Topic: Anyone else out there doing some home brewing?

[Terry in Australia]

Yes indeed Rafster used to be a great fan of the Moscow Mule. I found through extensive research over decades that if you substitute rot gut Tequila it smooths the tequila out and removes warts on the dongus, acne, pain and strengthens the blood. Now I never got to the point of using expensive tequila I found the cheaper was better stuff, stuff that would clean up oil stains from 100 wieght non detergent oil as used in Wright 3350 32w's was optimum.
Bill the demon.

Thanks Bill, I might have to try a Mexican Mule too!

[Terry in Australia]

Well out of hospital again, and back into it, on my second home brewed Ginger Toe, and so happy to be out of that lunatic asylum! Seriously, you gotta love the folks that work in hospitals, I love my bariatric surgeon and I met up with one of my nurses from last year this morning, who was really excited to see the "new" me after 12 months and 140 pounds lighter, once she realised who I was. (I had to show her my hospital pic from last year before she realised that I was the same person)
 
What I can't stand though, (apart from Hospital cooks, who should all be burned at the stake, or made to go back into the army catering corps) is loud people. Last night I had a big fat sheila of either Greek or Turkish (or both) origin in the adjoining room who was loud while she was awake, louder when chatting to her hundreds of European/Middle Eastern visitors, louder still while she was on the phone to her well wishers from the old country around 11 pm, right up to when she finally stopped exercising her noise hole at midnight, only to serenade me with her fcuking 150 decibel snoring until she woke up at 0500 to have her 160 decibel chat with the night nurse.

On the other side was 85 year old "Ross", who talked at around 150 decibels, because he was "a bit deaf" (no fcuking wonder) and when he had no-one to talk to, he sang fcuking Slim Dusty songs, to fill the void. I spent all night (until I fell asleep around 5 minutes before the fat wog woke me up again) plotting their slow, grisly deaths.

Anyway, my youngest boy sprung me around noon and I'm happily back home in my comfy chair, sipping on my second home brewed "Ginger Toe". I need to take it easy because the label on my Oxycodone and Tramadol packets mention something about not drinking too much alcohol (or maybe the Ginger Toe label said not to be taking too many pills, I'm a bit confused which) while I'm recuperating? Whatever, I'm glad to be back.

I'll take the week off and get a few things done including sneaking my latest two wheeled toy home, picking up a powder coating set up I bought cheap, and bottling batch No 2, while trying to intercept all the bike parts heading my way before the wife sees them. I'm thinking I should make batch No 3 while I'm at it, as the weather is warming up, and my surgeon was worried about me getting a mite dehydrated because I only drank about half a cup of water yesterday. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I don't like drinking water, because of what fish are well known to do in it, and all........... Man, I'm glad to be home!        

[RAFster122s]

Terry, glad your surgery went well and you are home again. Hope your recovery goes well and you regain your strength and heal up enough to go back to work when the doctor cuts you loose. I guess you could see if they would let you stay home a little longer to recuperate more... always wondered about recuperate and recooperate...
Don’t want to stay cooped up too long.

The meds will kick your backside a little harder with the ginger toes...

Careful with the Oxy, imagine a couple Tramadol with an oxy would put you to sleep.
Might want to avoid comedies on television or movies until you heal up a little bit, laughing might hurt.

David

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, all good mate, still a bit sore but saving the good painkillers for bed time. I took quite a while to get off to sleep last night, but when I did around midnight, I slept right thru to 7am when the alarm clock woke me to drive my youngest son to the airport, he's flying up to the gold Coast to film some TV shows for 2 weeks, and while I've got the keys to his new Royal Enfield, I'm only allowed to use them to move his bike in my garage to make room for when the new (old) Sportster comes home. 

I'm sitting here in my comfy chair again watching the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race that I've been watching religiously since the 1970's. I usually watch the first hour or so, then fall asleep and wake up in time for the last hour, but watching it on Foxtel (Cable) I can pause, rewind and fast forward to all the good bits, so I won't miss anything. It's probably a little early for one of my home brewed Ginger Toe's, but I'll wander out in an hour or so and pull one out of my beer fridge in anticipation. It should be a good day.

[dave500]

coupla years ago I had shoulder surgery and was off work a while,few days in the ache was #$%*ing me off so I took an oxy on top of the few beers id already had,my wife says be carefull,anyway few more beers and the throb really #$%*ed me off the oxy did #$%* all so I took a tramadol,couple more beers and im way out of it,slept like a dead tree well into mid morning,got up and I was still way #$%*ed up,i felt like I was walking up hill and was so heavy and all,i never took those again I don't get how some people like the effect?i shoulda put em on ebay and let Terry bid on them?

