Also, Smoshi LaForge.
Holy crap: http://www.smosh.com/levar
Edit (4/2): Linked to the proper April Fool's day page instead of the boring main page.
The Full 90 Lasts a While
Last weekend Erica and I went to the second match of the new Seattle Sounders FC. They're so far undefeated, after taking out New York in the opener, and Salt Lake this weekend. It was really a pretty fun time, despite the cold and wet. The crowd was totally enthused, and actually stood for the full 90+ minutes. We had seats, but we didn't use them.
When we were in Europe last year we got to see a Chelsea Champions League match. This is totally different, but still pretty awesome (for starters, you don't have to travel all the way to London for this). Erica picked up the tickets from one of her soccer buddies who has season tickets, so we were actually pretty close (in the "charter" seats section of Qwest field). Erica spent lots of time staring at Kasey Keller, the goalkeeper. I'm not going to lie, there were occasional calls of "I love you, Kasey!" from her general direction. I'll try not to be jealous. :)
When we were in Europe last year we got to see a Chelsea Champions League match. This is totally different, but still pretty awesome (for starters, you don't have to travel all the way to London for this). Erica picked up the tickets from one of her soccer buddies who has season tickets, so we were actually pretty close (in the "charter" seats section of Qwest field). Erica spent lots of time staring at Kasey Keller, the goalkeeper. I'm not going to lie, there were occasional calls of "I love you, Kasey!" from her general direction. I'll try not to be jealous. :)
C Me Dance (get it?)
It's like movie schizophrenia. A dancing movie with explosions? And evil? I'm actually not sure if I want to see this or not. It may be painful:
http://www.holytaco.com/c-me-dance-movie-everyone-needs-see
http://www.holytaco.com/c-me-dance-movie-everyone-needs-see
Imagine Stupider
http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/sci-fi-channel-to-become.php
The SciFi channel has decided to rename itself SyFy. No, this isn't an Onion article. No, this isn't April 1st. Yes, this is monumentally stupid.
The new name/tagline is "SyFy: Imagine Greater". What they mean is, Imagine Greater Profits, since we can trademark SyFy and charge anyone who uses it. And the best part is that it's not like we spend any money on the actual programming! At least BSG is nearly over, then I won't have to watch the channel anymore.
The SciFi channel has decided to rename itself SyFy. No, this isn't an Onion article. No, this isn't April 1st. Yes, this is monumentally stupid.
The new name/tagline is "SyFy: Imagine Greater". What they mean is, Imagine Greater Profits, since we can trademark SyFy and charge anyone who uses it. And the best part is that it's not like we spend any money on the actual programming! At least BSG is nearly over, then I won't have to watch the channel anymore.
EPIC FAIL
Fortunately, it's not often that I do something that could be considered an EPIC FAIL. Unfortunately, last night was one of those times.
When brewing beer, the fermentation step happens in a large vessel called a carboy (generally a 6.5 gallon one for a 5 gallon batch of beer). I actually have 2 of the things, a glass 6.5 gallon first stage fermenter, and a glass 5 gallon second stage (since the volume and activity of beer fermentation decreases after the first stage). Or, should I say, I HAD 2 of the things...
Lincoln came over last night and we were brewing a recipe called Black Rose Oatmeal Stout. We had set up my new turkey-fryer-conversion propane-based boiler outside and boiled a full 5-gallon batch. We cooled it and transferred it to the fermenter. I picked it up and shook it to aerate it. I set it back down on the kitchen mat. And the fermenter shattered. And I do mean shattered.
5 gallons of beer wort flooded my kitchen and mixed with the blood from my now-wounded-by-glass-fragments hand. It took most of the towels and blankets in our house to sop up all the beer. That was mostly Lincoln and Erica. I was standing there applying paper-towel pressure to my bleeding hand and attempting to help while they told me to sit down.
It took us at least a couple hours last night, and three or so more today to get our kitchen to the point where it no longer smells like beer slowly going bad. But now I'm at the point where I have no primary fermenter, so the brewing is on hold until I pick up a new one (maybe plastic, this time...).
