Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Category: Beer

  • Beer & Wiki

    I just finished up making a batch of beer, an English Old Ale that I’ll be giving to my Dad for his birthday this year. This is the second beer in as many months that I’ve brewed, and I’ve already got plans for at least two, maybe three more: a Pumpkin Ale (I used to brew this every year around Halloween), a wheat beer for my Mom’s birthday (perhaps a blackberry wheat), and I’ve been thinking about a barleywine in December. Though I’ve been thinking about experimenting with the style and using wheat malt instead of barley malt— a “weizenwine” or something.

    Here is an extremely cool site: Wikipedia.org. It uses the (relatively) new concept/technology of the “wiki web,” and is essentially an online, freely editable encyclopedia. And by “freely editable” I really mean freely editable— anyone (anyone!) “can edit any article right now, without even having to log in” (in their words). It’s true. I had edited their Beer page and added an entry for Barleywine, then added and edited the very page for Barleywine myself, just today.

    And, it’s collaborative. Within three hours of my creating the Barleywine article, someone else had edited it and added links. What more can I say? Check it out.

    Random Web Link: BookCrossing – I just love this concept. Right along the lines of Where’s George?

  • I’m Back!

    This past month since I last posted has been a very transitional one.

    I quit my job with Alpine, and I’m taking on a new one in September. I’ve got slightly less than three weeks off as of now. Of course, that means I’ve had to change servers; I no longer have the convenient access to everything I needed on the Alpine servers to play with my websites.

    I’m going with Pair Networks as they offer an affordable, reliable service with PHP and MySQL. So now, chuggnutt.com is brought to you by Pair!

    Anywho… during the decision-making period to leave one job for another, and the subsequent “last days” with Alpine, I’ve neglected my site. Not that I imagine anyone was reading it anyway, apart from a few family or friends. But, it’s back. I’m back.

    In other news, I made a batch of homebrew today. For the first time in 2½ years.

    2½. Years.

    Keeping in mind that I used to make a lot of beer. Not as much as some homebrewing friends I have who are fanatical about it, but more than average. But, once the kids were born, I just didn’t find the time… or so I told myself…

    And I’d been thinking about it lately. So, enough was enough. I’ve got (nearly) three weeks off, so yesterday we went to the homebrew shop, bought some basic ingredients (pale malt extract, ½ lb. 40L crystal malt, 2 oz. Cascade hops, dry ale yeast) and a wine kit for my wife, and today made the beer and the wine.

    The beer is bubbling happily away as I write this. The house smells like malt and hops.

    I’ve missed this.

  • Portland Spirit

    We’re off to Portland tomorrow, without the kids, for an anniversary dinner cruise on the Portland Spirit. Should be a pretty good trip; I may even get to finally see Star Wars Episode II.

    Here’s an interesting little piece of news/trivia: Deschutes Brewery is apparently bottling their beers in a new bottle (they were simply plain brown 12-ounce bottles): brown with a nice raised imprint of hops around the bottle just below the neck, and gold caps (formerly they were silver). These were from a six-pack of Mirror Pond Pale Ale picked up at Fred Meyers today. I can’t find any mention of this bottle upgrade on their web site, but maybe it’s to help celebrate their 14 year anniversary.

    Random Web Link: It’s been around for awhile, but still proves entertaining: The Greedo Assassination Conspiracy Page