to share the knowledge that I've gained with anyone that cares to do their own bike maintenance. The following instructions also apply to the procedure for adjusting the rear dérailleur following the replacement of the rear dérailleur cable.
First, put the front derailleur onto the middle chainring, assuming you have a triple. Second, put the chain in highest gear(smallest cog) and make sure that the shifter is also in the highest gear. Turn adjustment barrel all the way tight(Clockwise???), then loosen one full revolution. Loosen the screw that holds the cable onto the rear derailleur. Pay attention to the tab on the washer that clamps the cable in place. Apply light tension to the cable and tighten the screw to fasten the cable end. Turn high limit until top pulley is aligned with smallest cog. Turning the limit screws adjusts the limit of travel of the pulleys. Tightening restricts the travel, while loosening allows more travel. Spin the cranks and shift the rear dérailleur down to the next cog. If the derailleur does not shift to the next cog with a single click then tighten the cable tension with the barrel adjustment until it will. Adjust the barrel to make the top pulley aligned with the second highest cog. Now you should be able to shift up and down through all of the cogs smoothly; with the possible exception of the lowest cog. If the derailleur will not put the chain onto the lowest cog then you first need to adjust the low limit screw to allow it to move far enough to do so. To do this, hold top of the derailleur and loosen the low limit screw. Now shift into the lowest cog and adjust the lower limit screw until the top pulley is inline with the lowest cog. Shift up and down through the full range to verify proper operation.