Long story short, my last batch of beer brewing = EPIC FAIL.
When brewing beer, the fermentation step happens in a large vessel called a carboy (generally a 6.5 gallon one for a 5 gallon batch of beer). I actually have 2 of the things, a glass 6.5 gallon first stage fermenter, and a glass 5 gallon second stage (since the volume and activity of beer fermentation decreases after the first stage). Or, should I say, I HAD 2 of the things...
Lincoln came over last night and we were brewing a recipe called Black Rose Oatmeal Stout. We had set up my new turkey-fryer-conversion propane-based boiler outside and boiled a full 5-gallon batch. We cooled it and transferred it to the fermenter. I picked it up and shook it to aerate it. I set it back down on the kitchen mat. And the fermenter shattered. And I do mean shattered.
5 gallons of beer wort flooded my kitchen and mixed with the blood from my now-wounded-by-glass-fragments hand. It took most of the towels and blankets in our house to sop up all the beer. That was mostly Lincoln and Erica. I was standing there applying paper-towel pressure to my bleeding hand and attempting to help while they told me to sit down.
It took us at least a couple hours last night, and three or so more today to get our kitchen to the point where it no longer smells like beer slowly going bad. But now I'm at the point where I have no primary fermenter, so the brewing is on hold until I pick up a new one (maybe plastic, this time...).
Long story short, my last batch of beer brewing = EPIC FAIL.
What the Hell is Going On?
It's snowing. Again. Outside my office looks like this:
I think the weather here has lost some hold on sanity, or at least what month it's supposed to be. For Pete's sake, it's March! Also, people around here freak out in the face of snow. They leave work at 2:30 to make it home, and campus gridlocks. It's actually kind of funny, except that it's annoying.
I think the weather here has lost some hold on sanity, or at least what month it's supposed to be. For Pete's sake, it's March! Also, people around here freak out in the face of snow. They leave work at 2:30 to make it home, and campus gridlocks. It's actually kind of funny, except that it's annoying.
I Can Feel the Power
The Earthwalk School of Energy Healing - Be the healer you were born to be.
No comment.
No comment.Reassuring Information
On the way to work today I was following a Prius with a bumper sticker that said:
"In case of DARPA challenge, this vehicle will be unmanned."
"In case of DARPA challenge, this vehicle will be unmanned."
The Kegerator, Part II
Continuing building the kegerator...
So, the most obvious problem first. I'm building a kegerator out of a chest freezer. Won't the beer freeze? To prevent that we need to make sure the temperature in the kegerator stays above the freezing point (of beer, if not water). For most freezers, the built-in thermostat will be well under that even on the warmest setting. So we need to bypass the chest freezer thermostat. We do that by taking control of the freezer operation away from the built-in temperature sensor and compressor.
This device is a Johnson Controls A419ABC-1 120V temperature controller. Basically what it does is takes a voltage in from the house, and passes it through to the freezer if the temperature is above a certain point (measured with the sensor). In the above picture, you can see the input line (left orange cord), output line (right orange cord) and sensor line (gray cord). That's all well and good but there's 1 small problem. I saved money by ordering this off of ebay, and it didn't come like that above picture. It came not wired up. I have to do electronics. Yay!
Fortunately, the A419 is a sort-of common thermostat among the kegerator building crowd, and there are resources online to figure out what you're doing (see this article called How to wire a Fridge Controller 101 or check out the manual for the device). Basically, if you know how to do wiring, you should be good. For me, I haven't done much of anything with wiring since high school, so I had to re-learn how to identify which color matched which in a 3-wire 120V cord, and how to read a wiring diagram. This picture is after the sensor is wired in and I'm starting to wire up the power.
After wiring the thermostat, jostling it around during later construction, and re-wiring it later for reliability, it's done and I can move on.
