We were welcomed back from the Midwest with a fresh batch of homebrew. The batch turned out respectable considering my near year long absence from homebrewing. I got to try out my new five-gallon keg and fridge setup. Had a few pints of it while watching Superbad last night. It is a nice dark winter ale.
I tried my luck at plumbing again this weekend. Every time I try a plumbing project I swear to never do it again and just call a plumbing from the beginning before I waste a weekend on it. This time it turned out no different. I attempted to replace the crappy faucet in our bathroom today but it appears to be bolted on to that sink permanently. It would have taken me less time to remove the entire sink then my failed attempt at just removing the faucet. So now I’ve given up and will be calling a plumber later this week. We will be brushing our teeth in the kitchen until then.
Towards the end I asked the Internet gods for help without much luck but I did find this funny blog post about a more successful attempt at faucet replacement. Also Peerless has a site devoted to uninstalling a faucet.
We had our first snow of the winter here in Seattle yesterday. It even stuck to the ground here in North Seattle, but the rain today mostly washed it away. We have a few more days of rain in the forecast. Hopefully that will give us enough snow in the mountains to go skiing in a few weeks.
I made good use of the foul weather to make some beer. I haven’t brewed since last winter when I tried to master all grain brewing. This time I kept it simple and did a batch of brown ale using malt extract. I did mix things up a bit and went back to the five gallon batch size. Which means had to buy a five gallon used keg at the homebrew store and upgrade my beer fridge to one that fits the keg. My online research led me to a Sanyo compact refrigerator that seems to be perfect for homebrewers. There are even web sites detailing how to attach a tap on the top but I will leave that project for later. I used the BeerSmith software again which was really helpful to keep track of everything.
Tonight I’m making the last batch of the “Five Minute Bread” from the NY Times. We have had great results so far with this recipe. It is not all that different from actual French Bread recipes. The key step just seems to be time, letting the dough rise for 12-24 hours before baking.