[spotty]

I'll outbid him, he's poor now, he just bought another Harley, wonder what happened to the big Z project ?

[dave500]

ill swap oxy/trama for iron head?

[Terry in Australia]

Well Dave, I might have to slow down on my Oxy/Tramadol intake, I had a very similar situation today. I drank a bottle of my home brewed ginger toe, then went out to the shed and opened another one, took a sip, sat down, and suddenly felt really crook, like a few years ago when I'd drunk a litre bottle of rum. I thought I was gonna chuck, was hot and sweaty and had blurred vision, the whole bit.

I was gonna call the wife to get me an ambo just in case I'd done something bad, and then must have gone unconscious? Anyway, I woke up around 4 pm, and I was fine again? I was too frightened to drink the rest of my Ginger Toe so I tipped it out and had a cup of tea instead. I haven't told the wife yet, but don't want to scare her so I think I might just write it off to some sort of reaction to the Tramadol and Endone I had last night. The good thing is I blurted out that I'd bought the new (old) Sporty and she was fine with it, so that's great, I'm gonna go get it tomorrow arvo.

And no Spotty, I haven't forgotten my priorities, I need to have my Z1000 up and running for the Dewey Hungerford (Stone) Memorial Ride in February next year, plus I've spent a fcuking fortune on new parts for it, so hopefully I'll get the new old Sporty up and running this week and maybe take it over to Jeff at Ace to get a roady for a red plate, then finish putting the Swamp Rat together, and finally I can get my big Z up on the bench.    

[Terry in Australia]

Well the good news is that after I picked up the Harley yesterday (the seller dropped it off at my place, which was nice of him) I opened a celebratory bottle of my home brewed Ginger Toe, and am happy to report that I experienced no adverse effects.

I need to go outside and see if I can diagnose the starter issue on the Sportster, so I better open another Ginger Toe to help with the thinking process.

[bear]

And no Spotty, I haven't forgotten my priorities, I need to have my Z1000 up and running for the Dewey Hungerford (Stone) Memorial Ride in February next year, plus I've spent a fcuking fortune on new parts for it, so hopefully I'll get the new old Sporty up and running this week and maybe take it over to Jeff at Ace to get a roady for a red plate, then finish putting the Swamp Rat together, and finally I can get my big Z up on the bench.

If you are going for the Stone look I think I still have one of those bikini fairings I removed from a MKII I had many years ago, it should be still sitting in my container I think.

[Terry in Australia]

And no Spotty, I haven't forgotten my priorities, I need to have my Z1000 up and running for the Dewey Hungerford (Stone) Memorial Ride in February next year, plus I've spent a fcuking fortune on new parts for it, so hopefully I'll get the new old Sporty up and running this week and maybe take it over to Jeff at Ace to get a roady for a red plate, then finish putting the Swamp Rat together, and finally I can get my big Z up on the bench.

If you are going for the Stone look I think I still have one of those bikini fairings I removed from a MKII I had many years ago, it should be still sitting in my container I think.

Really? I'd love it thanks Brian! There's actually a "Stone" fairing that Bertrand Cadart (La Parisiene fairings) made for the bikes in the movie, and they're very hard to find now? One of the guys on the Z Owners FB site has one on his Z1000 and it looks great, but he's had it for 36 years, from when he bought it new from Bertrand. I did buy a little cheapy bikini fairing from China that might be OK, but I'd love to see yours?

[Terry in Australia]

Well I'm being taken out to lunch today, but when I come home I might think about bottling batch #2, as it appears that I've almost consumed my first batch. From memory I was able to bottle around 15 x 750ml plastic bottles, and 30 x 500 ml bottles and when I checked my stocks last night there were only 1 x 750 ml bottle and maybe 10 x 500ml bottles, so I better bottle it all today, as it needs to sit for another week or two before I can start drinking them.

Hmmnn, I better start thinking about making batch #3!

[RAFster122s]

Are you very sore from your surgery Terry?  Or, are the pain meds taking the edge off?

Do you have to go shopping for your ginger toes brewing supplies or have you bought in bulk to support your long term brewing plans?

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day David, thanks mate, I'm feeling OK, but staying away from the Oxycodone's after the episode I had on Sunday, that was a bit scary. I do take a Tramadol or two each night to help me sleep, but I was doing that before the surgery as I have chronic back, shoulder,hip and knee pain from various injuries I've managed to sustain over the years.

Yeah I'll have to go buy a heap of stuff for the next batch of GT, but I might leave off making a third batch until I've tasted batch #2 to see if the extra stuff I added made much of an improvement to the flavor? The first batch is really good, but if the second batch is better I'll continue to experiment with adding other flavors, but if it's not, I'll go back to the original recipe and stick with it.