Now, we've set up the collar and attached it, wired up the freezer so it can maintain a constant,
usable temperature, we need to install the gas works. Relative to the rest of the build-out, this part goes by very quickly. First things first, we drill out holes in the collar for the tap shanks (those are the bolt-looking tubes that go carry the liquid to the taps. I ran to the store and picked up a new 7/8" drill bit for this (you want it to be pretty tight so the cooling stays inside). Then, on to the shanks you screw on the taps and handles. Now you have shiny black and chrome beer dispensers that aren't yet hooked up to anything. But they do look nice, don't they...
Erica and I made a batch of Root Beer to try out the kegerator. For a 5-gallon batch we ended up with the following:
6.5T (2oz) of Root Beer Concentrate
10 cups sugar (we actually used 6 cups sugar, 4 cups store-brand splenda to make it lower cal)
5 gallons water
Boil one or two gallons of the water, remove it from heat and stir in the root beer concentrate and sugar. Return it to the heat and boil/simmer. Cool to room temperature and transfer to keg, topping up to 5 gallons.
Now that we have something to try out, we fill the CO2 tank (at the local homebrew store, Mountain Homebrew) and begin attaching the hoses.
The CO2 regulator attaches directly to the tank. The kegging equipment I'm using came from http://www.kegconnection.com/ which nicely already attached some of the lines for me. The CO2 is sent (via the red hoses) from the regulator to the CO2 splitter, which attaches via a ball-lock to the 5-gallon cornelius kegs. The clear plastic hoses are high-pressure beer lines that feed the beer to the taps.
As you can see, this is still a pretty hacky setup. I need to properly mount the gas splitter and the hoses are all tangled, but it's in workable condition for now. Turn up the pressure to the kegs with a standard flathead screwdriver, and the root beer is pressurizing!
The kegerator is mostly done...
So, the most obvious problem first. I'm building a kegerator out of a chest freezer. Won't the beer freeze? To prevent that we need to make sure the temperature in the kegerator stays above the freezing point (of beer, if not water). For most freezers, the built-in thermostat will be well under that even on the warmest setting. So we need to bypass the chest freezer thermostat. We do that by taking control of the freezer operation away from the built-in temperature sensor and compressor.
This device is a Johnson Controls A419ABC-1 120V temperature controller. Basically what it does is takes a voltage in from the house, and passes it through to the freezer if the temperature is above a certain point (measured with the sensor). In the above picture, you can see the input line (left orange cord), output line (right orange cord) and sensor line (gray cord). That's all well and good but there's 1 small problem. I saved money by ordering this off of ebay, and it didn't come like that above picture. It came not wired up. I have to do electronics. Yay!
Fortunately, the A419 is a sort-of common thermostat among the kegerator building crowd, and there are resources online to figure out what you're doing (see this article called How to wire a Fridge Controller 101 or check out the manual for the device). Basically, if you know how to do wiring, you should be good. For me, I haven't done much of anything with wiring since high school, so I had to re-learn how to identify which color matched which in a 3-wire 120V cord, and how to read a wiring diagram. This picture is after the sensor is wired in and I'm starting to wire up the power.After wiring the thermostat, jostling it around during later construction, and re-wiring it later for reliability, it's done and I can move on.
Now, we've set up the collar and attached it, wired up the freezer so it can maintain a constant,
usable temperature, we need to install the gas works. Relative to the rest of the build-out, this part goes by very quickly. First things first, we drill out holes in the collar for the tap shanks (those are the bolt-looking tubes that go carry the liquid to the taps. I ran to the store and picked up a new 7/8" drill bit for this (you want it to be pretty tight so the cooling stays inside). Then, on to the shanks you screw on the taps and handles. Now you have shiny black and chrome beer dispensers that aren't yet hooked up to anything. But they do look nice, don't they...Erica and I made a batch of Root Beer to try out the kegerator. For a 5-gallon batch we ended up with the following:
6.5T (2oz) of Root Beer Concentrate
10 cups sugar (we actually used 6 cups sugar, 4 cups store-brand splenda to make it lower cal)
5 gallons waterBoil one or two gallons of the water, remove it from heat and stir in the root beer concentrate and sugar. Return it to the heat and boil/simmer. Cool to room temperature and transfer to keg, topping up to 5 gallons.
