Spinning & GrinningI headed out to the Grandview, MO Hamfest (aka the South Side Amateur Radio Club’s Octoberfest) this morning – about an hour’s drive. It was a smallish hamfest hosted at a middle school. The main floor was in the gymnasium’s basketball court with a spill over section in the adjacent cafeteria. What I noticed most [...]
Temperatures have dropped here in eastern Kansas, off the Missouri and Platte Rivers. Morning temps are getting down to the high teens but we’ve had generally clear skies – so no snow yet. Been having a problem with my Toyota Tundra. I had the shocks replaced about two months ago, but I am still having [...]
KC Ale update: I racked the KC Ale to a carboy for secondary fermentation on 31 OCT. Last night I bottled it (finally figured out how to use the “wand” for filling the bottles). Bottling went well and the KC Ale should be ready to try by Thanksgiving. California Common: cooked a batch last night. [...]
It took the KC Ale a while to start fermenting – I thought there might be something wrong. I had it in the fermenter on Saturday but didn’t start seeing bubbles (i.e. the start of fermentation) in the airlock until Monday. Looks like it is progressing nicely now and I’ll probably rack it to secondary [...]
The KC Pale Ale is in the bucket (aka primary fermentation). I want to strain from the cooking pot to the primary fermentation as well as doing some aeration. I hydrated the yeast, but I think the water I used was to hot – we’ll see. Still have not used the hydrometer – I need [...]
Although I’ve not yet sampled the fruits from my initial Kansas brewing efforts (the ESB batch), I’m going to get another batch going. Each batch is 5 gallons, of which I plan to give away a good portion – assuming it is potable. This batch will be Kansas City Pale Ale. I’ve had a taste [...]
I started reading this book, by Ken Wells, on my Kindle. Great read that covers the history of beer – which I knew started in Iraq but ironically you are not allowed to drink it there now. The story follows beer to America, the development of the brewery system, the ascendancy of the big breweries, [...]
We had an offsite for class this morning at the Santa Fe Station in downtown Leavenworth, KS. Great breakfast and great discussion. I’ve got the wort in the bucket, should be done with primary fermentation in a day or two. This was the first time I had a hydrometer and I need to figure out [...]
I hooked up my Morse key to my Icom IC-7000 and it appears to be working fine. Also hooked up an external speaker which is working nicely. I tried to connect my SM-20 microphone but realize now that a need a connector that I don’t have. I don’t want to hook up my Heil headset [...]
My travels home was long and slow, but forward progress was consistent. After spending more time than I wanted to in Kuwait, we arrived in the US to McGuire Air Force Base, NJ and were transported over to Fort Dix were we’d remain overnight. Our bus was met by a small group of Vietnam veterans, [...]