The Christmas Ale (an Amber Ale kit with 1/4 cup of mulling spices thrown in during the end of the boil) is bottled and sitting in the basement. It'll take around 2 weeks for it to be drinkable.

I stopped by the St Louis homebrew supply store after work and brought the owner of the store a bottle of St Peter's English Ale. After some sampling he said he'd work on the recipe and email me the information.

I also picked up the ingredients for a Trappistes Rochefort 10 clone. Four different grain malts (Crystal, Biscuit, Munich and Chocolate), two different hops (Hallertau and Styrian Goldings) and Belgian Strong Ale (1388) yeast. It's going to be my most challenging brew so far and I look forward to waking up on Sunday morning and starting.

Sarah brewed a batch of what we're calling Christmas Ale. We took a Amber Ale kit and threw some mulling spices in near the end of the wort boil. I moved it from the primary to the secondary fermenter last night.

Next batch will be an attempt to mimic St. Peters English Ale with the help of the owner of the local homebrew supply store. After that I hope to brew a Trappistes Rochefort 10 clone.

Nokia released a beta version of their next major software release for the Nokia N800. Much nicer interface, everything feels faster and smoother. Must purchase another 8GB SD card for the second SD card slot.

Dinner, family, beer: thanksgiving. Last day in DC with everyone. Just had a few bottles of different beer with the family. Trappistes Rochefort 10 was among them.

The first batch of homebrew (Scotch Ale) turned out better than I had expected. It doesn't have much of a head and very little carbonation but it tastes great! On to bottling the Pumpkin Ale tonight.

Newcastle Brown Ale: A little too flavorless and light for my tastes. Maybe it's just this cold I have or maybe it's just not my style.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale: Had this last night, very good. That's all I remember. That's the problem with drinking beer and trying to remember it after the fact.

Sarah and I are back in St Louis after visiting Cincinnati for a friend's hallowedding. It was great fun, our costunes turned out great!

I moved the pumpkin ale to the second fermenter last night and realized that i need a better way to start the siphoning. I guess a trip to the homebrew supply store is required. I should bottle the scotch ale this week and hopefully have the first beer of homebrew this weekend.

In order to discover what beer styles I'd like to brew I'm going on a trek.. a trek to discover what beer styles I like and don't like.. even down to the brand of the beer. Here's the first list:

• Schlafly Pale Ale: Nothing too special or amazing about this beer.. just generally good, easy to drink and easily available in any bar, restaurant or store in St Louis.


• New Belgium Blue Paddle Pilsner: I like the slight spiciness and bite to this beer, an enjoyable drink, not too hoppy.



• Warsteiner Dunkel: One of my favorites. A great balance of hops, heavier malt and flavor.



• New Belgium Abbey Belgian Style Ale: At this point I'm not too fond of this beer. Too malty and hoppy for my taste but I'm hoping to experiment a little. It gets great reviews on Beer Advocate.

Brewing a second batch of beer today (Pumpkin Ale) and having some friends over to play Dance Dance Revolution on our Wii.

It took longer than I had expected but the yeast finally started fermenting!

I bought a used wii from Gamestop. If you wii let me know!

The first batch of beer is in the basement fermenting. The wort smelled great, we're looking forward to drinking it in 2-3 weeks!

Sarah got me a book on home-brewing (beer) and a nice kit which should arrive soon. I'll try to blog about the whole process in the coming weeks.

Well, not really boom but:

LCDs are so pretty when they've cracked or broken.

Last night was great. Got to hang out with Chuck, Wendy, Brian, Jim and Claudine at the Southgate House and listen to various bands performing for The Rivertown Breakdown. One of my favorite local bands The Rumpke Mountains boys were there and played a great show. Bakelite 78 from Chicago was there and were also great (they have a very cute upright bass plauyer).

From: Lakisha <fgkrhkymkov@hccnet.nl>
To: geoffeg@geffeog.gro
Subject: look no more

Hi there lovely,
This kind of opportunity comes ones in a life. I don't want to miss it. Do you? I am coming to your place in few days and I though may be we can meet each other. If you don't mind I can send you my picture. I am a girl.

This is one of the most interesting photos I've seen in weeks. I think it's mostly the mischievous smile.

I couldn't resist, I got an Apple refurbished MacBook Pro, 2.16Ghz, extended warranty. I've got Parallels running on it so I can do my dotnet development stuff for the day job while still running one of my favorite OSes. I need to upgrade it to 2GB RAM and find a nice bag for it.. which is harder than I thought it would be. Right now I'll probably get a crumpler. Short sentences.

Minutes from now I'll be leaving for a 70 mile hike through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park along the Appalachian Trail. I'll be staying in my tent, simple three-wall shelters and in a hotel room one night. I will reach peaks of over 6000 feet at Clingman's Dome and reach lows of below 2000 feet. Everything I need will be on my back. I'll try to update my LJ from the hotel room in Pigeon Forge halfway through the hike and I'll be posting lots of pictures a few days after I return.