Now that we have something to try out, we fill the CO2 tank (at the local homebrew store, Mountain Homebrew) and begin attaching the hoses.
The CO2 regulator attaches directly to the tank. The kegging equipment I'm using came from http://www.kegconnection.com/ which nicely already attached some of the lines for me. The CO2 is sent (via the red hoses) from the regulator to the CO2 splitter, which attaches via a ball-lock to the 5-gallon cornelius kegs. The clear plastic hoses are high-pressure beer lines that feed the beer to the taps.
As you can see, this is still a pretty hacky setup. I need to properly mount the gas splitter and the hoses are all tangled, but it's in workable condition for now. Turn up the pressure to the kegs with a standard flathead screwdriver, and the root beer is pressurizing!The kegerator is mostly done...
The Kegerator
Problem: I'm tired of bottling beer and doing in-bottle carbonation. It's time consuming, uneven, and inexact and prone to error.
Solution: Build a functional kegerator (that's a refridgerator for kegs) that I can use to keg my homebrew.
There are a whole bunch of options when deciding to start kegging beer. Once you decide to build a kegerator, they are roughly:
- How many kegs do you need to hold?
- Do you convert a chest freezer or refridgerator?
- What style of dispenser do you use?
- What keg types do you need to hold?
I decided on a 2 cornelius keg tap chest freezer conversion with side mounted taps using a freezer collar. This has several benefits, chiefly among them that I don't have to drill into the freezer and damage it, the parts are modular.
With this in mind, I went in search of a chest freezer. After searching Craiglist for a couple weeks, I posted a wanted ad and found this baby up in Arlington. It needed some cleaning up, but the price was good and it was functional and in good shape.
Now that the chest freezer was in place, I started hitting the hardware store for materials for the collar. I decided to do a full collar for the freezer. One of the guys at work built his with an angled collar that sits like a wedge between the lid and freezer. Unfortunately, the top isn't level and this would actually be harder
for me to build, as I am doing this without the aid of power tools. I've decided on 1x4 hemlock boards, as they look nice and aren't too pricey. Once I get home, though, I take a close look at the boards. They're only 3/4" thick. That's not going to keep in the cold very well, plus it's not very moisture resistent. Another trip to Lowe's nets me some Cedar 2x4s that I can use inside the hemlock.
Now for the fun: Lowe's can cut the boards for me, but they won't mitre them (cut the 45-degree angles so the corners are nice). Which means I have to do that myself. Yay! If you want some future project advice, don't do this
by hand. Buy, borrow, or find a friend who has a mitre saw and use that. Cutting mitre angles by hand sucks.
I picked up some Red Chestnut stain for the hemlock, which just looks awesome. This picture is after two coats of the stain, and two coats of polyeurethane (sanded in-between coats). Each coat takes a day or two to fully dry. This whole process took about a week, but it's really nice at the end. The red color here really stands out next to the bright white of the freezer and should be slick against the chrome tap handles too.
I then cut the cedar to size, which I didn't do at Lowe's since I wasn't sure I had the right measurements. They came out WAY off straight, as I'm trying to hand saw them. I bust out the power-sander Dremel attachment to try to even it out as much as I can. I sink two screws into the end of each board (they're not mitred here as they won't be visible), and the entire assembly comes out crooked. Damn. I disassemble it, level out the boards with the sander much, much more and reassemble. Close enough to level.
Somehow, miraculously, the hemlock boards actually fit right
outside the cedar with the right amount of room to spare. I start applying the caulk to the cedar boards to hold them on. The caulk is an acrylic-silicone mix that is designed for doors and windows. It's very adhesive and also insulating. Once the hemlock boards are on and fitted (and not really going anywhere, I start caulking the edges. This will dry clear. If you've never bothered to try caulking before let me tell you - it's more fun than you'd probably think it is. I don't know why, but I guess it's the case that any hardware tool that requires a separate "gun" for application and use has to be cool.