If it was only a few bottles I'd be a bit more adventurous, but this next batch will make another 50 bottles, so I don't want to have 50 bottles of something that I don't want to drink. I guess I was just lucky that the first batch tasted so good!

[spotty]

Quite right, I made 50 bottles of cherry beer and by fcuk it was bad, nasty aftertaste of antiseptic

But the worst part was drinking all 50 bottles, sheer hell

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, yeah, I will do a "Taste Test" before I bottle it to get an idea of how it will taste, but interestingly, it tastes different once it's been chilled? Still, any excuse to drink alcohol is a good excuse, I reckon?

[Terry in Australia]

Okay, so the weather today was crap, rainy, windy, and no good for working on motorcycles outdoors. No biggie, last night I hoisted my fermenter up onto the kitchen counter in preparation for some bottling. I thought it wise to let it settle overnight, to reduce any floaties in the brew, even though I've filtered it twice via Spotty's recommendation, the last one using a cheese cloth filter, I still saw a few floaties when I took the lid off.

The first thing I had to do was gather all the empty bottles and sanitize them, and their lids. Believe it or not, there weren't enough empties on my bottle tree, and I had to gather another 12 from the garage, wash them, and sanitize them.

Homebrew Bottling Batch #2 17 Oct 2019 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I even had to empty another Ginger Toe into a glass so I could use the empty bottle.

Homebrew Bottling Batch #2 17 Oct 2019 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I ended up with 36 x 500 ml Ginger Joe bottles, and another 12 x 750ml plastic bottles.

Homebrew Bottling Batch #2 17 Oct 2019 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, I managed to bottle the best part of 27 litres of (hopefully) delicious medicinal brew, and by sheer luck I estimated that I have enough of batch #1 to keep me going until #2 is ready to drink. Depending on how good (or bad) it tastes will determine which way I go with batch #3. I really am enjoying this new hobby, I  only wish I lived in Canberra, where I could make home brew and grow some home grown to be enjoyed together. Oh well, hopefully by the time I retire I'll be sitting out on the porch, admiring my latest motorcycle project, with a ginger Ho in one hand, and a (legal) home grown doobie in the other.

[ken65]

A big no no with brewing alcohol is exposing it to air prior to bottling.

[demon78]

Oh yeah, before I forget, seems to work better Terrence if you have lots of ginger in it I don't think you'll have the same brands but I was using ginger ale and it wasn't bad but then I started using Vernors Ginger ale and that kicked it up a couple of notches so try brewing a really gingery Ginger Toe and see. Pushing the boundaries of the exploration of medicinal science.
Bill the demon.

[Terry in Australia]

Oh yeah, before I forget, seems to work better Terrence if you have lots of ginger in it I don't think you'll have the same brands but I was using ginger ale and it wasn't bad but then I started using Vernors Ginger ale and that kicked it up a couple of notches so try brewing a really gingery Ginger Toe and see. Pushing the boundaries of the exploration of medicinal science.
Bill the demon.

Thanks Bill, I'm making my home brew from scratch, i.e., I use real ginger root, lemons, lime, honey, raw sugar, brown sugar, white sugar, etc. Spotty made me a batch from a kit, and with no disrespect to Spotty, because it was really generous of him to make it for me, it tastes like crap.

My 91 year old mum got interested so she bought another kit and gave me a bottle to try, and it tasted like horse piss, so I definitely won't be making anything from a kit after batch #1 was so good, and it's really not too much effort to make it with natural ingredients.

[Terry in Australia]

A big no no with brewing alcohol is exposing it to air prior to bottling.

Thanks Ken, but what does that mean? Yes I exposed to to air when I filled each bottle, but how the hell do you bottle something and not expose it to air? To quote Pauline Hanson, "Please Explain"?

[ken65]

Can't really remember why   .  I worked at a micro-brewery for about 14 months or so
and the boss did tell me why.  The bubbler in the lid lets air out but not in.
When I was transferring beer from the vats to kegs etc, I'd leave the lid on till the last minute
before transferring. So I should really change what I said  to minimal as possible exposure to air.
I was in a clean environment but I've been told wild yeast can be floating around in the air too
and can contaminate a batch and ruin it. 

[dave500]

the air exposure would be a long term thing like during the fermentation period,like don't ferment in an open container unless you want wild yeasts,the bottling wont matter only takes a little while.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yeah, from the time I filled the first bottle to the last was maybe 20 minutes? I'm pretty sure there won't be any ill effects, I've watched a ton of youtube video's and haven't seen any warnings about that, so I'm pretty sure it'll be fine. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks when I try my first Ginger Ho!

Terry's Ginger Toe 18 Oct 2019 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[ken65]

http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/06/18/why-oxygen-is-bad-in-your-home-brewed-beer/

this explains it better than me,