With that, the collar is done(ish). I applied some high-density foam to one side of the collar (the side that will be against the freezer) to insulate it. The other side will have the lid seal to do the job. The lid is removed from the freezer, the collar is then placed on the freezer itself, and the lid reattached to the collar (using wood screws, not the tiny bolts/screws that it was using to attach previously). The collar is now in place.
Next time - bypassing the freezer thermostat, building out the gas lines and taps.
Solution: Build a functional kegerator (that's a refridgerator for kegs) that I can use to keg my homebrew.
There are a whole bunch of options when deciding to start kegging beer. Once you decide to build a kegerator, they are roughly:
- How many kegs do you need to hold?
- Do you convert a chest freezer or refridgerator?
- What style of dispenser do you use?
- What keg types do you need to hold?
I decided on a 2 cornelius keg tap chest freezer conversion with side mounted taps using a freezer collar. This has several benefits, chiefly among them that I don't have to drill into the freezer and damage it, the parts are modular.With this in mind, I went in search of a chest freezer. After searching Craiglist for a couple weeks, I posted a wanted ad and found this baby up in Arlington. It needed some cleaning up, but the price was good and it was functional and in good shape.
Now that the chest freezer was in place, I started hitting the hardware store for materials for the collar. I decided to do a full collar for the freezer. One of the guys at work built his with an angled collar that sits like a wedge between the lid and freezer. Unfortunately, the top isn't level and this would actually be harder
for me to build, as I am doing this without the aid of power tools. I've decided on 1x4 hemlock boards, as they look nice and aren't too pricey. Once I get home, though, I take a close look at the boards. They're only 3/4" thick. That's not going to keep in the cold very well, plus it's not very moisture resistent. Another trip to Lowe's nets me some Cedar 2x4s that I can use inside the hemlock.Now for the fun: Lowe's can cut the boards for me, but they won't mitre them (cut the 45-degree angles so the corners are nice). Which means I have to do that myself. Yay! If you want some future project advice, don't do this
by hand. Buy, borrow, or find a friend who has a mitre saw and use that. Cutting mitre angles by hand sucks.I picked up some Red Chestnut stain for the hemlock, which just looks awesome. This picture is after two coats of the stain, and two coats of polyeurethane (sanded in-between coats). Each coat takes a day or two to fully dry. This whole process took about a week, but it's really nice at the end. The red color here really stands out next to the bright white of the freezer and should be slick against the chrome tap handles too.
I then cut the cedar to size, which I didn't do at Lowe's since I wasn't sure I had the right measurements. They came out WAY off straight, as I'm trying to hand saw them. I bust out the power-sander Dremel attachment to try to even it out as much as I can. I sink two screws into the end of each board (they're not mitred here as they won't be visible), and the entire assembly comes out crooked. Damn. I disassemble it, level out the boards with the sander much, much more and reassemble. Close enough to level.Somehow, miraculously, the hemlock boards actually fit right
outside the cedar with the right amount of room to spare. I start applying the caulk to the cedar boards to hold them on. The caulk is an acrylic-silicone mix that is designed for doors and windows. It's very adhesive and also insulating. Once the hemlock boards are on and fitted (and not really going anywhere, I start caulking the edges. This will dry clear. If you've never bothered to try caulking before let me tell you - it's more fun than you'd probably think it is. I don't know why, but I guess it's the case that any hardware tool that requires a separate "gun" for application and use has to be cool.
With that, the collar is done(ish). I applied some high-density foam to one side of the collar (the side that will be against the freezer) to insulate it. The other side will have the lid seal to do the job. The lid is removed from the freezer, the collar is then placed on the freezer itself, and the lid reattached to the collar (using wood screws, not the tiny bolts/screws that it was using to attach previously). The collar is now in place.Next time - bypassing the freezer thermostat, building out the gas lines and taps.
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